#Donald Michael Chambers

[guy60660]

Donald Michael Chambers | Hasselblad

[the-busy-ghost]

Dear God, Westminster was always bad but lately it’s like the Tories have been engaged in a secret contest to see who can come out with the most absolutely rancid takes in the Commons

[icedsodapop]

Reality of America: Living in an era where Donald Trump was elected president, transgender rights are being attacked, books are censored, and pro-Palestine activists are mocked and blacklisted

Michael Keaton and Tim Burton, two cishet White boomer men living in their privileged Hollywood echo chambers: Films are soooo politically correct these dayssss

Also, was anyone asking for Beetlejuice to be "politically correct", he's the fucking villain??

[glowbug252]

Tmntober 2024

prompt: au

this is some old content for an au I was working on! It was a Shazam Tmnt au called

Fully Adult Mutant Ninja Turtles but Not Really

They had all reached the cave in different ways, Michael’s wristwatch had malfunctioned while going down the slide at the playground. Donald’s scavenged and repaired computer had glitched out, causing him to panic and try to turn it off. Randy was in a fist fight in an alley when the billboard above his head had flashed with strange letters, momentarily distracting him from his opponents who disappeared when he looked back. Leon was watching his favorite cartoon, Space Heroes, on a TV display on the street when the show was interrupted by a strange broadcast of flashing characters.

But all of them had found themselves in the same strange location afterwards. A dank space with dripping water, walls carved with runes and seven malevolent, bone chilling stone statues. At the head of the room was an elevated platform that led to what was obviously a throne room. Four thrones sat in a half-circle and behind them was a mural of a yellow lightning bolt. Sitting on the platform but not on any of the thrones was a shadowy figure, hunched down low and clutching a tall and roughly carved wooden staff. 

As each boy entered the chamber, on each separate occasion, the figure would look up at them, a dark hood unseen before sliding down to reveal his face- two twitching rodent’s ears and a pointed snout. His whiskers twitched as his sharp eyes watched the hesitant approach of each boy. He was patient. He had all the time in the world, but at the same time none at all. But he had found them and they were finally here, so he would wait for however long it took for his life’s work to finally come to an end. He didn’t want to scare them away. Not after so long. 

Each boy had walked forward carefully, seeing no way out of the strange space, all of their eyes eventually catching on the hooded figure. As he had lifted his head, many of them had flinched. But one does not live so long on the streets as they had without seeing their fair share of rats, so they continued. There was no way out but forward, the chamber seemed to tell them, and so they obliged. 

Michael arrived first. Once the man (if he could even still be called that,) knew who he was looking for, it had occurred to him that it might be better to bring the youngest first. He would look the least frightening then. The young boy, no older than eight years old, tentatively made his way along the cave’s hall, goosebumps rising on his bare arms, unprotected by the t-shirt he was wearing. He had caught sight of the man. 

“Hello?” He had asked, his nervous voice echoing around the space. 

“Michael.” The man responded by way of a greeting. The boy gasped at him, but the man continued speaking before questions could be asked. 

“You may call me Splinter. I am the last of the Council of Wizards. Sworn to protect the realms from the Seven Deadly Sins. Me and my brother used to be Champions together, but the years have passed and things have changed. I am searching for the next people to take the mantle of Champion. I am searching for four Champion brothers.”

“But-” Michael stammered, hardly following any of what this strange being was telling him. “I’m not a champion! I don’t even have any brothers! I’m an only child!”

The rat-man had looked at him and chuckled. “Oh, Michael. You do not have to be related to be brothers.”

He lifted his staff and slammed it on the ground between them, using it to help him stand fully up, towering over the young boy. “Lay your hands on my staff and say the name so many others have used so that my powers may flow through you. I open my heart to you, Michael and in so doing, choose you as one of the champions.”

“Mr, I don’t think that’s me…” Michael tries, hesitantly, backing away slightly from the intimidating sight. 

“It has been prophesied. I must pass my magic on before it is too late. You are one of my champions. Now lay your hands on the staff.” Splinter insists.”

“Ok, but even I know magic isn’t real, Mr.” Michael lifts his hands and grasps the offered staff. 

Splinter only chuckles. “Now say the name that has empowered so many before you.”

“What name?” 

“Shazam.”

Michael, and then Donald, Randy and Leon after him, gaze into the rat-man, into the wizard’s eyes, clutching his staff carefully. And finally, with a final burst of tension repeat the all-important word:

“Shazam!” 

Splinter sighs in relief when Michael says the word, even as he feels some of his strength drawn from him. He sags lower to the ground, his weak arm trembling, his wrist looking very thin as he clutches the staff. A burst of lightning engulfs Michael and then he’s gone to await his brothers in his new form. Splinter fights to regain his composure and return his hood to his head as Donald enters the hall next. 

When Donald says the word the lightning engulfs him too, and Splinter falls to the ground, his breaths coming in ragged inhales. He finds he does not have the strength to regain his footing as Randy enters the chamber and has to meet his acquaintance seated on the floor. He takes as much convincing as the rest, and this weakens Splinter still further. By the time the boy speaks the word, and is, like the rest, struck by lightning, Splinter can hardly breathe at all. He’s so thin he resembles a skeleton. He knew what this ordeal would do to him, but a part of him, the human part, still wished he could stop, could selfishly stay and preserve what’s left, but the cogs of fate had been set in motion and Leon steps in for his appointment with the living corpse regardless of its own selfish and desperate wishes. 

