On the lighter side-Movies-The lost city of Z (2017)-Charles Hunnam

Based on a true story about a British explorer who disappears in the Amazon while searching for an advanced society. Overly long movie and you have to be patient in order to complete it as it repeats itself one time too many. Not Recommended

Cases of Sexual harassment keep piling up

Since the first allegations surfaced, more and more women (and men) have come forward with allegations of sexual harassment that they endured decades ago accusing mostly celebrities of taking advantage of their vulnerabilities and the power that the suspected sexual predators held over them. Some have acknowledged while most of them have denied it very strongly but nonetheless more and more women are coming forward and it becomes hard to deny every allegations which happened decades ago. A surprising list of who’s who in the world of entertainment and other areas are being dragged into this mess which seems to suggest that (mostly) women are not going to take this sexual harassment anymore and they are going to fight back even if occurred decades ago. Right now it is limited to celebrities because that is what sells news but I really wonder how many ordinary women would want to go after ordinary men with whom they have no hope of receiving any attention from sympathetic quarters as I am sure there may be millions of cases out there where ordinary women are suffering in silence for the unwanted sexual harassment they may have in the past or are enduring now in the present. Now I just read that in the airline industry, sexual harassment is pervasive but people don’t come out since they need their jobs and also it seems normal. I am not the right person to highlight sexual harassment in the workplace or any place for that matter so I encourage everybody who have stories to tell but were afraid to speak out to email me at infinipinions@gmail.com and I will upload it on this blog with only the initials of your name or even stating submitted anonymously so that your voices can be heard and this type of behavior is lessened if not stopped completely. Please include in the subject of the email, the title of your post.

The coming U.S. Tax overhaul

As details keep on emerging about the new U.S. tax overhaul, the more I am beginning to less like it and even hate it as the party of cutting taxes is going to increase it no matter how you see it, even if some people (read: Republicans) make it sound like it is a tax cut. Since it is not finalized yet, I would like to point out that I as a temporary worker (who wants to work full time) does not like the fact that state and local taxes and also mortgage interest deduction would be eliminated and instead of it, we will have the super luxury of having our standard deduction doubled to 24k (I don’t do standard deduction so that is why I am screwed in this sense). For the people living in high taxes states, this is going to raise taxes (even if tax rate go down a bit). The saving grace is the house version of the bill which includes the property tax deduction to 10k but since both the house and senate version have to be merged into one bill, it is premature to say how much the middle class will get screwed ultimately but yeah they will be screwed especially if the property tax is eliminated which means everybody who supposedly owns a house will have to pay tax on the property tax bill even if it is a 1k but they may have a saving grace if they include it as a standard deduction. Too many complications but let’s wait for the final version to see what is in store for the citizens.

On the lighter side-Movies-Bluebeard (2017-Korea)

A small town doctor starts suspecting that his landlord maybe a serial killer. Somewhat confusing right up to the last moment but interesting nonetheless. Recommended with caution

The Afghan Conflict visited again

Lately there has been increased activity in the number of attacks by the Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) against the coalition and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. Since the new U.S. administration came in, their policy is becoming more hard line against the forces opposing the Afghan government including Pakistan. Some estimated 3000 more forces are being sent to Afghanistan to bolster the forces there amid the increasing anger aimed at Pakistan which according to the United States has failed to control forces of Taliban based there to halt the attacks. Although Pakistan says that it is doing all it can to control its borders and says that its influence with the Taliban leaderships is not as much but the U.S. does not seem to buying that for now at least (if ever). The thing that I don’t understand that why the Candidate Trump who wanted to pull of the forces from Afghanistan has now decided that it wants to send more to that area with no end in sight on their tour of duty. It seems that America’s longest war is becoming more longer and there seems to be no solution in sight. Pakistan’s complicity in this situation cannot be denied but to blame entirely this continuing conflict on them is not fair as Taliban and IS has become increasingly brazen in conducting suicide attacks. I don’t think that both sides of the conflict are willing to sit down and reach a negotiated settlement and it is the innocent people in this conflict who are being targeted. A steady drawdown of foreign forces should be the most desirable situation and security handed over to the Afghan forces which must have been trained by now to defend their country. But by the looks of what the Afghan forces would do without the foreign forces, the signs are not encouraging. And so the conflict goes on. NOTE: Now you can submit your posts at infinipinions@gmail.com and I can upload it on this blog

