North Korea has apparently gone above and beyond to keep “The Interview” from coming to a big screen near you. But the internet is a different story and it was just a matter of time before certain scenes from the movie, and ultimately the whole movie, appear on the WWW!
This is a gif of the death scene from the movie. It shows how the actor playing Kim Jong Un dies.
The revelations came in a leaked Sony email written earlier this year and it suggested the next James Bond should be Idris Elba.
Hey, we have a black president, why not a black 007?
In an email dated Jan. 4, Amy Pascal, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s motion pictures group, wrote to Elizabeth Cantillon, former executive vice president of production for Columbia Pictures, which distributes the Bond films, simply saying: “Idris should be the next bond,” according to a report from The Daily Beast.
There has been speculation for some time that Elba, 42, was a possible replacement when the current Bond, Daniel Craig, departs the franchise. A Facebook group called “We Want Idris Elba For James Bond” has 30,000 members.
Craig is currently filming “Spectre,” his fourth screen outing as the iconic British spy. He is contracted to appear in one more Bond film after “Spectre,” according to The Guardian.
Michael Lynton, the CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, went on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria to set the record straight, saying that Sony did not cave in their decision to cancel showings of the movie, The Interview – a satirical movie that shows the assassination of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Lynton instead said that Sony had no other choice after movie theaters decided not to show the film.
“The movie theaters came to us one by one over the course of a very short time – we were very surprised by it – they announced that they would not carry the movie. At that point in time, we had no alternative to not proceed with a theatrical release on the 25th of December….”
That being said, Lynton affirmed that America and the world will get to see the movie. “We have not caved,” he said. “We have not given in. We have persevered and we have not backed down. We have always had every desire to have the America public see this movie.”
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In a shocking turn of events – well not really shocking, we all had a hunch what was going to happen in Ferguson – Bob McCulloch, the St. Louis County Prosecutor who “investigated” the murder of Ferguson resident Mike Brown, is now admitting that he knowingly allowed false witnesses to testify before the grand jury. You will remember that the grand jury decided not to indict officer Darren Wilson after he pumped 6 bullets into a fleeing Mike Brown.
Bob McCulloch’s interview came on Friday after a much publicized story that revealed a grand jury witness – known as ‘Witness 40′ – was not even in Ferguson when Mike Brown was killed, but she was allowed by McCulloch to testify about events she never witnessed.
Asked in the interview about witness 40, Bob McCulloch answered that he knew the witness was lying, but allowed her to mislead the grand jury because he promised to bring anyone who claimed they saw the shooting before the grand jury.
“Early on I decided that anyone who claimed to have witnessed anything would be presented to the grand jury,” said McCulloch. “Clearly some were not telling the truth.”
McConnell said that he knew the woman wasn’t telling the truth because she “clearly wasn’t present. She recounted a story right out of the newspaper” that backed up Wilson’s version of events, he said.
But did McConnell relay this very important piece of information to the members if the Grand Jury? No, he didn’t. The grand jury deliberated, using Witness 40’s testimony as “evidence” and came to the decision that Officer Wilson did nothing wrong.
McCulloch also said he had no regrets.
Bob McCulloch is the head law enforcer in St. Louis’ County in Missouri. He is responsible for… law enforcement. Why would he choose not to enforce the law? Why would he willfully allow false eye witnesses to lie under oath? Why would he willfully allow the legal process to be mocked? Because Bob McCulloch has an agenda, and that is to protect police officers of his state regardless of their crimes. These are the same officers he work with on a daily basis to bring cases against the people he serve. And his agenda is also to revenge the death of his father, who was also a police officer killed in the line of duty by a black man.
And for what it’s worth, Bob McCulloch also said that he would not be pressing charges against those who lied under oath and committed perjury. Perjury as you all know, is the criminal offense of making a false statement after being sworn to tell the truth in a legal setting. Those who committed this offense will not face any legal consequences, according to the top law enforcer in St. Louis County, Missouri!
Apparently, enforcing the law does not fit McCulloch’s agenda.
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Today, President Obama called on women only to ask questions at the last White House press conference of the year.
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This guy is making so much history, I’m almost having whiplash trying to keep up! Today’s moment in history-making may seem like small potatoes to some, but below the surface, Mr. Obama’s decision to call on women reporters only during his last press conference of the year is, in essence, a civil rights moment.
Women, although they do the same jobs as men, still make about 25% less than men do for the same work, and in the White House press corps the male domination remains true. In countless presidential press conferences the big boys pull up their pants, sit back with their legs crossed looking down their nose with a smug look waiting for their inevitable turn to match wits with presidents. And previous presidents knew that calling on these smug lugs was the way to get their messages out.
But here comes Barack Obama. Already sporting a brand new historic moment with his Cuba decision, the president wasn’t done yet. He willfully chose to release his internal civil rights activist and recognized the many contributions of the women of the White House press corps.
Former ABC News correspondent Ann Compton, the first woman to report on the White House full-time for a network and who covered the beat for 40 years, said that never before has a president only taken questions from women during a solo press conference.
Do your thing Mr. Obama, do your thing! Keep the history moments coming!
At his final news conference for the rest of the year, President Obama stated that Sony made a mistake when they succumbed to terrorist threats and canceled showing the movie.
“Yes, I think they made a mistake,” Obama said. “We cannot have a society in which a dictator in some place can start imposing censorship in the United States.”
He continued, “Because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don’t like or news reports that they don’t like. Or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self-censorship because they don’t want to offend…somebody’s sensibilities who probably need to be offended.
“So that’s not who we are. That’s not what America is about,” Obama said.
The movie was scheduled for release on December 25th, but was canceled by Sony after North Korean hackers threatened to cause attacks similar to those of September 11th.