He cannot lift the staff from its resting place on the ground for Leon to grab, has to convince him to hold it on his own, his skeletal hand clutching it with all his remaining strength. He has to whisper the word for Leon to repeat. And when he does, it’s almost a relief to let go. The staff clatters to the floor as the very flesh on his body dissolves. His bones turn to dust as the very last drops of life and energy and magic he can give go to his last hope. To who could have been his pupils, who could have been his sons. If only he had been stronger. If only they had been born a hundred years sooner. If only Saki hadn’t- 

The dust dissolves into the wind and all that’s left is the staff, rolling to a stop as Leon is whisked away in the crack of the thunder. Hamato Yoshi’s only surviving descendants, gone in an instant, on their mission they did not yet understand. They had each met him for less than five minutes. 

For the first time in countless years, the Rock of Eternity is finally empty. 

The water drips on, unaware that the man that had put so much effort and care into protecting the magic and all the people it impacted had finally drawn his last breath. 

@traumas-tmntober-2024

[beardedmrbean]

Hanukkah candles in Poland’s parliament were lit again on Thursday after a far-right lawmaker used a fire extinguisher to put them out earlier in the week in an incident that caused outrage.

On Tuesday, Grzegorz Braun of the Confederation party took a fire extinguisher from a wall in the lobby of the parliament and walked over to the Hanukkah candles, creating a cloud of white powder that forced security guards to rush those present, including children, out of the area.

The candles had been lit as part of an annual celebration of the Jewish holiday.

Afterwards, Braun took to the podium in the chamber, where lawmakers had been debating a policy speech by newly appointed Prime Minister Donald Tusk, describing Hanukkah as “satanic” and saying he was restoring “normality.”

On Thursday, as the candles were relit, onlookers, including President Andrzej Duda and a crowd of lawmakers, including the speakers of the two houses of parliament, Szymon Hołownia and Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, heard that tolerance had won.

“In Polish and Jewish history, we will always light the candles again,” said Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich. “You cannot extinguish us because we stand together.”

Rabbi Sholem Ber Stambler of Chabad House Warsaw said he had seen an “enormous wave of tolerance” over the past two days.

As he sang a Hanukkah song, Ber Stambler then began to light the candles before others joined in.

Parliament speaker Hołownia excluded Braun, who is known for his pro-Russian and anti-European Union views, from the sitting on Tuesday and informed prosecutors about his actions.

Braun will also lose half of his salary for three months and all parliamentary expenses for six months as a punishment.

The Confederation party, which tried to focus mainly on economic issues and criticism of the extent of Poland’s support for Ukraine during its campaign for the October elections, has suspended Braun.

However, the party’s co-leader, Krzysztof Bosak, is facing calls that he be dismissed from his position as deputy speaker after he failed to stop Braun from addressing the chamber following the incident.

The New Left party has submitted a motion that he should be fired from the role.

[omegaremix]

Summer 2021 Mixtape.

DMX ft. Griselda: “Hood Blues”

Mount Westmore: “Step Child”

Sal Dulu ft. Fly Anakin: “Zumo”

Prodigy ft. Knxwledge: “The Good Fight”

Ho99o9: “Prey Or Pray”

Pete Rosenberg ft. Method Man & Raekwon & Willie The Kid: “Next Chamber”

Cypress Hill: “Band Of Gypsies”

Nickelus F & Ohbliv:“Might As Well”

L’il Ugly Mane: “Addict”

B0nds: “Misty Dawn”

Benny The Butcher ft. Freddie Gibbs: “One Way Flight”

Conway The Machine ft. El Camino: “Forever Droppin’ Tears”

Dabrye ft. Clear Soul Forces: “Sysfo Ridin’”

Obnox: “Concrete Rose” (Stoneflower RMX)

Flatbush Zombies: “Dirty Elevator Music”

Bronze Nazareth & Recognize Ali: “Season Of The Seven”

Termanology & Shortfyuz: “T2”

JPEGMAFIA: “Baby I’m Bleeding”

Kyron: “Who Shot Rudy”

clipping.:“Say The Name”

Nnamdi Ogbonnaya: “Gimme Gimme”

Snowy ft. Jason Williamson: “Effed”

Dark Time Sunshine:“The Rite Kids”

Ho99o9: “Pray Or Prey”

Lungs ft. Olasegun: “Bowcasters”

Tyler The Creator: “Wilshire”

DMX ft. Jay Z & Nas: “Bath Salts”

Dabrye: “Nova”

Heavy Joker: “Rainy Day”

Freeway: “Abahambi”

Arena: Scrichell Cat

Asiko: “Lagos City”

Terry Callier: “You Don’t Care”

Joe Thomas: “Mr. Mumbles”

Steve Gray: “The Double Take”

Creative Funk: “Funk Power”

Sonny Fortune: “Come In Out Of The Rain”

Donald Byrd: “I Feel Like Loving You Today”

Breath Of Life: “Keep In Touch”

Michael Soward: “Standing On The Top”

Sengerema (Kagunga) S.D.A. Choir: “Simba Wa Yuda”

Awa Paulo: “Mido Yirima”

William Onyeabor: “Atomic Bomb”

Francis Bebey: “Di Saegi”

SK Kakraba (Lobi): “Darifu”

Charles A. Chepwonky: “Kas Imam O Pilista”

Hallo Dawe: “Neighbors”

Alhaja Queen Salawa Abeni & Her Waka Moderniser: “Mo Ti Goke”

Mahmoud Guinia: سَاسْتْ دِيمَانْيُو

Na Hawa Doumbia: “Abayetidu Ma”

Awalom Gebremariam: “Desdes”

Awa Paulo: ”Djara Wilam”

Knocked Loose: “Damned Earth”

Incendiary: “Silence Is A Sentence”

Body Count: “The Hate Is Real”

Sworn Enemy: “Integrity Defines Strength”

Harm’s Way: “Call My Name”

Knocked Loose: “D.T.A.H.”

