BONUS: Ten movies you really should not miss
GOP board members don't understand meaning of `conflict of interest'
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OK class, we're taking a break from our usual curriculum and we're going to show you a movie today.
After more concerns about health care, veterans' benefits and whether the Queensbury Town Board will ever understand the term "conflict of interest," I've decided to give you a break.
For some time, I've been watching Academy Award-nominated films. I tried to watch all of them before the Oscars are awarded, and while I didn't see them all this year, I saw a lot that I liked.
So over the weekend - sometime before the Oscars air on Sunday night - I want you to watch one of the suggested films. Actually, I would like you to watch all of them, but one is your official homework assignment.
Most of these films are not the type of films you are going to find at the multiplex. These are not the kind of movies you find on commercial television, so I'm asking you to get outside your comfort zone.
My 10 selections here are among the best movies produced this year and it's why they earned Oscar nominations. I do warn you, there are a couple where you have to read subtitles, unless you are proficient in Danish or Portuguese.
Some will move you, some will make you angry, some will make you smile and shed a tear, but most importantly, I hope each and every one of them will be a different experience.
Enjoy your movies class, I will see you back here bright and early on Monday morning.
Shorts
Movie shorts are one of the most underrated forms of visual entertainment. Most come in under 30 minutes so there is not a major commitment of time or energy. Start here and work your way up to the more ambitious forms of cinema.
YUCK!
(Rent on Vimeo)
This delightful French film is nominated in the animated short category and explores a group of kids at summer camp being disgusted with the public displays of affection they see all around them until their curiosity gets the best of them.
A Lien
(Rent on Vimeo)
This 15-minute live action short takes you through one family's experience trying to do everything right navigating the immigration process, only to see it all fall apart. It might give you more insight into the complicated nature of the immigration debate.
Incident
(Rent on New Yorker)
This 30-minute long documentary short, explores the fatal shooting by Chicago police of a black man in broad daylight. It tells the story completely through surveillance video from area buildings, the police officers body cameras and patrol car cameras. It is a mesmerizing way to tell a story that is more journalism than movie-making.
Death by Numbers
(PBS app)
On Feb. 14, 2018, Sam Fuentes was one of the students shot by a fellow student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. This 33-minute documentary short chronicles her anguished recovery from the shooting and her decision to make a victim's impact statement at the shooter's sentencing. Sam Fuentes wrote the script for the movie and is also the star. If there is any one film I'm hoping will win an Oscar it is this one, just so I can see Fuentes' acceptance speech.
No more land
(Theaters)
This documentary is five years in the making with a Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist providing an unflinching portrayal of Israel's attempts to push Palestinians off their land in the years before the Hamas attack. The footage is brutal on the Israeli army and what may of even more concern, the message is so politically charged, the movie could not find a distributor. If you want a greater insight into the problems in the Middle East, see No More Land if you can find it a theater.
The Wild Robot
(Peacock/Apple TV/Amazon Prime
People forget that animated films are often aimed with adult sensibilities in mind. The Wild Robot, nominated as an animated feature, is just such a film when a futuristic robot crash lands in the forest where it learns to live in harmony with the animal life all around, but also gets them to live in harmony with each other. For you parents out there, this one might leave you in tears.
A Complete Unknown
(Still in theaters/Apple TV/Amazon Prime)
This is my contribution to the mainstream movie world, especially for the movie-going public that is my age. Timothee Chalamet IS Bob Dylan in this movie. I didn't know a lot about Dylan's early years so this filled in the gaps. And the music soundtrack is terrific. You'll be downloading some Dylan when you are finished and you can still see it in Saratoga.
Sugarcane
(Hulu/Amazon Prime/Apple TV/Disney)
If you've missed the developing story about indiginous children being taken from their parents and forced into schools in the United States and Canada, then you need to see this documentary feature. It is a horrific story that has only begun to be told in recent years about the abuses to children that often led to death.
Sing Sing
(Apple TV/Amazon Prime)
The movie plot about an prison's theatrical company that puts on plays at Sing Sing prison sounds like it must be fiction, but it is a true story with actually Sing Sing inmates playing most of the main roles. How this film was not nominated for Best Picture is a mystery. Colman Domingo, who we saw nominated last year in Ruskin, was also nominated for Best Actor. This film is a delight and makes you wonder why there aren't more "corrections" programs like this in our prison system.
Thanks for your attention so far class, but there is one movie I highly recommend more than any of the others. It is the Brazilian film I'm Still Here. It is riveting, frightening and a reminder of the importance of family.
I'm Still Here
(Theaters)
A coup d'etat in 1964 leaves the military in charge in Brazil. This is the story of congressman Rubens Paiva who returns from exile in 1970 but continues to work behind the scenes against the dictatorship and we are reminded of the realities of a world without democratic norms. Paiva and his wife, Eunice, are taken away by the military, questioned and tortured. She eventually returns to her five children, but never sees her husband again. She holds her family together while working for the next 25 years to find out what happened to him. In 1995, Brazil finally issues a death certificate. No one is every prosecuted for the murder. But at its core, Fernanda Torres' performance as the mother is about holding her family together while her own world falls apart. When a media outlet wants a family portrait for for a piece on the missing congressman, the photographer asks if they can be sadder. Eunice tells her children they all should smile. Best movie of the year.
