USA 1984 and all that

[Gob]

Oliver Stone to RT: ‘US has become an Orwellian state’

RT: It took both of you almost five years to produce this series. And in it you have a chapter called Obama: Management of a Wounded Empire. You give a harsh critique of the Obama administration. What in your eyes has been the most troubling aspect of his presidency, Oliver?

Oliver Stone: I think under the disguise of sheep’s clothing he has been a wolf. That because of the nightmare of the Bush presidency that preceded him, people forgave him a lot. He was a great hope for change. The color of his skin, the upbringing, the internationalism, the globalism, seemed all evident. And he is an intelligent man. He has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them into the establishment, he has codified them. That is what is sad. So we are going into the second administration that is living outside the law and does not respect the law and foundations of our system and he is a constitutional lawyer, you know. Without the law, it is the law of the jungle. Nuremburg existed for a reason and there was a reason to have trials, there is a reason for due process – ‘habeas corpus’ as they call it in the United States.

RT: Do you agree Peter?

Peter Kuznick: I agree, if you look at his domestic policy, he did not break with the Bush administration’s policies. If you look at his transparency – he claimed to be the transparency president when he was running for office. There has not been transparency. We have been actually classifying more documents under Obama than we did under Bush. All previous presidents between 1970 and 2008 indicted three people total under Espionage Act. Obama has already indicted six people under the Espionage Act. The surveillance has not stopped, the incarceration without bringing people to trial has not stopped. So those policies have continued.

Then there are war policies, militarization policies. We are maintaining that. We are fighting wars now in Yemen, Afghanistan, we are keeping troops in Afghanistan. We have not cut back the things that we all found so odious about the Bush administration and Obama added some of his own. The drones policy – Obama had more drone attack in the first eight months than Bush had his entire presidency. And these have very dubious international legality.

OS: Peter was hopeful that the in the second term there will be some more flexibility, we hope so. But, there is a system in place, which is enormous – the Pentagon system.

continues here....

[Lord Jim]

Oliver Stone, what a predictable leftie joke....

His grasp of political realities rival his knowledge of history....

[rubato]

Oliver Stone is not an intelligent man. And not typical of any meaningful group. He has nothing of interest to say about anything.

"Salvador" was a decent movie but the rest are varying degrees of awful. "Full Metal Jacket" was a good movie set in the Vietnam war by a director who was an artist. "Platoon" was shit.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Peter Kuznick
Associate Professor
Department of History

The author of Beyond the Laboratory: Scientists as Political Activists in 1930s America and coeditor of Rethinking Cold War Culture, Professor Kuznick is currently writing a book about scientists’ opposition to the Vietnam War. As director of American University’s award winning Nuclear Studies Institute, he takes students on an annual study abroad trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He spearheaded the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy in response to the Smithsonian’s Enola Gay exhibit and co-founded the Nuclear Education Project. He writes often and lectures frequently about nuclear issues in general and the atomic bombings in particular. He has recently completed a historically based Hollywood screenplay and teaches the path-breaking course Oliver Stone’s America. He regularly provides commentary to the media on a broad range of subject and was selected Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, 2004-2007.
Degrees
PhD, Rutgers University
MA, Rutgers University
BA, Rutgers University

http://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/kuznick.cfm

[MajGenl.Meade]

Enola Gay

Oops what a give-away!

[Lord Jim]

teaches the path-breaking course Oliver Stone’s America

LOL!!!

The guy is teaching a course called, "Oliver Stone’s America", and students actually get credits for it? Really? Has Amercan University decided to offer an Idiot Studies major?

This clown has obviously decided to suck up to Stone big time...

But what's this? I believe I've found the explanation:

He has recently completed a historically based Hollywood screenplay

was selected Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer

Wow, that certainly doesn't speak well for the "Organization of American Historians"....

Any supposed history professor who is teaching the fantasies of Oliver Stone as historical fact should receive nothing but denunciation and opprobrium from his colleagues. Professional organizations ought to be shunning him and throwing him out, not honoring him....

He ought to be treated like a physics professor teaching a course supporting the idea of a perpetual motion machine....

[Crackpot]

Oliver Stone is not an intelligent man. And not typical of any meaningful group. He has nothing of interest to say about anything.

"Salvador" was a decent movie but the rest are varying degrees of awful. "Full Metal Jacket" was a good movie set in the Vietnam war by a director who was an artist. "Platoon" was shit.

yrs,
rubato

U-Turn was good

[Lord Jim]

I hate to admit this, but JFK really wasn't a bad movie, so long as you understand that it was a complete work of fiction.

As opposed to Nixon which in addition to being pure fiction, was also of near cult-status awfulness....(I'll bet that's a role acceptance decision Anthony Hopkins wishes he could have back...worst role acceptance decision by a major actor since Lawrence Olivier agreed to play Douglas MacArthur in Inchon...)

[rubato]

The course title says little about the course and nothing about the prof.s own perspective.

"Oliver Stone's America" could mean an era as seen though Stone's idea of which events and facts were important without agreeing with him in any particular. Or it could just be a way of referring to the state of affairs when Stone came of age; roughly the 60s. A course titled "Jefferson Davis' America" or "Lincoln's America" does not imply an agreement with the titled person's ideas.


I should amend my previous remarks; Stone is a very competent filmmaker he just has too little of interest to say for me to care much.


Anthony Hopkins took the role of Nixon because Nixon was a sick-fuck and thus playing him is a challenge for an actor. The reviews of his performance were good, so he apparently he was successful. As more tapes are released the worse he (Nixon) appears to be.



yrs,
rubato