Sanction: “sixhundredandthirtyone”

City Of Industry: “Your Rope, Europe”

Hangman: “Worthless”

False Maria: “L.A. Sucks”

Pleasure Corps: “Death And Love Can Both Be Bought”

Moonbeam Terror: “Revenant”

Valentina Artaud / Monochromatic: “Rigor Romance”

Lana Del Rabies: “The Ides Of March”

Chelsea Wolfe & Emma Ruth Rundle: “Anhedonia”

Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen: “Like I Used To”

Nicole Dollanganger: “Chapel”

Mrs. Piss: “Knelt”

Guerilla Toss: “Eraser Stargazer Forever”

cumgirl8: “Waffles”

Conditioner Disco Group: “(Don’t Gotta’) Raise A Family”

Child’s Pose: “L’il Snitch”

Buzzcocks, The: “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”

Captain Sensible: “Wot”

Hum: “Desert Rambler”

Neurosis: “Takeanase”

Pill: “Sin Compromiso”

Tapes: “Tape V” + “Old Pan Sound”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

NYT: Racked by rain and enraptured by a QAnon-infused "miracle cure" called "medbeds"

Eli Saslow at NYT:

The company was co-founded in 2020 by Warren Armour, a conservative with no media experience who runs a flooring company in Tennessee, but Michael admired the Patriot Party News slogan when he first saw it shared on Facebook last year: “If you hate mainstream media, you are going to love us!” Michael started watching the site’s daily videos about election fraud and vaccine pseudoscience, some of which have now been viewed more than a million times. He signed up for the company’s social media platform and paid $8.99 a month to join the audio channel, which functions like an old ham radio and promised him the chance to “meet comrades in our battle for the soul of America.”

On some days, Michael listened to the channel for as many as 12 hours, with the audio feed piped directly into his hearing aids to drown out the tedium of his pain. He narrated his daily ranching tasks for the group and sent photos of his crops. Other members responded with recipes, virtual prayers for rain and a steady drumbeat of extremist political ideology that increasingly mirrored his own. In a fracturing country, here was an echo chamber with the power to turn fringe conspiracy theories into widely accepted political dogmas — that the Covid vaccine was poison, the mainstream media was deceitful and the federal government was controlled by a “deep state cabal” that had stolen the 2020 election from former President Donald J. Trump and was now trying to orchestrate his assassination.

[...] Cheryl Chesebro, 61, had known her husband to be a realist for most of his life. Michael had enlisted in the Army at 17 because he couldn’t afford to pay for college and then agreed to jump out of planes for a $2,500 sign-up bonus. But after a total of 42 surgeries on his back, shoulders, ankles and knees, he’d come to distrust the government he’d served. He invested in wind and solar power so his family didn’t have to rely on the U.S. power grid. He bought gold in case the U.S. financial system collapsed and then started collecting shoe boxes full of foreign currency from the Middle East and Africa, believing that it could eventually be as valuable as the U.S. dollar. For the first time in his life, he became consumed by politics and then enamored with Trump, another government skeptic who sometimes spoke in the language of conspiracy theories. The former president had helped popularize lies about Barack Obama’s birthplace, widespread election fraud and the “hoax” of climate change — all of which had become part of the founding DNA of Patriot Party News. [...]

Of all the wild conspiracies he’d discovered on Patriot Party News, the concept of medbeds had initially struck Michael as the most far-fetched, even if it was also among the most popular. Every few days, someone else on the platform shared an illustration of a futuristic-looking chamber, sometimes with a doctored image of Trump superimposed in the foreground. The founder of the site, Armour, sometimes mentioned videos or podcasts about medbeds that had become popular on the far-right corners of Telegram, Discord and Rumble, and Michael clicked on the links, as did millions of others. The videos claimed with no evidence that the U.S. military was already in possession of advanced, or possibly even alien, technology that could cure all disease and extend human life. There were said to be at least three types of medbeds already in existence in secret military tunnels. One, a “holographic medbed,” scanned the body to instantly diagnose and then heal any sickness, no matter how severe. Another bed was able to regenerate personal DNA so people could regrow missing limbs in a few minutes. A third was designed for reverse aging and could rewind people’s bodies to the age and condition of their choosing.

The only holdup, according to the videos, was that a collection of liberal billionaires kept hoarding the technology for themselves. On the Patriot Party News audio feed, people speculated that medbeds wouldn’t be available to the public until Trump was back in control of the White House, at which point everyone would be invited to make appointments for free at a secret underground military base. “We are about to cross that start line into our medbed future,” said an Australian woman who called herself Skye Prince and claimed to be a military expert, in a video shared on Patriot Party News that has been viewed several million times. “We are leaving a life of poverty, ill health, uncertainty, and moving into wealth, abundance, perfect health. You could almost say we are about to be born again.” “Thank God the wait is almost over!” Michael heard someone say on the audio channel in the last days of spring. “Medbeds are finally coming. I hope I can get my mom to the front of the line since she’s Stage 4.”