On the lighter side-Movies-Axeman 2: Overkill (2017)

A horrible horror movie as a desperate group of people is confronted with the title killer. Not Recommended

On the lighter side-Movies-Baby Driver (2017)-Kevin Spacey

A young getaway driver with hearing problems tries to get away from his criminal life in this exciting and sometimes violent crime movie. Recommended

On the lighter side-Movies-Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 (2017-Canada)

A French speaking Canadian and an English speaking Canadian team up in this sequel, this time tracking a car theft ring. Okay action comedy. Recommended with caution

The kneeling Controversy

Lately there have been lots of controversies regarding the kneeling of athletes during the United States national anthem to highlight the social injustices that are mostly endured by African Americans. The kneeling has been going on with now dwindling number of athletes doing it and it has angered many white folks who either don’t approve of it or are bothered by the fact that it has become a distraction of the whole purpose of enjoying the game that they were looking forward to. Even the President has also jumped into the controversy calling for the firing of the athletes who disrespect the flag of the United States and the country. Now it has become a racial divide as whites are against the kneeling while African Americans are for it somewhat. I keep on saying African Americans since there are so few Asians and Hispanics sometimes fall into the category of white and non white so the players who have been kneeling have been overwhelmingly African Americans. Although I as a neutral observer of what is going on believes in the free speech of the players to highlight social injustices but there is a forum and place for everything and I don’t think that a stadium can be that place. You can still stand for the national anthem and fight for racial equality and protest racial injustices but the player ready to provide their loyal fans with a competitive game should do it outside the stadium. As this kneeling controversy has not have the intended reaction that the players who were kneeling were expecting, and I believe it has done the opposite by harming their cause as most people are seeing it as disrespecting the flag and country for which many people have fought for. People should fight the system in which they are working and not the flag as it has anything to do with what the country is all about. And as I said before, there is a time and place for everything and the stadium was not the place to do it.

A New Feature

Actually it is not a new feature but an extension of my blog. Since I can only post so much and have opinions on only so many things, I have decided to open my blog to other people’s opinions. It will work like this; anybody can send me a blog post, be it an opinion on a movie, some travel site, not happy about something or anything which comes to your mind and you have an opinion on it. You will send it with your full name to the email address infinipinions@gmail.com and I will after checking the post to make sure it does not contain any profanity or discriminatory post against any ethnic group or race, religion, since I want to keep my blog free from any hatred and violent content. And after that I will post it and at the end of the post will write “submitted by”. Please specify if you want me to use submitted by anonymous or the first initials of your first and last name (but your full name must be mentioned in your email which should be a legitimate email address). You can send me anything which does is not plagiarized from other sites and any pictures and videos which are not in violation of any copyright. I will download on my computer and then upload on infinipinions.com. All you posts and pictures and videos will be stored on my computer so you don’t need to worry about any privacy issues. As it I am starting this now, please be patient with me as I will have to read the post and then upload it so there maybe some lag time initially, until such time the posts becomes big enough that I may make enough money to hire someone to do this with me. I hope you will send me as much posts as possible in order to grow this blog and open it furthermore.

On the lighter side-Movies-Baywatch (2017)-Dwayne Johnson

Big screen adaptation of the TV series in which the guards discover a plot that threatens the future of the bay. Although it was okay as I never watched the TV shows, but it was all about the nice bodies that you see all over TV. Not Recommended

On the lighter side-Movies-Armed Response (2017)-Anne Heche, Wesley Snipes

When an elite team of military operatives are trapped in a building after its main computer shuts down, they fight for their lives and try to discover what killed their predecessors. Nice action movie. Recommended with caution

On the lighter side-Movies-Assassin’s Creed (2016)-Michael Fassbender

A man becomes a master assassin to take on the secret templar society in this video game adaptation. Good action sequences. Recommended with caution

On the lighter side-Movies-The Hunter’s Prayer (2017)-Sam Worthington

A hit man hired to kill a target discovers that he can’t do it setting off a chain of events in which he and his target becomes the target themselves. Good action movie. Recommended with caution.

