Thursday, January 26, 2012

CHINESE workers taking jobs from Americans IN America?!? Another fun GOP debate! Gabrielle Giffords! Pat Sajak! OSCAR picks!!!

If you watched and or listened to President Obama's speech on Tuesday night, you heard him doing a lot of talking about giving tax incentives to American companies who have outsourced jobs to foreign countries if they bring the jobs back to America so our horrible unemployment situation can begin to get better.

In other words, President Obama was (in essence) saying what I say at the end of each blog; "AMERICA FIRST!!!!!"

I bring this up because it's only two days later and a long time friend of mine in St. Louis sent me a video from an ABC newscast in which Diane Sawyer was telling a story about three thousand (3,000) or so Chinese workers hired by Chinese firms who are doing construction related jobs in New York, Alaska and here in California. No, these Chinese workers aren't American citizens. And they've apparently been hired and brought here because they're (supposedly) willing to work for a whole lot less money than American workers would work for. In that news story we were told that the New York and Alaska bridges and roads work involves hundreds of millions of dollars. The California bridges and roads work (supposedly) involves seven point two BILLION dollars. Money that could have gone to American workers and money that would have been spent IN America.

Yes, I SAW Diane Sawyer saying these things on this video that was sent to me, but because not one word about this was spoken at the Republican debate tonight, I HAVE to believe there's MORE to this story or (I would think) that a whole lot of hell would be being raised about this.

Needless to say, I will be looking into this story and MARILYN? Thank you very much for sending me this video.

Speaking of Obama's speech.....

I honestly thought this was the best speech he's given since he was elected. He talked about a lot of serious stuff, but I think we will all agree that the highlight that night was seeing Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the wonderful way she was welcomed. For those of you with short memories, Ms. Giffords is the woman who was shot in the head by a lunatic and the fact that she's functional at all, is off the charts amazing. She looked (looks) great but she was there to say goodbye to everybody because she feels she needs more time to be completely healed. If you were watching this on television, I'm sure your reaction was the same as mine; Something got caught in your throat and a tear or two was shed.

TONIGHT'S REPUBLICAN DEBATE:

I've seen all the debates and (to me) they've all been entertaining. Tonight's debate was no exception. A lot of "in your face" stuff from Romney to Gingrich and vice versa. But because of those two getting after each other, the other two (Santorum and Paul) ended up looking very good and in one case, presidential tonight. No, I don't think either one of those guys will be our next president, but ONE of the other two guys would figure to be the nominee unless an "11th hour candidate" like Jeb Bush or Mitch Daniels throws THEIR hat in the ring. I bring this up because of how tonight's debate ended. All four of the candidates were asked to say why HE would be the BEST candidate to beat Barack Obama? That's something that all four of those guys should have been able to "hit out of the park", right? Ron Paul was the first to speak and he gave a good answer that included specifics. Romney, Gingrich and Santorum (to use another baseball term) "struck out!" I mean, they spoke words, but they said NOTHING!!! And the first thing I thought was, "No wonder the G.O.P. big boys and girls are seriously thinking about getting a NEW candidate!"

And by the way, the next scheduled debate will be in Mesa, Arizona on February 22.

How 'bout dem oil companies?!?

New profit numbers have been revealed. Best ever. I mean BEST EVER!!!!! And we continue to give these oil people humongous tax breaks because....???

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

You know who Pat Sajak is, right? And Vanna White? The hosts of "Wheel of Fortune"?

They've both been on that show for many years. I knew Vanna when every hound dog in L.A. was chasing after her and I knew Pat when he was a hound dog.

For whatever reason, Pat has decided to let everyone know that he and Vanna used to have quite a few drinks to the point of being drunk when they were taping "Wheel of Fortune" shows. Pat says they've been totally sober for many years (I'm guessing he changed his ways about the time he got married) but what possessed him to tell us this is puzzling to me. Doesn't this fall under the category of T.M.I., otherwise known as "Too Much Information?!?" But Pat, thanks much for giving me something to write about.

OSCAR NOMINATIONS:

Did your favorite film and favorite actors get nominated? You'll be able to find out if your favorites WON on the evening of February 26.

I'm about to tell you who I think will win and in a couple of cases I'll tell you who I WANTED to win.

Best film: "The Artist" will probably win, but I would have chosen one of five other films, including a film that wasn't nominated, "Bridesmaids".

Director: I'm picking Martin Scorsese ("Hugo") because the guy I wanted to win wasn't nominated. David Fincher, ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo")

Supporting Actress: I'm picking Octavia Spencer ("The Help") because the actress I wanted to win wasn't nominated. Evan Rachel Wood ("The Ides of March")

Supporting Actor: I'm picking Christopher Plummer ("Beginners") but the guy I wanted to win wasn't nominated. Albert Brooks ("Drive")

Lead Actress: Viola Davis ("The Help")

Lead Actor: George Clooney ("The Descendants")

OTHER CURRENT FILMS:

Because of my fractured right foot (it's healing), I haven't been able to see some new films the last few weeks. Bob Fox is a guy who used to own some radio stations here in the Los Angeles area. Because of some nice money he made when he sold the stations, he's been living the good life. He's also a reader of this blog and he watches a lot of films. A few days ago, Bob was kind enough to tell me what he and his family thought about some films I haven't had a chance to see so that I could tell you his very educated critical conclusions about six films you might be thinking about seeing. Five of these films were nominated for "Best Picture".

"War Horse": "Boring, my daughter went to sleep."

"The Descendants": "Excellent!"

"We Bought a Zoo": "A lot of fun!"

"Hugo": "A lot of fun!"

The two BEST films that Bob and his family saw? "The Artist" and "Midnight in Paris".

Bob Fox, thank you very much!

A FEW FILMS I SAW ON CABLE:

A 2003 film on HBO. "House of Sand and Fog". Wow, wow-wow, wow-WOW! This is a film that stars Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Francis Fisher and two other fine supporting actors. Kingsley was nominated for an Oscar. This is a film about about "problems". Serious problems. And you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen. Without giving anything away, I can tell you that this film has a very unusual ending in the sense that five people that you will care about are all affected in a BAD way.

A new film starring Rob Lowe was shown on the Lifetime channel a few days ago and it's being repeated. "Drew Peterson: Untouchable". You've probably heard about that smooth talking police officer (Drew Peterson) who is now in jail because he allegedly has this bad habit of killing women he marries. Rob Lowe is excellent as the slimy killer and the next time you're in the mood for a good popcorn flick, this is a good film to see.

A 2010 film on Showtime. "Blue Valentine". It stars Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. These are two very good actors, but to me, this is NOT a very good film. I was big time disappointed.

TELEVISION STUFF:

A lot of shows have been "taking a break", but I think most of them will resume showing new episodes beginning Sunday. Have you seen the previews CBS has been showing to tease you into watching a new episode of "The Good Wife" this coming Sunday? It looks like this will be an episode featuring "big trouble" for Alicia, who in case you didn't know, IS "The Good Wife".

Great episodes of "Southland" on TNT this past Tuesday and "Justified" on FX this past Tuesday.

The new Kiefer Sutherland show, "Touch" made it's debut Wednesday (last night), on FOX. Strange show. Because it's Sutherland, I will watch the next episode.

This coming Sunday, a new show will make it's debut on HBO. "Luck", starring Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte, Dennis Farina and Jill Hennessey. Michael Mann is the director and David Milch ("Deadwood") is the writer. On paper, there's no way this show can be anything but good, right?

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you ASAP. Don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address which means I can't respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, late Thursday night, February 2 or very early Friday morning, February 3.

I hope that all of you have a great weekend and don't forget; AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





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