[...] Instead, there was only repetition — the same medbed fantasies repeated over and over each day on the audio feed until the initial shock wore off within a few weeks and Michael’s skepticism wore down into curiosity and then into the beginnings of hope. He knew from experience that the military was capable of harboring secret, advanced technology. He remembered talking to members of his unit on a satellite phone years before one was made available to the public. “The military always gets the fancy toys way ahead of anyone else, so I suppose it’s plausible,” he said on the audio channel.

He’d already tried and failed to treat his pain by scheduling dozens of appointments each year through his health care with Veterans Affairs. He’d tried fentanyl, Percocet, Vicodin, acupuncture, water therapy, nerve blockers, deep-tissue massage and light therapy. Following his doctors’ advice had resulted in only temporary reprieves, along with dozens of opioid prescriptions and an elective surgery that led to a life-threatening staph infection. “The conventional route hasn’t done me any good,” he said on the channel. “When you’re desperate, you’ll try anything. This whole medbed thing has become personal for me.” It was part of Armour’s strategy when he first started Patriot Party News from his home after the 2020 presidential election: to build an audience by focusing on personal issues such as religion and health. He’d watched other far-right media sites like Victory Channel, The Elijah List and Right Side Broadcasting Network amass millions of subscribers in what Armour called the “Christian, MAGA universe” by mimicking Trump’s tendency to favor emotional appeals over facts.

[...] Several other companies had started producing their own versions of medbeds in the last few years. One company, Tesla BioHealing, had purchased a half-dozen old motels in places like Tampa, Fla., Dubuque, Iowa, and Butler, Pa., and then turned them into “medbed centers,” where each room came equipped with proprietary canisters under the bed that provided what the company called “life force energy.” Other groups were running scams on Facebook and charging $800 for “redemption cards” with a photograph of Trump’s face and a code that they said would provide secret passage into the underground military bases where medbeds were said to be ready for use. Baxter’s company was still in its infancy, and he had sold some of his products to churches, private clubs or millionaires who he said were “invested in longevity.” The medbeds at Andrea’s spa were the first to be available by appointment to the public, and he planned to expand into spas across the United States and Mexico. Andrea had decided to charge $85 an hour for use of the beds, but insurance didn’t cover the experimental treatment, and she didn’t believe in turning anyone away.

The New York Times takes a look at the QAnon obsession with “medbeds”, which are a “miracle cure” rooted in pseudoscience.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Donald Trump is terrified by what has happened in court during his election-interference trial, during which eye witness after eye witness has testified to his sleaze, his lies, and his bullshit, none of which have been negated by any of the Lawyers Who Got Their License From A Box Of Cracker Jacks who form his crackerjack legal defense team.

To reassure himself that he is still Maximum Leader of the Confederate White People’s Treason Party, he has called his fellow traitors to come to New York and demonsrate their loyalty to him by speaking the lies he is no longer allowed to say himself.

This morning, House Speaker “MAGA Mike” Johnson came to New York to continue his assault on the U.S. judicial system, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court with Donald Trump and using his powerful position to attack the hush money case against the former president as an illegitimate “sham.”

Johnson’s appearance marked a truly “remarkable moment” in modern American politics: The House speaker publicly turning against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to American government and a cornerstone of democracy.

Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system “corrupt.”

Outside the New York courthouse, he decried “This ridiculous prosecution that is not about justice. It’s all about politics.” Johnson specifically attacked the credibility of Michael Cohen as “a man who is clearly on a mission for personal revenge;” claimed lead prosecutor Matthew Colangelo “recently received over $10,000 in payments from the Democratic National Committee;” and reiterated Trump’s attack on the daughter of Judge Juan M. Merchan as having made “millions of dollars” doing online fundraising for Democrats.

The speaker is leading a growing list of Republican lawmakers who criticize the judicial system as they rally to Trump’s side. They say what the Trump campaign tells them to say, which are the statements that got Trump ten counts of violating the gag order.

All of these are things Trump has said before, which were determined in court to be violations of the gag order imposed on him, for which he has been fined. Using the congressional toadies is Trump’s way of getting the word out while avoiding the possibility of ending up in a jail cell for further violation of the gag order.

With Trump stuck in court, Johnson and his fellow traitors are taking it on themselves to attack the proceedings, using the trial as a de facto campaign stop as they work to return the former president to the White House. In portraying the case against Trump as politically motivated, the Republicans are also laying the groundwork to dismiss its significance, should the jury convict, and for potential challenges to the fall election,.

Let us remember that Johnson - whose worthless ass was recently saved from defenestration by the Whackadoodle Caucus of the House GOP by the votes of Democrats - was a chief architect of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential results ahead of the January 6, 2021, mob assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Last week he called the hush money trial and the other election-year cases against Trump a “borderline criminal conspiracy.”

Today, outside of court in New York City - where he insisted he was appearing on his own to support a friend - he proclaimed, “It is election interference. And the American people are not going to let this stand.”

Unlike other Republicans who have shown up to bend their knee and show their support, Johnson did not enter the courtroom, instead departing as he dashed back to Washington to open the House chamber for the day.

Also in court with Trump on Tuesday were Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum - who are both considered possible VP candidates - as well as the Most Annoying Man In America, former GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is one of Trump’s current top surrogates. These poltroons followed Senators Jimmy Vance of Ohio and the Top Senate Moron, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who appeared in court yesterday.