I guess it’s fitting that a police officer would be the one using insensitivity to profit from the unlawful deeds of another police officer. Given all that’s going on with these police officer you would think the goal would be to avoid more negative press. But you would be wrong to think that.
NBC News is reporting that an Indiana police officer who created T-shirts riffing on the “I can’t breathe” protest slogan isn’t backing down from selling the controversial garb.
The shirts read, “Breathe easy, don’t break the law” — an apparent reference to the last words uttered by unarmed New York City man Eric Garner during a fatal police chokehold in July. The words have since become a popular rallying cry at protests across the country.
Mishawaka police officer Jason Barthel began selling the shirts this week at a South Bend store he owns after a weekend protest at the University of Notre Dame. Members of Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team wore T-shirts before their Saturday game emblazoned with the “I can’t breathe” message.
Members of the South Bend City Council called on Barthel to stop selling his “Breathe Easy” shirts, and said in a statement that “the divisive message … that is being currently promoted through the sale of T-shirts bearing this message damages the goal of unity and further divides our community.”
For its part, Barthel’s store on Facebook won’t pull the shirts from shelves. “For those upset, please understand when we use the slogan ‘Breathe Easy’ we are referring to knowing the police are there for you!” the store said in a statement Monday.
Several calls to Barthel’s home and store went unanswered Friday, and the store’s voicemail was full. Geoffrey Spiess, attorney for the city of Mishawaka, said officials have no reason to take action on the issue because Barthel’s work with South Bend Uniform is done as a private citizen in his off-duty hours.
It’s a very simple concept – provide people with the opportunity to buy their own life saving health insurance and the average, sensible American would jump at that opportunity. Then there are those who would deny themselves life saving healthcare if they think doing so would hurt the president. We will call those people Republicans. You should always stay away from Republicans
But I digress.
A new report out today finds that the amount of uninsured in America is at record lows.
Earlier this week, the National Center for Health Statistics released new data on health insurance coverage during the second quarter of 2014, the first federal survey data that largely capture the effects of the Affordable Care Act’s first open enrollment period. These new data confirm earlier findings that 2014 has seen dramatic reductions in the share of Americans without health insurance, reductions that correspond to an estimated 10 million people gaining coverage since before the start of open enrollment.
This progress is even more striking when viewed in historical context. Building on work by other researchers, the Council of Economic Advisers has constructed estimates of the share of Americans without health insurance extending back to 1963. These estimates show that the drop in the nation’s uninsured rate so far this year is the largest over any period since the early 1970s, years in which the Medicaid program was still ramping up and the Medicare and Medicaid programs were expanded to people with disabilities.
With this year’s decline, the nation’s uninsured rate is now at or near the lowest level recorded across five decades of data. Furthermore, new data out today on Medicaid enrollment and data on Marketplace plan selections from earlier this week show that progress in reducing the number of uninsured Americans is continuing.
In an interview with People Magazine, the President of the United States said that LeBron did the right thing when he wore the t-shirt before a recent basketball game in Brooklyn.
“You know, I think LeBron did the right thing,” the president said. “We forget the role that Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe and Bill Russell played in raising consciousness.”
James, in his own way, joined the nationwide protests of a grand jury decision not to indict a police officer who applied an illegal chokehold that resulted in the death of a Staten Island resident. After examining the deceased body, the coroner’s office ruled the death a “homicide.”
The president continued: “We went through a long stretch there where [with] well-paid athletes the notion was: just be quiet and get your endorsements and don’t make waves,” he said. “LeBron is an example of a young man who has, in his own way and in a respectful way, tried to say, ‘I’m part of this society, too’ and focus attention.”
I just checked, my account is still up and running. Whew! I started the account over 2 years ago and I’m yet to share my first post. I should really share something…
But Rapper Akon lost more then half his followers in what has been dubbed the “Instagram rapture.”
Photo-sharing app Instagram has removed millions of accounts believed to be posting spam, angering many legitimate users.
People who lost a lot of followers criticised the action, dubbing it the “Instagram Rapture”.
Like its parent company Facebook, Instagram routinely removes accounts to limit spam and prevent users buying followers to appear more popular.
Rapper Akon reportedly lost 56% of his followers in the cull.
Figures collated by developer Zach Allia – not affiliated to Instagram – totted up the impact of the purge on the site’s top 100 accounts.
The big losers were Justin Bieber (minus 3,538,228 followers), and an online marketing specialist called Wellington Campos, which lost 3,284,304 followers overnight.
One account, chiragchirag78, lost 99% of his followers – 3,660,460 – before he himself was deleted.
Instagram’s own account on the site lost 18,880,211 followers overnight.
‘Omg’
Instagram had warned its users that the deletion was coming in a blog post earlier this month.
“We’ve been deactivating spammy accounts from Instagram on an ongoing basis to improve your experience,” wrote chief executive and founder Kevin Systrom.
“As part of this effort, we will be deleting these accounts forever, so they will no longer be included in follower counts. This means that some of you will see a change in your follower count.”
George Clooney, like most Americans, are upset that North Korea and their leader Kim Jong Un, are dictating what Americans can and cannot see, and in an interview with Deadline, Clooney made his feelings known.
“We should be in the position right now of going on offense with this. Stick it online. Do whatever you can to get this movie out. Not because everybody has to see the movie, but because I’m not going to be told we can’t see the movie.”
The movie Clooney is referring to of course, is “The Interview,” a comedy about the assassination of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Because of “September 11th type” threats against movie theaters – threats that are now linked to North Korea – Sony has decided to cancel the movie’s distribution. Clooney and many more Americans are joining the chorus for something to done about this situation.
Clooney added: “That’s the most important part. We cannot be told we can’t see something by Kim Jong Un, of all f***ing people.”
