Dialogic Cinephilia - December 15, 2019

"And Unto Dust We Shall Return: On Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman." Cinephilia and Beyond (ND)

Crawford, Neta C. "United States Budgetary Costs and Obligations of Post-9/11 Wars through FY2020: $6.4 Trillion." Costs of War (November 13, 2019) ["Since late 2001, the United States has appropriated and is obligated to spend an estimated $6.4 Trillion through Fiscal Year 2020 in budgetary costs related to and caused by the post-9/11 wars—an estimated $5.4 Trillion in appropriations in current dollars and an additional minimum of $1 Trillion for US obligations to care for the veterans of these wars through the next several decades. 2 The mission of the post-9/11 wars, as originally defined, was to defend the United States against future terrorist threats from al Qaeda and affiliated organizations. Since 2001, the wars have expanded from the fighting in Afghanistan, to wars and smaller operations elsewhere, in more than 80 countries — becoming a truly “global war on terror.” Further, the Department of Homeland Security was created in part to coordinate the defense of the homeland against terrorist attacks. These wars, and the domestic counterterror mobilization, have entailed significant expenses, paid for by deficit spending. Thus, even if the United States withdraws completely from the major war zones by the end of FY2020 and halts its other Global War on Terror operations, in the Philippines and Africa for example, the total budgetary burden of the post-9/11 wars will continue to rise as the US pays the on-going costs of veterans’ care and for interest on borrowing to pay for the wars. Moreover, the increases in the Pentagon base budget associated with the wars are likely to remain, inflating the military budget over the long run."]

DeVega, Chauncey. "Joker: A harsh indictment of neoliberalism and gangster capitalism." Salon (October 9, 2019)

Hunt, Aaron. "'Something With Your Therapist': Noah Baumbach on Marriage Story." Filmmaker (December 13, 2019)

Kris, Sam. "American aphanisis: in search of Donald Trump." Idiot Joy Showland (January 21, 2016)

Pinkerton, Nick. "Things We Lost in the Fire: A Hidden Life and the Films of Terrence Malick." Metrograph (December 13, 2019)

Sanneh, Kalefa. "The Safdie Brothers Full Immersion Filmmaking." The New Yorker (December 9, 2019)

"Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2018 - 2019." Project Censored (2019) ["The presentation of the Top 25 stories of 2018-2019 extends the tradition originated by Professor Carl Jensen and his Sonoma State University students in 1976, while reflecting how the expansion of the Project to include affiliate faculty and students from campuses across North America has made the Project even more diverse and robust. During this year’s cycle, Project Censored reviewed over 300 Validated Independent News stories (VINs) representing the collective efforts of 283 college students and 24 professors from 15 college and university campuses that participated in the Project’s Campus Affiliates Program during the past year."]

West, Cornel. "Maintaining Hope in the Time of Struggle and Darkness that is the Age of Trump." The Chauncey DeVega Show #258 (October 31, 2019) ["Cornel West is one of the United States’ and the world’s leading public intellectuals and truth-tellers. He is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. Cornel West is the author of several bestselling books including Race Matters, Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. He is also a frequent guest on CNN, C-Span and Democracy Now. Cornel West explains why hope must be kept alive in times of darkness and struggle, the power of the Black Freedom Struggle and blues sensibility to sustain and improve American democracy, and why neoliberal gangster capitalism’s assault on our humanity must be resisted. He also reflects on his support of Bernie Sanders and why Dave Chappelle is an example of the artist as truth-teller and essential provocateur."]

Zimbardo, Philip. "The Psychology of Evil Inside of Trump's Concentration Camps." The Chauncey DeVega Show #255 (October 10, 2019) ["Philip Zimbardo is one of the world's leading authorities on the psychology of cruelty, groupthink, and evil. Most famous for the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, Dr. Zimbardo has written dozens of books and articles including the powerful and disturbing book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.
Dr. Zimbardo explains how America under Donald Trump is fully devolving into a state of violence, authoritarianism, and cruelty and the many ways that the Trump regime encourages thuggery against nonwhite immigrants, migrants, and refugees by law enforcement and others. Dr. Zimbardo also highlights the connections between his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment and the evil taking place inside of Donald Trump’s concentration camps. Chauncey tells some harsh truth about how the American corporate news media, many members of the Democratic Party, and too many average Americans were in denial for too long about the fascist white supremacist threat embodied by the Trump regime – and which is now fully obvious and naked in the president’s and his handlers’ recent declaration that he is a king who is above the law and cannot be impeached for any reason. Chauncey also shares his thoughts about politics of the great new film Joker and its damning indictment of neoliberalism, the culture of cruelty, and gangster capitalism."]