Over the weekend, Senator Skeletor, er, I mean Rick Scott - who was the first congressional traitor to show up in the “family row” in the courtroom last week - went on Faux Snooze and proclaimed, “The Democrats are using the court system to go after and prosecute, criminally, a political opponent - that’s a crime. They’re just thugs trying to stop Trump from being able to run for president.”

This morning, before court convened, with the group of congressional traitors gathered in the background, Trump said , “I do have a lot of surrogates, and they’re speaking very beautifully, and they come from all over Washington. And they’re highly respected, and they think this is the greatest scam they’ve ever seen.”

As usual, every Trump attack is a public confession: what he is accused of doing to get elected is the greatest scam anyone has ever seen.

In a departure from the tradition of trust and adherence in U.S. election systems, Johnson and other Republicans have refused to answer straightforwardly when asked if they will accept the election results of 2024.

That these treasonous scum wear the flag of the United States on their lapels and claim themselves “patriots” is enough to gag a maggot.

We are definitely no longer in Kansas, Toto, and the traitors are preparing the ground to start the civil war they have long hoped to see.

TCinLA

[eemcintyre]

@eemcintyre's top 118 favorite movies in alphabetical order

An admittedly random number that includes objectively "well-made" films with artistic merit, objectively considered-to-be-entertaining movies, and possibly questionable ones that I'm sentimental for or just like for whatever mysterious reason (usually a hot guy but not always). This is just what I like and the premier way to get to know me.

(Updated 09/07/24)

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), dir. Bill Melendez

A Few Good Men (1992), dir. Rob Reiner

A New Hope (1977), dir. George Lucas

Amelie (2001), dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet

American Made (2017), dir. Doug Liman

AMY (2015), dir. Asif Kapadia

Annie (1982), dir. John Huston

Argylle (2024), dir. Matthew Vaughn

Arthur Christmas (2011), dir. Sarah Smith

Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper (2004), dir. William Lau

Barbie of Swan Lake (2003), dir. Owen Hurley

Black Swan (2010), dir. Darren Aronofsky

The Blair Witch Project (1999), dir. Eduardo Sanchez & Daniel Myrick

The Bodyguard (1992), dir. Mick Jackson

Borat (2006), dir. Larry Charles

The Breakfast Club (1985), dir. John Hughes

Camille (1936), dir. George Cukor

Casablanca (1943), dir. Michael Curtiz

Chinatown (1974), dir. Roman Polanski

Cocktail (1988), dir. Roger Donaldson

Con Air (1997), dir. Simon West

The Conjuring (2013), dir. James Wan

The Conjuring 2 (2016), dir. James Wan

The Crow (1994), dir. Alex Proyas

Cruel Intentions (1999), dir. Roger Kumble

Dallas Buyers Club (2013), dir. Jean-Marc Vallée

Die Hard (1988), dir. John McTiernan

Eddie and the Cruisers (1983), dir. Martin Davidson

Elf (2003), dir. Jon Favreau

Eloise at Christmastime (2003), dir. Kevin Lima

The Empire Strikes Back (1980), dir. Irvin Kershner

Enchanted (2007), dir. Kevin Lima

Face/Off (1997), dir. John Woo

Far and Away (1992), dir. Ron Howard

Footloose (1984), dir. Herbert Ross

Galaxy Quest (1999), dir. Dean Parisot

The Great Muppet Caper (1981), dir. Jim Henson

Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009), dir. Peter Chelsom

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), dir. Chris Columbus

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), dir. Mike Newell

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), dir. Alfonso Cuaron

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), dir. Chris Columbus

Heathers (1988), dir. Michael Lehmann

Hereditary (2018), dir. Ari Aster

High School Musical (2006), dir. Kenny Ortega

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), dir. Garth Jennings

Holes (2003), dir. Andrew Davis

The Holiday (2006), dir. Nancy Meyers

Hollow Point (1996), dir. Sidney J. Furie

Hotel Rwanda (2004), dir. Terry George

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), dir. Donald Petrie

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), dir. Jim Gillespie

I, Tonya (2017), dir. Craig Gillespie

Ice Princess (2005), dir. Tim Fywell

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), dir. Steven Spielberg

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), dir. Steven Spielberg

In a Lonely Place (1950), dir. Nicholas Ray

Insidious (2010), dir. James Wan

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), dir. James Wan

Insidious: The Red Door (2023), dir. Patrick Wilson

Jackie (2016), dir. Pablo Larrain

Jerry Maguire (1996), dir. Cameron Crowe

JFK (1991), dir. Oliver Stone

The Karate Kid (1984), dir. John G. Avildsen

The Karate Kid Part II (1986), dir. John G. Avildsen

Knight and Day (2010), dir. James Mangold

Laggies (2014), dir. Lynn Shelton

The Last Samurai (2003), dir. Edward Zwick

Lawn Dogs (1997), dir. John Duigan

Lean on Me (1989), dir. John G. Avildsen

Leaving Las Vegas (1995), dir. Mike Figgis

Magnolia (1999), dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

Megamind (2010), dir. Tom McGrath

Minority Report (2002), dir. Steven Spielberg

Mission: Impossible (1996), dir. Brian De Palma

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), dir. Christopher McQuarrie

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), dir. Christopher McQuarrie

