Abominable (2020)
Carin Mita
Let's face it, 2020 was abominable. Get in the holiday spirit with this soft Ugly Christmas Sweater featuring bumble the abominable snowman.
This classic unisex long sleeve tee fits like a well-loved favorite. Casually elegant, with an excellent quality print it is an irreplaceable everyday item for every gender.
"We don't know where this creature is, or what it's doing here!" But we do know it hates humans! Uncork'd Ent. has debuted an official trailer for another new "abominable snowman" violent horror film titled simply Abominable. Not to be confused with last year's animated adventure Abominable, or the 2006 horror film also about the same mythical snow monster, also titled Abominable. This low-budget horror utilizes a man-in-suit monster and super gory practical FX to liven things up. A research team looks to find a rare plant, but stumbles upon clues of a previous expedition, learning that a Yeti creature lurks within the Himalayan mountains and will do anything to protect its terrain. This stars Robert Berlin, Katrina Mattson, Amy Gordon, Brandon Grimes, and John Carlssun. It looks really bad, but maybe kinda fun? Take a look.
A research team embarks on a journey to obtain a plant that can advance medical research by centuries. While stumbling upon clues of the previous expedition, they discover that a Yeti creature lurks within the Himalayan mountains and will do anything to protect its terrain. Abominable is directed by relatively unknown filmmaker Jamaal Burden, his second feature film after directing Elves (2018) previously. The screenplay is written by Joseph Ellis. It's poduced by Khu and Justin Price. This has not premiered at any film festivals or elsewhere, as far as we know. Uncork'd Entertainment will release Burden's Abominable direct-to-DVD & VOD starting on April 14th coming up soon this spring. Anyone interested in watching?
The good news is that it's guaranteed to be the last one. Whoever wins will be term-limited; whoever loses will be age-limited. Whatever adventures in presidential politics await us in 2028 will be conducted by other candidates.
It's important to remember, however, that while partisanship among voters is declining--more Americans declare themselves independents--partisanship as a power function in government is as robust as ever.
Independents may well vote for the presidential candidate rather than the party. But once elected, that president will choose Cabinet members, advisers, appointments, judges and endorsements almost exclusively from within the party ranks.
Each party's platform specifically spells out its overall ideological and policy objectives, as well as its principles and positions on domestic and foreign issues and affairs. These are lengthy documents, and their words matter.
A president may, and often does, distance himself from some aspects of his party's platform. But the downstream party faithful--the multitude that is frequently more influential than the Oval Office occupant in the daily life of citizens--are oftentimes truer believers.
Demonization of Trump by Democrats is a highly suspect tactic, but one the party's leadership appears likely to continue to pursue at their peril. In 2016, the Democratic platform mentioned Trump by name 32 times; in 2020 that number leapt to 120. The former produced a narrow loss, the latter a narrow victory--undoubtedly aided by the pandemic.
The problem with vilifying Trump as a strategy is that it also basically vilifies the 74 million Americans who voted for him in 2020. And while it's true that no court has found any credible evidence of conspiratory or systematic fraud in that election, it's also true that 2020 campaigning and voting was undeniably affected by covid-19 circumstances.
If Biden benefited more from those disruptive effects, that doesn't add up to an election stolen by fraud. There also wasn't any conspiracy to deliberately sabotage the education of tens of millions of students in 2020. But in both instances, the pandemic played a significant role in shaping the outcomes.
In many states, Democratic strongholds tend to be centered in high-population-density urban areas. That's also where violent crime has proven most stubborn--despite nationwide declines, murder and other criminal violence persists at abominable rates in cities.
The same goes for immigration. In neither 2016 nor 2020 did the Democratic platform include a single mention of "illegal" in regard to the subject. It did use the words "immigration" or "immigrant" 55 times in 2020, but mostly in the context of adding or expanding more rights, benefits, policies or amnesty for them.
Democratic strategists still seem intent on playing the race card at every opportunity, even as it becomes more counterproductive: Trump's advances among minority voters has outpaced previous Republicans.
There's a pronounced progression of race-baiting between the 2016 and 2020 Democratic platforms. In 2016, the terms "Black," "white" and "people of color" appeared a total of only 11 times across the span of 26,000 words. In 2020, that total ballooned to 77. References to the words "racial" and "ethnic" also doubled.
Platforms have typically paid homage to our heritage. The 2020 Republican platform (which was the same as 2016) mentioned the word "Constitution" and its derivatives 80 times, the "Declaration of Independence" seven times and the word "liberty" 24 times.
Regaining centerline voters fed up with crime, inflation, racial divisiveness and border insecurity ramifications will be a challenge for Democrats if the 2024 platform follows the far-left/woke/racialized/Trump-bashing tone and trajectory of its 2016-to-2020 acceleration.
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More importantly a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Pompeo and Netanyahu was said to have been arranged in the iconic city of NEOM (22 November) which was not officially acknowledged but was aimed at persuading Saudis to establish explicit diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. But it might take some time as King Salman is not so ready for it. Discussions on threat from Iran could have been the key issue.
New York Times reported that Trump had asked senior advisers whether he had options to take action against Iran's main nuclear site in the coming weeks. However, Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller dissuaded him from moving ahead with a military strike, warning that a strike against Iran's facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict.
It was perhaps a coincidence, although many observers believe otherwise, that the leading Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizade was assassinated in a few days after meeting between Pompo and Netanyahu. Iranians blamed Israel and vowed to avenge but maintained strategic patience awaiting change of guard in the White House. US also probably estimated only a verbal response from Iran. Although Iranian Majlis approved a bill to enhance enrichment of Uranium way beyond permissible limits and wanted to stop inspections by IAEA President Rouhani and FM Javad Zarif want to keep the door open and the bravado limited so as not to rock the boat and make it difficult for Biden Administration to start talks on US re-joining the JCPOA.
Surprisingly, Palestinians did not comment adversely on the reported meeting between MBS and Netanyahu as they have re-established their security cooperation with Israel and returned the Palestinian Ambassadors to Manama and Abu Dhabi who were recalled in protest in September pursuant to Abraham Accords. They too hope that with Biden on the scene some productive talks and an International Conference may happen sooner than later. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv has released $ 1bn in collected taxes to the Palestinian Authority as per standard arrangement.
Saudi Arabia and four other countries i.e. Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Pakistan have jointly launched the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) aimed at strengthening cooperation and accelerating the development of the digital economy at an event attended by representatives from the World Economic Forum and ITU.
Saudi Arabia virtually hosted the G20 Summit. It was also decided that now Indonesia will chair the G20 in 2022 and India in 2023. Primacy of joint fight against Covid-19, provision of vaccines and economic revival were ensured.
OIC : At the 47th OIC Foreign Ministers meeting in Niamey, Niger the issue of Kashmir was once again raised by Pakistan and a resolution issued which was decried and condemned by India in no uncertain terms "It is regrettable that OIC continues to allow itself to be used by a certain country, which has an abominable record on religious tolerance, radicalism and persecution of minorities, to indulge in anti-India propaganda." The statement by MEA, strongly and categorically rejected the factually incorrect, gratuitous and unwarranted references to India and added OIC has no locus standi in matters strictly internal to India, including that of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and inalienable part of India." MEA further advised OIC to refrain from making such references in future.
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