There were probably few of the daily kos regulars who watched the Oscars awards last evening.
I had a live feed from the NY Times that I looked at occasionally.
Here is an article by Juan Cole, the Middle East history professor from Univ of Michigan on the Oscars
In New Gilded Age, Social Protest dominates Academy Awards Ceremony
If social and economic inequality were a mine, and if America were deep in this mine with a canary in tow, the canary would long since have expired. Some 400 billionaires have more wealth than the bottom half of Americans. We lived through a year of dramatic incidents underscoring the continued second-class citizenship of African-Americans. Women still don’t make as much for the same work as their male counterparts and their right to choice and control over their own bodies has been de facto curtailed by theocratic state legislatures. Gay people still face prejudice and resistance to same sex marriage rights.
The committed artists honored at the 87th Academy Awards took advantage of their bully pulpits to make an amazing series of eloquent statements on behalf of minorities and the discriminated-against. Referring to the controversy over the all-white nominees in acting categories, host Neil Patrick Hayden quipped at the opening, ““Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest — I mean brightest.” For all this hoopla about the overwhelmingly white, elderly and male character of the Academy voting members, however, the stage they provided to honorees was the scene of many poignant pleas for equality and decency.
Do you have any thoughts about the awards?
Continued below the Orange Squiggle
At a time when social protest is something that must be carefully considered because of the consequences, it is good that it receives notice.
I am slightly over 70 so I don't have to worry about being black listed in my job. If I were active in Keystone XL, I could be visited by the FBI or if I were an animal rights activist I could have been in the terrorist watch list category.
I did participate in a terrorist activity, Occupy Wall Street, here in Columbus Ohio where things were calm.
With the legislative branch sometime polling near 10% approval, it will take, as Bernie Sanders says, a revolution to bring about needed change.
The media are the only business in the Constitution because the founders knew that an informed citizenry was essential to retain a government with the purpose of working for the common good. The corporate media are but another branch of the corporations which run the show.
The movie that I was most interested in was Citizenfour which as expected won the Oscar for the best documentary. The full court press to render Edward Snowden as a traitor have failed. Our democracy is much better off that he is not locked up in one of our prisons and forbidden to speak and participate in the political dialogue of the day.
Looking back, the big outcry against Michael Moore when he made a speech after winning an Oscar and a few days after the ill fated invasion of Iraq was begun, in hindsight, was a fairly mild statement. The war time propaganda was in full force and he became a target for the game of manipulation of the country into war. Now after trillions spent, and the world and the US are worse off, there is still a large percent of "Americans" (as I recall, down below 50%) that still believe that Saddam Hussein had WMD. The failure of the media to not correct the lie they promoted shows that they have failed in their constitutional duty.
Here is Michael Moore's acceptance speech
https://www.youtube.com/...
The movies can be an important force for shaping the dialogue. For the most part, the shameless violence of the movies is why I avoid most of them. I watch little TV but when walking the dog see the bright screen of TVs in most houses.
Here is what I think of far too many movies in the following...
This is an article by the State Dept official sent to Iraq to report on the social outcomes of the war. His book led to ostracism from his buddies in DC, but at least he was not branded a traitor and prosecuted under the Espionage Act
America loves its war porn: “American Sniper” and the Hollywood propaganda machine
"Fury." "The Hurt Locker." "Black Hawk Down." All of these movies hit the same beats -- and that's a problem
His book on the Iraq war is
We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People