Mission: Impossible III (2006), dir. J.J. Abrams

Mr. Right (2015), dir. Paco Cabezas

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), dir. Jeremiah S. Chechik

National Treasure (2004), dir. Jon Turteltaub

Natural Born Killers (1994), dir. Oliver Stone

Oklahoma! (1955), dir. Fred Zinnemann

The Outsiders (1983), dir. Francis Ford Coppola

The Pacifier (2005), dir. Adam Shankman

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), dir. John Hughes

The Preacher's Wife (1996), dir. Penny Marshall

Pretty in Pink (1986), dir. John Hughes

Pride and Prejudice (2005), dir. Joe Wright

The Princess Diaries (2001), dir. Garry Marshall

Raising Arizona (1987), dir. Joel & Ethan Coen

Return of the Jedi (1983), dir. Richard Marquand

Roman Holiday (1953), dir. William Wyler

Sabrina (1954), dir. Billy Wilder

Scream (1996), dir. Wes Craven

Se7en (1995), dir. David Fincher

Sense and Sensibility (1995), dir. Ang Lee

The Shining (1980), dir. Stanley Kubrick

The Silence of the Lambs (1991), dir. Jonathan Demme

The Sound of Music (1965), dir. Robert Wise

Stretch (2014), dir. Joe Carnahan

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), dir. Anthony Minghella

A Time to Kill (1996), dir. Joel Schumacher

Titanic (1997), dir. James Cameron

Tropic Thunder (2008), dir. Ben Stiller

The Trouble with Angels (1966), dir. Ida Lupino

Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), dir. Anthony Minghella

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), dir. David Lynch

Ulterior Motives (1992), dir. James Becket

Valkyrie (2008), dir. Bryan Singer

Vanilla Sky (2001), dir. Cameron Crowe

Vertigo (1958), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

The Way, Way Back (2013), dir. Jim Rash & Nat Faxon

West Side Story (1961), dir. Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins

Where the Heart Is (2000), dir. Matt Williams

White Christmas (1954), dir. Michael Curtiz

Zodiac (2007), dir. David Fincher

(500) Days of Summer (2009), dir. Marc Webb

[2022-mmac]

Sundays at 2pm at MMAC Center

Three Sunday concerts of original music composed and performed by local musicians

Events made possible by funding from the New Mexico Music Commission https://www.newmexicomusic.org/

November 5: James Yeager

James Albert Yeager moved to New Mexico in 2009. He has performed regularly as conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and choral accompanist. He retired as Professor of Sacred Music at the Josephinum College in Columbus, Ohio (1984-2009). James has done numerous compositions and arrangements, including music for two short films. His orchestral works have been performed in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. At present, his primary musical interest remains as a composer

Program: The program will center on James’ three recent compositions: Passacaglia for Organ & Orchestra (2022), Fugue for Piano and Chamber Orchestra ”Mystical Desert”(2023), and Sonata for Piano Quintet (2023). Since the Passacaglia and the Fugue require large ensembles, they will be performed using recordings from Ravel Virtual Studios (NYC) . The Sonata will be played by New Mexico musicians - Flutist Ms. Hyorim Kim, a string quartet of Eric Sewell, Grant Hanner and Lisa Donald, and pianist Natalia Tikhovidova. - as a premiere performance. James will also play short pieces from his film scores. The program will last one hour and is free to the public.

November 12: Michael Hays

Mike Hays is a retired English teacher who has been playing music, especially on bass, since he was a young teen. In the last ten years, he has taken his interest in songwriting more seriously and has been creating jazz-based both vocal and instrumental compositions for the group he is working with. The current group (to whom Mike is deeply grateful) is more classically based, and the audience of the November Concert Series will notice his current compositions reflect this.

Program: Basement Dancing is a group that performs music written by Michael Hays. The group comprises Luis Delgado on clarinet and flute, Juli Palidino on viola and violin, Katie Harlow on cello, mandolin and accordion, Joseph Sabella on drums, and Michael Hays on bass and vocals. . Vocal songs at this concert will include musical portraits of the lonely soul waiting for his lost love in the Plaza de los Arboles Muertos, of the longing that hapless Señor Sapo feels as he watches a lovely circus acrobat, and of the nocturnal activities of Groany Bones, a skeleton who leads a danse macabre.

November 17: Kathleen Ryan + Exhibit Opening of "Masks & Metal"

Composer/pianist Kathleen Ryan is a Whisperings Solo Piano artist. She was the Professional Music Teachers of New Mexico commissioned composer in 2008, for which she composed a set of 24 piano left-hand-alone preludes titled Verbs. Several of her piano solo pieces were featured in the Emmy Award-winning Iowa Public TV special, The Seasons. Ryan lives near Mountainair with her husband and two quirky but inspiring cats.

Program: Composer/pianist Kathleen Ryan's piano solo performance will illustrate aspects of her composer’s life: being inspired, becoming ambitious, recovering from writer’s block, making money, and recycling teenage angst songs into piano solos. She will finish with some premieres, including music that’s not quite composed just yet! The full range of her 21st century impressionist style will be heard, from silly to soothing, from complex to simply serene.

[cinematicfantasies-blog]

Movie: Halloween (1978 film)

Synopsis: On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was sentenced and locked away for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being transferred for a court date, a 21-year-old Michael Myers steals a car and escapes Smith's Grove. He returns to his quiet hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, where he looks for his next victims.

