Saturday, October 29, 2016

FBI seizes FOUR Abedin/Weiner Email Devices In Weiner Teenage Sexting Investigation

Worm Turns in #HRC Unauthorized Email Scandal




Why did Huma Abedin use Anthony Weiner’s laptop anyway?

Clinton Staffer – “whole thing is *#$&ing insane”


The trick for Democrats is to allow themselves an escape route by appearing to be on both sides of a developing disaster.  Witness the words of Democrat Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco:  This is particularly troubling since so many questions are unanswered,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein.  That mild rebuke is hardly a salve for the sucking chest wound our national security has received from Hillary Clinton’s licentious abuse of power and privilege.  


But is Senator Feinstein going to go the moral route? Ha-ha-ha-ha-etc…. Not in the rest of her quote where she assumes the role of defense attorney: ““It’s unclear whether these emails have already been reviewed or if Secretary Clinton sent or received them. In fact, we don’t even know if the F.B.I. has these emails in its possession.”  This kind of utterance is as low and dirty as Huma Abedin’s long ago forgiveness of her husband for sending pictures of his junk to teenage girls.


Before the news broke, but possibly with knowledge of what was coming, President Obama had this to say in a radio interview:   “My advice to Hillary would be just listen to your conscience and do what you this is right and worry about the politics later.”  Laughter could be heard all the way to the Pope in Italy.


A wormier, more rotten apple of a statement could not be made. “Listen to your conscience?”…. The obviously tone – deaf president has been too busy to keep up with the daily briefing.  This is the president who lied about Hillary’s classified email scandal, saying he didn’t know about it until he heard it on the news. Cut us a break, dumbo!  Your lie has been publicly exposed.


FBI Director Comey reopened the Hillary Clinton email investigation not out of the goodness of his heart. He did so because some conscientious FBI agents working under him discovered more emails on FOUR devices used by Huma and Anthony Weiner. One of the FOUR devices belonged to Huma – the other three (cellphone, tab-type device, and a laptop) belonged to Anthony Weiner but all apparently contained emails that circulated to Hilllary, Anthony, and Huma and many are about government activity. 

As for the goodness of FBI Director Comey’s heart, consider that he granted immunity to top Clinton aides like Cheryl Mills and others for their cooperation. He didn’t need immunity – he had all the authority to subpoena, question, and seize their email devices too. 

The most AMAZING thing was that, not only did Comey  grant immunity to possible fellow criminal conspirators, he promised to destroy their laptops so that the information contained on them could never be looked at again. This is a particular DISASTER in that they, too, need to be REEXAMINED in light of the new email disclosures on Human Abedin/ Anthony Weiner devices.



Sunday, October 9, 2016

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Gomorrah: Maria Pia Calzone as Imma Savastano


Yes, the Sundance Channel series Gomorrah is sub-titled. But you don’t have to speak Italian to enjoy the show.  The action is in the universal language.  Love, hate, violence, revenge. The blank spaces in the sub-titles are those four-letter words.  You can easily learn how to swear in Italian.  That will impress your friends in Milan.

But what I’m thinking about today is Immaculata. That is the real name of the top clan guy’s wife in the Gomorrah series. I’ve heard a lot of complaints here in the U.S. about the lack of female roles for actors over the age of twenty nine.  American TV and film needs to write a role like the one given this woman.

Maria Pia Calzone  portrays Immaculata (the Immaculate) with serious verve, style, focus, and a mysterious womanhood. Watching her in the series made me a bit ga-ga, I’ll admit.  When she hit up on one of my twitter posts, I discovered what it was like to walk on air. I went around the house acting like a celebrity to our dog for at least a week.

Imma’s a really unusual mom to her son Gennaro, a guileless and unruly kid who is over the moon about Noemi. l Gennaro’s gone to great lengths to impress Noemi. The girl is pretty and sexy but Imma can’t for a moment take the little fool seriously.

Yet she knows enough not to interfere with her son’s yearnings. She stands by and smiles as Gennaro romps around the place with Noemi both of them in their underwear. Mothers, you don’t want this girl in your crime family.

Eventually Gennaro matures and sees that Noemi is superficial. That only happens after mother Imma has sent him to Honduras, ostensibly for business reasons, but really to harden him in the cauldron of the drug cartels.

One Gennaro goes down to Honduras. Another Gennaro comes back, shoots Imma’s mastiff for attacking him on his unannounced return. This Genn

In previous episodes, Maria Pia Calzone appeared resigned to her role as the mobster’s wife. Obedient. Caring.  She’s  not shy about ruling the roost. But over all, Don Pietro had the final say about all business matters and even some domestic ones – like the sofa they have in the living room. He tosses the new sofa out because he thinks the Italian cops have bugged it. Imma is quiet but absorbs everything about her surroundings. She understands the business and has deep perception about the psychological underpinnings of the males who surround her.

She takes over the clan expecting a rebellion from the old school males allied with Don Pietro.


Sunday, October 2, 2016

Gomorrah : Tales of the Italian Ghetto


Just finished watching an Italian TV series called Gomorrah.  Rhymes with Camorra.   Unlike the American Mafia or the Sicilian Mafia, the camorras have no hierarchical structures.  There is not one single camorra – there are several, rather like constellations.

Organization is horizontal, rather than pyramidal. Positions may be inherited. Rules are not always followed.

It seemed strange to me how the actors and directors of this TV series were, in interviews, saying such nice things about American films and TV series.  Unless they were referring to ‘slick,’ I kind of thought the opposite. The Italian version of a crime epic was grittier and more realistic than the ones I’ve watched – excepting perhaps “Casino” where there is not much room for romanticism. 

But even there, Gomorrah was hands-down more realistic than any mafia conforming fare found on American TV and film. Hey listen, wiseguy, I’m not putting down the American films like Godfather and Casino and TV shows like “The Sopranos.” I thought they were great.

Gomorrah is different, that’s all I’m saying.  Part of it is my own taste for realism. The more realistic the better. So let’s face it, the comorras of southern Italy don’t play very nice. 

Gomorrah, offered by Sundance TV and still “On Demand” has three directors. You may have noticed that earlier I used the plural when I referred to the director (s).

There is Stefano Sollima, the key director of the character Pietro Savanstano, head of the clan. His wife is named Imma for Immaculata – how’s that for an Italian name? She gets her own director but in most cases she needs one only to move her through the scenes. Then they have a son.  His name is Gennaro. At first he’s clueless but then grows into a chip off the old block.  His director is Claudioo Cupellini. 

What’s up with three directors?  Well, Stefano Sollima is the top man but the other two have a great deal of independence.  There are three driving forces therefore. Just as in real life the tensions occur between people, so it is with these characters.  It’s fascinating – it’s conflict you can feel. It gets under your skin. The characters are despicable and noble at the same time. As in Game of Thrones, these three characters live in separate kingdoms, separate domains.

Other details:  The screenwriter is Stefano Bises.  The filming makes use of 126 different locations, 225 actors, and hundreds of actors. Italians go big if they go at all. The series transformed Naples into a huge movie set.

Though some Italians have complained of bad publicity for Naples (See Naples and Die) actor Salvatore Esposito, who plays Gennaro Savastano, points out that tourism to Naples has increased, not the other way around. I have to say that I am curious, too.  My father was a ‘Napolitano” (Neopolitan). 

The stories are true. They come from Robert Savio’s book of the same name:  Gomorrah. Some of the inspiration, too, comes from Matteo’s film which was adapted also from Savio’s book.