Catalonia declaration of independence

Now I come to the recent declaration of independence by Catalonia and the subsequent collapse of their bid. Catalonians were getting increasingly frustrated by what they saw a wealth grab by the Federal government and also thought that since they were the wealthier side, they needed to break away and have their own independent nation. With nobody outside their own boundaries willing to recognize or help them gain independence, this was bound to fail. The European Union with their own problems of separatist tendencies in places like Italy where the Northern league wants to secede from the rest of Italy and in Belgium where the Flanders want to have their own nation accusing the French south of taking their wealth to the Scottish bid to go its own way, this vote was not going to bring any joy to the European Union and hence the European union did not back it. The Unites States did not want to back it either since they would have been losing a strong NATO ally and for the reasons mentioned above. All this separatist tendencies are done by wealthier regions of their respective countries who feel that the southern part of their countries are not working hard enough to better their lives and also want to have a distinct identify based on their wealth, language and culture. But if this was the criteria to follow in any bid for independence, there would be hundred more countries as ethnic rivalry will heat up almost everywhere there is a huge gap of rich and poor regions. It is time to take a step back and resolve the issues behind all these separatist bids in a democratic manner.

The Kurdish vote for Independence-2

Furthermore the Kurds would have no military to defend their borders which are for now not clearly defined. And as soon as the independence vote was declared a success, the Iraqi initially warned the Kurds to rescind the vote and then swiftly send its armed forces and militias to get control of federal areas and Kurds swiftly withdrew their militias without engaging the Iraqi federal forces as the United States and the West looked the other way. And Israeli decision to back the Independence of Kurds for reason of its own (primarily I presume as a buffer between itself and other Israel hating countries) was not a very wise decision as it exposed the Kurds to accusations that they are backed by Israeli money. I am also baffled by how the Kurds Political establishment fooled their own people to believe that independence would be that easy. There have been reports also of infighting among the two main Kurds political parties which led to this disastrous decision. The Kurds had already great autonomy in running their part of the Iraqi land and everything was going on smoothly until this Independence vote. Their victories in the battlefield got into their heads that they can claim for independence and all the other neighboring countries with problems of their own would ignore it and leave them alone. Somebody really botched or I should screw up this whole independence bid. There should have been incremental pressure for the buildup of their desire to have their own homeland and convincing other hostile nations to support their bid. Now it will take a longer time to realize their dream.

The Kurdish vote for Independence

As the war against the Islamist terrorist organization ISIS winds down, the Kurdish in their bid to cash on their goodwill with the United States thought that this might be the right time to vote for independence. And despite the opposition from United States and almost every other country including with sizeable Kurdish populations of their own like Iran and turkey and Syria (except for Israel for reasons of their own, decided to go ahead and have a referendum for seceding from Iraq and create their own homeland which they never had. Very bad idea and wrong timing were the main culprits. What got into the head of the Kurdish political leaders that with the United States backing they will be able to pull off this independence without a hitch? Although a long standing dream of the Kurdish people as they have been waiting for a nearly a hundred years for the own homeland, it is not as simple as they thought it would be. Even if the Kurds thought that with the backing of the United States which used them to defeat ISIS, the forces against them were already stacked. Turkey, Iran and Syria would never agree to Kurd State. Iraq where this referendum started despite being in turmoil would not be in any mood to divide their country. You see nobody wants to divide their country and it was naïve on the part of the Kurds to believe that by having just a vote on independence they will be able to create their homeland which would have been landlocked and their oil pipeline on which they would have gotten their revenue goes through Turkey which would have shut down the pipeline immediately.

On the lighter side-Movies-Seoul Station (2016-Korea)-Animated

Several people try to survive a zombie apocalypse in Seoul, Korea. Recommended with caution Korean animated horror.

On the lighter side-Movies-Doctor Strange (2016)-Benedict Cumberbatch

A neurosurgeon discovers mystical powers and helps protect earth from evil. Recommended Marvel/Disney movie.