Cast:

Donald Pleasence as Dr. Samuel "Sam" Loomis

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode

Nick Castle as The Shape (Michael Myers masked)

Tony Moran as Michael Myers – age 21 (mistakenly 23 in credits) (Michael Myers unmasked at the end of the film)

Will Sandin as Michael Myers – age 6

P. J. Soles as Lynda Van Der Klok

Nancy Loomis as Annie Brackett

Charles Cyphers as Sheriff Leigh Brackett

Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace

Brian Andrews as Tommy Doyle

John Michael Graham as Bob Simms

Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers

Arthur Malet as Angus Taylor

Mickey Yablans as Richie Castle

Brent Le Page as Lonnie Elam

Adam Hollander as Keith

Robert Phalen as Dr. Terence Wynn

Sandy Johnson as Judith Myers

Peter Griffith as Morgan Strode

David Kyle as Danny Hodges

Trivia:

-From a budget of $300,000 over a 20 day shoot, the film went on to gross $47 million at the US box office

-John Carpenter's intent with the character of Michael Myers was that the audience should never be able to relate to him.

[fundieshaderoom]

Fundie Families and Adjacents I Follow: Staddon

Donald Raymond Staddon Sr.- July 9, 1948, d. October 8, 2024

Donna

The couple has been married for many years and shares 8 children, 5 children-in-law, and 15 grandchildren.

Donald Raymond Jr.- April 1979

Michael H- 1981ish

Robert Andrew- July 6, 1983

Esther A- February 12, 1986

James Alan- March 1988

Daniel Arthur- 1990ish

Jonathan Edward- December 22, 1992

David Marshall- May 16, 1996

Michael married Elizabeth Frazer on August 24, 2019, when he was around 38. They share 2 daughters.

Azalia- May 17, 2022

Girl- December 2023

Robert married Kendalyn Kowalchuk (October 10, 1983) on June 11, 2011, both at ages 27. They share 6 children.

Sauntina LaVerle- May 9, 2012

Marilee Grace- October 3, 2013

Joshua Lawrence- April 7, 2015

Cadence Elisabeth- January 28, 2017

Andrew Washington- February 9, 2020

Liberty Arabella- September 19, 2023

Esther married Jonathan Frazer on May 15, 2021, at ages 35. They share 2 sons.

Theodore Norman- August 2022

Timothy Charles- August 2022

James married Julianna Bennett (March) on August 19, 2022, when he was 34.

Mordecai- January 2024

Daniel married Kathryn Mae Neely (June 1994) on July 16, 2016. They share 4 children.

Jason Daniel Chambers- April 2017

Jubilee Rae- January 6, 2019

Joseph- April 2021

Kaiden- October 2023

[dertaglichedan]

House votes to censure Rep. Adam Schiff over Trump-Russia probe

The House voted along party lines Wednesday to censure Rep. Adam Schiff for amplifying claims that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia.

The censure resolution against Schiff (D-Calif.), the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was approved by a vote of 213-209 with six lawmakers opting to vote “present.”

Reps. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), David Joyce (R-Ohio), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), John Rutherford (R-Fla.) and Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) – all members of the House Ethics Committee – voted present, as did Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.).

Sparks flew in the well of the chamber after the vote when several House Democrats crowded near the dais and chanted “shame” as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) attempted to read the resolution.

“I have all night,” McCarthy said as he tried to ask for Schiff to present himself so he could be censured.

The interruption lasted for roughly five minutes.

An initial resolution to censure Schiff failed 225-196 last week, with 20 Republicans voting to kill the effort.

That resolution featured a provision to fine Schiff $16 million, half of the money taxpayers doled out for special counsel Robert Mueller’s collusion probe, according to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who sponsored both bills.

The resolution voted on Wednesday scrapped the fine and made other modifications to win over members of the House like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky), who opposed the initial version.

FULL STORY...

***BURN you POS!

[burlveneer-music]

The Crossing - Carols After a Plague - Donald Nally’s vocal ensemble performs new works by Tyshawn Sorey, Shara Nova, Edith Canat de Chizy, Joseph C. Phillips Jr, L.J. White, Samantha Fernando, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Vanessa Lann, & Viet Cuong

Throughout its history, the Philadelphia based contemporary chamber choir The Crossing, led by conductor Donald Nally, has championed works that address social, political, and environmental issues. So it is consistent with the group’s history and mission that their latest release, Carols After a Plague, takes a broad view of our collective experience of the recent pandemic era, inviting twelve composers to look inward and engage with some of myriad ways in which the last few years have forced all of us to confront difficult realities and gain strength from solidarity with one another. The result is a moving tribute to the resilience of communities and a clarion call to renew our collective commitment to justice. Interwoven throughout the twelve newly commissioned choral works are a prelude and twelve interludes composed by conductor Donald Nally that create a ritualistic scaffolding for the larger works. Soulful trumpet lamentations, haunting marimba rolls, brilliant splashes of vibraphone color, evocative mandolin melodies, and tolling bells, among other textures, establishe an anchor for the contrasting sound scapes of the other repertoire, unifying the collection into one larger album length work. - Dan Lippel Donald Nally, conductor Kevin Vondrak, assistant conductor John Grecia, keyboards Mark Livshits, guest rehearsal accompanist Michael Jones, trumpet Daniel Schwartz and Ted Babcock, marimba Karen Blanchard, Micah Dingler, Joanna Gates, and Kyle Sackett, percussion and paper Kevin Vondrak, mandolin Donald Nally, interludes composer Carols after a Plague was recorded August 29 through September 2, 2021, and August 11, 2022, at St. Peter’s Church in the Great Valley, Malvern, Pennsylvania Artwork: “The New Normal” (cover), “Astronaut Terrier,” and “Big Fish” by Sasan Pix (2021) sasanpix.com Design: Marc Wolf, marcjwolf.com

[beardedmrbean]

WASHINGTON – Federal courts are exploring how to use artificial intelligence, Chief Justice John Roberts said in an annual report Sunday in which he touted the technology's promise but warned of its limitations.

