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Ojibwe Nation tribal member Winona LaDuke - Ralph Nader’s vice presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket in 2000 - appeared Feb. 23 at the 4th Native Women in Film Film Festival, where an anti-pipeline documentary about LaDuke world premiered. Another indigenous rights movement notable - Pearl Means, widow of American Indian Movement leader Russell Means - flew in from North Dakota to co-present the documentary she executive produced, End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock at the filmfest at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, California.
Let’s just get this much out of the way: Yes, Logan is a really, really good movie. And it’s finally the movie the character deserves.
For most superheroes, for your Captain Americas and your Batmans, an explosion-laden PG-13 summer blockbuster is perfect. Most superheroes are best served by stories where they can punch some villains around a bit and then hand them over to the authorities – or watch, angst-filled, as they oh-so-tragically fall to their deaths.
But Wolverine, who first appeared as a villain for the Hulk, who was one of the original comic book anti-heroes, is not that kind of superhero. With unbreakable metal claws and a healing factor that makes him nearly impossible to kill, his power set is better suited to a slasher movie monster. He’s the best he is at what he does, and what he does is hunt people down and murder them, then struggle with the psychological fallout of being what he is.
ake news” as a denunciation peddled by Republican and Trump apparatchiks is an old-fashioned, fascist-style Big Lie with a neat capitalist twist. The obvious lie is that most of the media, accused of reporting “fake news,” actually report real news – with real corrections when they get something wrong. This is the antithesis of the way the “conservative” con machine has operated for decades. Among the world’s shortest books would be “Setting the Record Straight by Republican Senators” or “The Collected Corrections of Donald Trump.” These are people whose common currency is falsehood rooted in deceit for the good of themselves and not much of anyone else, certainly not most of the people that they were elected to represent, wink-wink. Chronic right-wing lying is hardly a new phenomenon. Lies about FDR and the Red Menace live on long after the imaginary threats have passed into history.
And the word of the moment is . . . opportunity:
“What unites our party is a belief in opportunity, the idea that however you started out, whatever you look like, whoever you love, America is the place you can make it if you try.”
Could you be any more tepid? The words were those of the former president the other day, giving his blessing to the naming of Tom Perez as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Perez is the safe, establishment choice to lead the party forward into the maelstrom of Trump, under a banner that seems garishly inoffensive: Tolerate our differences, give everyone a chance.
A rational and moral person might think of the recent U.S. raid in Yemen this way.
Sometimes the real world needs heroes. And sometimes those heroes need inspiration.
To anyone only passingly familiar with Captain America, it's easy to assume he's nothing more than the embodiment of blind patriotism. A muscled-up blond white man in stars and stripes, he looks like an American fascist's dream.
But Captain America was created to fight fascism in America’s name, and for that, he’s a perfect icon for the modern-day resistance.
The early days of the comic book industry were deeply rooted in New York City, so it's no surprise that most superheroes with a pedigree that old were created by the children of Jewish immigrants. Plenty of scholarly examinations of Superman have made a big deal of that aspect of that superhero’s creation. Though Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster started in Cleveland rather than New York, their experiences growing up in immigrant Jewish families influenced the creation of the ultimate immigrant character.
Sam Husseini just asked Nancy Pelosi why she won't support an impeachment investigation for Trump.