On the lighter side-Movies-Raw (2017)-Belgian-French

A vegetarian tastes meat for the first time and enjoys it in this weird and disturbing movie. Recommended

On the lighter side-Movies-Black Butterfly (2017)-Antonio Banderas

In a small town plagued by murders and disappearances a secluded writer rescues a stranger who then muscles in on his life and threatens his isolated life. Recommended with caution

On the lighter side-Movies-Escape Room (2017)

A popular game regarding escaping from a room becomes a death trap for four people when one of the game objects is possessed by demon. Not worth your time. Not recommended

Is seeing really believing?-2

Then there a ready army of people who are busy debunking stories that are in the bible like they have nothing else to do with their time. The lost ark of Noah, was it ever made and where it landed ultimately, the parting of the red sea, did it really happen and where is the scientific evidence, the story of Lot, the walking on water of Jesus Christ, people who were not there and trying to justify their theories as if they have to see in order to believe and I am afraid, even if they see it, they will not let go of their long held preconceived theories since it will shatter whatever life they have revolving around those theories and beliefs. I, for one do not have the time or do not adhere to such conspiracy theories since either I was not there in the first place and second there are some things you really have to believe even if you have not seen it or were born after that event happened. But the interesting point is that I have not come across conspiracy theories regarding hurricane sandy, Harvey, Irma, Maria to name a few. If conspiracy theorists are consistent then the above hurricane should always have their own league of conspiracy or maybe I have not come across one loud enough to warrant my attention. These people who chose to obviously question or provide alternative ideas of what really happened to a event shows me that there are people out there who have the money or are supported by rich people who are themselves part of this fringe groups. Anyway if there are more outlandish conspiracy theories that are created overnight, I will surely write about them.

Is seeing really believing?

Conspiracy theories abound and there is surprisingly good number of people believing in them. There is a whole market out there who believes in these sometimes good and sometimes absurd theories to fit their world view. Some are borderline hilarious and some are hurtful to some people but nonetheless, they have an audience of which cannot be denied their existence. If a person does not happen to be in a certain place and they are suspicious about the news coming out of some authority, they would go out of their way to debunk that news even if it happens in front of their faces. I can just give you some examples to illustrate my point (which I have also done in my blog before but these are really the latest addition to the conspiracy theories vault). Besides the one where the lone gunman killed more than 20 elementary school kids, now there is a new breed of conspiracy theorists who believe that the world is flat, the Las Vegas Massacre did not occur as they were crisis actors and the world is flat. Curiously I have not come across any conspiracy theory regarding the non happening of the Hurricane Harvey to hit Houston and Florida or the Hurricane Maria which hit badly the Caribbean islands and Puerto Rico. Why is this, I have no clue about how the conspiracy theorists believe one and do not believe the other one. Another one is the about 9/11 despite many years, it still is a mystery for some people who believe in different versions of non existence or coincidental events to make their case. Recently the files on JFK killing was released but it did not rest the case for some conspiracy theorists and they still have wild guesses of who killed John F. Kennedy.

On the lighter side-Movies-Chips (2017) - Dax Shepard, Michael Pena

Big screen adaption of the 1970s TV show where a rookie cop joins with another undercover cop investigating crooked cops. Foul mouthed and not enjoyable. Not Recommended

On the lighter side-Movies- Cult of Chucky (2017)

A woman admitted to a psyche ward tries to convince the staff and other patients that it is chucky who is doing the killing in their institution. Better than before and enjoyable. Recommended with caution

The Hitler Phenomenon

Despite the passage of a considerable period of time (72 years to be exact), the fascination with Hitler or the ideals for which he stood for is still alive and well and have even been enhanced in some parts of the world. The white nationalist movement already claims him as their leader in more ways than one and even the people whose ancestors were annihilated by this invading army have embraced him not knowing their own history. Even people whom he would have loathed to be even breathing air in the same place knowingly or unknowingly become fascinated by him and do stuff in places that they are not supposed to do. A few months ago, a Chinese man was arrested in Germany because he gave a Hitler salute for a photo, apparently out of ignorance or just to capture a moment, he forgot to check the laws of Germany where anything related to Hitler and his ideas are banned. Another guy was punched when he gave a Hitler salute somewhere else. Some White people in countries who had suffered at the hands of Hitler invading armies in Poland, Eastern Europe, Russia have made Hitler their ideal just because he supposedly stood for the white people but which in fact he wanted to subjugate even white people who did not follow his command. People need to read the history before committing themselves to or admiring a person known internationally as being the killer of millions of human beings.