Roberts also avoided any mention of the ethics lapses that have become a central issue for the court over the past year. 

"Machines cannot fully replace" humans in the courtroom, Roberts wrote in his year-end report, citing the human nuance required when judges measure the sincerity of a defendant's remorse. "Much can turn on a shaking hand, a quivering voice, a change of inflection, a bead of sweat, a moment's hesitation, a fleeting break in eye contact."

But, Roberts said, federal courts will likely need to embrace the technology for other tasks – just as judges eventually came to rely on computers instead of quill pens and copy machines instead of carbon copies.

"I predict that judicial work − particularly at the trial level − will be significantly affected by AI," the chief justice wrote. "Those changes will involve not only how judges go about doing their job, but also how they understand the role that AI plays in the cases that come before them."

Courts are not alone in wrestling with how to reliably embrace artificial intelligence. And some of the questions created by the technology are likely bound for Supreme Court review. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft this month, for instance, asserting that the companies violated copyright law by using the newspaper's content to train its artificial intelligence chatbots. It's a case that could reach the high court.

Federal courts, meanwhile, have been dealing with the misuse of AI by attorneys. Just last week former President Donald Trump's one-time lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen acknowledged relying on AI to generate references to past legal opinions that, in turned out, were fabricated.  

Mixing whimsy with wariness, Roberts noted that the Supreme Court didn't have a copy machine until Chief Justice Warren Burger ordered one in 1969. In 1976, Roberts wrote, Justice Lewis Powell "deployed a rented Wang computer in his chambers." Several other justices "observed the satisfactory performance of this newfangled 'word processing machine'" and ordered one for themselves.

Even today, much of the Supreme Court's work is conducted on paper.

Roberts said several committees of the Judicial Conference, the entity that sets internal policies for the federal court system, are reviewing the courts' use of AI.

"As 2023 draws to a close with breathless predictions about the future of Artificial Intelligence, some may wonder whether judges are about to become obsolete," Roberts wrote. "I am sure we are not − but equally confident that technological changes will continue to transform our work."

[ausetkmt]

Common Dreams: Raskin Says Electoral College Is a 'Danger' to Democracy and Should Be Abandoned

Common Dreams: Raskin Says Electoral College Is a 'Danger'.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, soon to be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Sunday that the Electoral College is a "danger" to U.S. democracy and should be abandoned in favor of presidential elections decided by the popular vote.

"The Electoral College now, which has given us five popular vote losers as president in our history, twice in this century alone, has become a danger, not just to democracy, but to the American people," Raskin (D-Md.) said in an appearance on "Face the Nation" Sunday. "It was a danger on January 6. There are so many curving byways and nooks and crannies in the Electoral College that there are opportunities for a lot of strategic mischief."

"We should elect the president the way we elect governors, senators, mayors, representatives, everybody else: Whoever gets the most votes wins," added Raskin, who served on the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Axiosreported earlier this year that some members of the January 6 panel wanted "big changes on voting rights—and even to abolish the Electoral College—while others are resisting proposals to overhaul the U.S. election system."

In its final report, the House committee stopped short of calling for the abolition of the Electoral College, something progressives have demanded for years.

The Maryland Democrat's comments came days after Congress approved reforms to the Electoral Count Act, an obscure 1887 law that governs the tallying of Electoral College votes.

"For years, legal scholars have worried the law was poorly written and in need of clarification, and former President Donald Trump and his allies targeted the law's ambiguities in their attempts to overturn the 2020 election," NPR noted last week. "In the time after voting ended in 2020and results were certified, Trump and his team argued that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to interfere with the counting of electoral votes because the law as it currently stands names the vice president as the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress where those votes are counted."

"The update passed by the Senate would clarify that the vice president's role in the proceedings is purely ceremonial," the outlet explained. "Importantly, the measure also would raise the bar for objecting to a state's slate of electors. As it stands now, it takes just one member of the House and one senator to challenge a state's electors and send both chambers into a potentially days-long debate period, even without legitimate concerns."

While welcoming the newly passed reforms, Raskin said Sunday that they won't "solve the fundamental problem."

"We know that the Electoral College doesn't fit anymore, which is why I'm a big supporter of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, where it's bubbling up from below," Raskin continued. "There are now 15 or 16 states and the District of Columbia who've said, 'We're going to cast our electors for the winner of the national vote once we get 270 electors in our coalition.'"

The compact—which has the goal of guaranteeing the presidency to "the candidate who receives the most popular votes across all 50 states and the District of Columbia"—has thus far been backed by 16 U.S. jurisdictions with a total of 195 electoral votes.

Last week, Florida State Rep. Michael Gottlieb—a Democrat—filed legislation that would make the Sunshine State the latest to join the compact. The bill is expected to face opposition from Republicans in the state, including Gov. Ron DeSantis—a possible 2024 presidential candidate.