Ethics response
Judith Smullen shared with me the response of Queensbury Town Board member and supervisor candidate Michael Dixon to the Ethics Board ruling that Town Board member Tim McNulty has a conflict of interest because he is also the chairman of the Warren County Republican Committee.
Dixon wrote to Smullen:
"I'm not aware of a specific ethics violation at this time. I've only heard that there could be an appearance of a conflict due to Tim volunteering his time as chairman of the Republican committee.
This same statement could probably be applied to anyone on our planning and zoning board with a real estate background, those who donate to certain non-profits etc.
I personally have not seen a specific conflict present to the board where Mr. McNulty should have recused or obtained from a vote.
G. Michael Dixon
Deputy Town Supervisor/
Councilman - Ward 3
Town of Queensbury
742 Bay Road
C: 518-812-7562
What is so shocking about the response is that neither Dixon or McNulty seems to understand that the "conflict" in question is McNulty's position of power over his fellow Republicans on the Town Board that could be used to influence their votes.
Considering Dixon is running for town supervisor, this is a shocking. As it turns out, Dixon has a leadership position in the Queensbury Republican Committee.
It appears from Dixon's correspondence he is has not read either the complaint or the Ethics Board ruling and his conclusion that this rationale could be applied to any person on any type of board has no basis in logic.
I encourage Town of Queensbury residents to urge the Town Board to get its house in order when it comes to this obvious conflict of interest.
Queensbury Town Board - Contact information
- John Strough, Town Supervisor - johns@queensbury.net
518-761-8229
- Anthony Metivier, Ward 1 councilman - anthonym@queensbury.net
518-932-1109
- Scott Gushlaw, Ward 2 councilman - scottg@queensbury.net
518-331-4836
- Michael Dixon, Ward 3 councilman -dixonm@queensbury.net
518-812-7562
Tim McNulty, Ward 4 councilman
518-480-7236 - timothym@queensbury.net
Roll over and play dead
That was long-time Democratic strategist James Carville's advice in an op-ed in the New York Times on Wednesday.
He told Democrats to stop fighting and let the Republicans try to govern because they aren't very good at it.
"With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead," Carville wrote. "Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat."
After some thought, I think Carville might be right. The only thing that will sway voters will be a failure that directly affects their personal lives.
"Already, many Democrats across the party are itching at their seams for a showdown," Carville continued. "Instead of gearing up to fight them — as we love to do — the most radical thing we can do is nothing at all. Let the Republicans disagree with themselves publicly. Do not offer a single vote. Do not insert yourself into the discourse. Do not throw a monkey wrench into the equation. Simply step away and let ’em flirt with a default. Just when they’ve pushed themselves to the brink and it appears they could collapse the global economy, come in and save the day. Be the competent party and not the chaos party."
Doctors voted for this
It was shocking that four doctors, including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, voted for the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run our health care system.
A letter in New Orleans Times-Picayune from David W. Spriggs, MD of New Orleans said this:
"Cassidy broken his Hippocratic Oath that says to do no harm. He should lose his medical license and privilege to be called doctor. Now that Kennedy is in office, Cassidy will have the health issues, especially any deaths, of Americans on his hands because he knew better by his medical training. I hope the people of Louisiana wake up and do not reelect Cassidy."
With a measles outbreak raging in Texas and New Mexico - one unvaccinated child has died - Cassidy felt the need to weigh in again saying in a press call the measles "is moving across the I-10, and its now in San Antonio, which means it's moving to us."
But earlier this month, the Louisiana surgeon general, ended promotion of the Louisiana Health Department's promotion of long-standing mass vaccination efforts.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
This morning, as I put on my shoes ( Made in China), reviewed my email on my cell phone ( Made in China), ate an apple ( Grown in Canada) and learned that yesterday Trump was overbearing, obnoxious, threatening and contemptuous towards Ukrainian President Zelinski as reported in an NPR news story that I listened to on my iPad (Made in China).....I thought a great deal about Mr. Carville’s advice for the Democrats to “roll over and play dead”!
Trump’s unilateral edict that he will impose extraordinary tariffs on imported goods, his ignorance of International protocols, his concerted efforts to dissemble the structure of our domestic government are quite obvious. And Mr. Carville suggests “ just wait and see....this will all come crashing down on Trump and the Republicans!”
Isn’t that just like waiting for your house to burn down and then criticizing your obviously dysfunctional fire department for its failure to be prepared to fight fires?
I suggest an alternative....something that might be considered right out of the Trump and MAGA playbook. The voters should start sending emails to each of our elected Congresspersons and Senators requiring that at the end of each week our Congresspersons and Senators send to their constituents a list of five things that they accomplished over the past week as our elected representatives in the House and in the Senate. The voters can then, as the next election cycle approaches, be prepared to ask specific questions and require honest answers before casting our votes.
I think rolling over and playing dead is exactly what Trump hopes to achieve and Mr. Carville’s suggestion that in the end this can work ....is bunk!
Regarding Mr. Dixon's letter, somehow, the Republican Party and some Democrats have either avoided or forgotten the entire subject of ethics and fair dealing. Trump has given them full permission to do so. Perhaps we should send them a dictionary, but, given the inability of today's supreme court (sic) and how they instinctively read only the words they like, a dictionary may not do. The supreme (cough) have an entire Constitution with its Articles and Amendments and nearly 250 years of history and precedent and that simply hasn't been enough.