In what the trade press calls the first extended shutdown of an oil refinery in the Northeast prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, PBF Energys Paulsboro Refinery is about to go into mothballs.

The immediate impact in and around Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, where the iconic facility actually is located, is the loss of 250 good jobs at a time when New Jersey cannot afford to absorb more layoffs.

PBFs announcement of the move, first reported by Bloomberg News, offers a sliver of light at the end of the pipeline. The company states the site could return to more-or-less normal operation if coronavirus-squashed fuel consumption bounces back.

PBF apparently will still make some niche products at Paulsboro, but its crude oil throughput will be moved mainly to PBFs Delaware City, Del., refinery.

If, indeed, this is the end of the line for the 180,000 barrel-a-day South Jersey facility, it halts a century of crude oil processing there. The cultural impact of the towers that have stood over Paulsboro and Gibbstown sine 1917 also cannot be underestimated. Known most of its life as the Mobil refinery, symbols of the companys old Pegasus trademark abound in the two municipalities. The refinery was sold by ExxonMobil to Valero Corp. in 1998 and then to PBF 10 years ago.

Nostalgia aside, idling the workers is a big loss to the South Jersey economy, regardless of what one thinks about fossil fuels to run our cars, air transportation and other industrial processes.

The workers are likely to be laid off by years end, underscoring the failure of Congress and President Donald Trump to approve a second coronavirus stimulus package. Shame on them. Unless stimulus legislation is signed soon, the PBF workers are likely to receive just New Jerseys basic unemployment benefits. Both a $600-a-week federal supplement, and a later $300-a-week boost for which New Jersey and several other states qualified, have expired.

If a PBF closure had happened a few years ago, we would have criticized local and state officials for not responding quickly when the cuts occurred, or failing to prevent a shutdown preceded by numerous red flags. That was the case when Gloucester Countys other major refinery, the Sunoco Eagle Point Refinery in West Deptford Township, closed in 2010.

Its doubtful that politicians saw this one coming, so they cant be blamed for not trying to change PBFs mind. At this point, refinery employment must be viewed as not coming back, regardless of what Trump says in his campaign. If Joe Biden really has a plan to replace dirty-energy jobs with green-energy ones, Gloucester County would be a great place to demonstrate it.

A national security case can be made that the Delaware Valley shouldnt surrender nearly all of its remaining oil processing capacity. The Philadelphia Energy Solutions refining complex was destroyed by an explosion and fire in June 2019, taking a whopping 335,000 barrels a day offline. The sites been sold to a developer with no intention to use it as an oil refinery. If its strategically important to add capacity back, the federal government must incentivize any reboot.

Acknowledge, though, that the long-term outlook for fossil-derived fuel is bleak. Electric cars are becoming more numerous. Oil pollutes, and the Paulsboro Refinery relies on hydrofluoric acid, a catalyst that environmental health activists cite as especially dangerous.

Short-term, were about to have 250 workers who need to be retrained. Will we have new jobs for them at that New Jersey Wind Port that Gov. Phil Murphy has vowed to build in Salem County? Piece of cake, since its supposed to deliver 1,500 permanent positions. Or, like the Port of Paulsboro, will a touted 1,000 jobs fail to materialize?

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N.J. refinery about to shed jobs at the worst time | Editorial - nj.com

Security researchers have managed to extract the secret key used by Intel CPUs to encrypt updates and the effects of their discovery could be wide reaching.

With the key in hand, it's now possible to decrypt the microcode updates Intel releases to patch security vulnerabilities and other bugs. This could potentially even allow hackers to release chip updates with their own microcode though they wouldn't be able to survive a system reboot.

Independent researcher Maxim Goryachy along with researchers Dmitry Sklyarov and Mark Ermolov from Positive Technologies made the discovery by leveraging a critical vulnerability Ermolov and Goryachy found in the Intel Management Engine back in 2017.

Goryachy provided further insight on the research team's latest discovery in a direct message to Ars Technica, saying:

At the moment, it is quite difficult to assess the security impact. But in any case, this is the first time in the history of Intel processors when you can execute your microcode inside and analyze the updates.

Three years ago Goryachy and Ermolov discovered a critical vulnerability in the Intel Management Engine, indexed as Intel SA-00086, that allowed them to execute any code they wanted inside the dependent core of Intel's CPUs. While the chip giant released a patch fixing the bug, it could still be exploited as CPUs can be rolled back to an earlier firmware version without the fix.

Earlier this year, the research team was able to use the vulnerability they found to unlock a service mode embedded in Intel chips called Red Unlock which is used by its engineers to debug microcode. Goryachy, Ermolov and Sklyarov then named their tool for accessing the debugger Chip Red Pill in a reference to The Matrix.

By accessing one of Intel's Goldmont-based CPUs in Red Unlock mode, the researchers were able to extract a special ROM area called MSROM (microcode sequencer ROM). They then reverse engineered the chip maker's microcode and following months of analysis, were able to extract the RC4 key used by Intel in the update process. However, the researchers were not able to discover the signing key used by Intel to cryptographically prove whether an update is authentic or not.

In a statement, Intel officials downplayed the team's discovery while reassuring users that their CPUs are safe from potentially malicious chip updates, saying:

The issue described does not represent security exposure to customers, and we do not rely on obfuscation of information behind red unlock as a security measure. In addition to the INTEL-SA-00086 mitigation, OEMs following Intels manufacturing guidance have mitigated the OEM specific unlock capabilities required for this research. The private key used to authenticate microcode does not reside in the silicon, and an attacker cannot load an unauthenticated patch on a remote system.

Goryachy, Ermolov and Sklyarov's discovery may not be able to be used by hackers but for security researchers it could be a real help as they'll now be able to analyze Intel's microcode patches to see how the company fixes bugs and security vulnerabilities.

Via Ars Technica

Read this article:
Intel may have just shed its most intimate CPU secrets - TechRadar

Human Rights First has received previously undisclosed records that reveal how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been carrying out illegal expulsions of asylum seekers and children.

Since March 2020, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at ports of entry and Border Patrol agents have blocked thousands of asylum seekers and unaccompanied children from requesting humanitarian protection at the border and summarily expelled them from the United Statesin violation of U.S. refugee and anti-trafficking laws and treaty obligations. In so doing, DHS has used as a pretext an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on COVID-19issued over objections of senior CDC officials and pursuant to instructions by Trump administration officials.

A group of leading epidemiologists and public health experts wrote that the order, which was indefinitely extended on May 19 and re-issued with minor modifications on October 13, relies on specious arguments, including false claims about CBP capacity to process asylum seekers, and fails to further public health and disregards alternative measures that can protect public health while preserving access to asylum and other protection.

The documentswhich we received from DHS via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requestdetail the highly concerning practices that have led to illegal expulsions, including:

A highly and intentionally flawed screening process

Forced returns of pregnant asylum seekers and migrants to Mexico

Evasion of U.S. anti-trafficking laws adopted to protect children

In addition, the FOIA results indicate that:

Read the original:
Government Records Shed Light on Illegal Expulsions of Asylum Seekers and Children - Human Rights First

CHICAGO (CBS) We continue to hear from people who are desperate for help, but who are just stuck waiting for a callback from the states unemployment office in one case for six weeks.

We dug deeper, and with new documents in hand, CBS 2s Tara Molina on Thursday night had an inside look at how well the Illinois Department of Employment Security call center is actually operating.

Molina talked to a couple both dealing with unemployment fraud, and both dealing with long waits for help putting an end to it. Now, we have a better idea of why.

Someone filed on our behalf, and thats been frightening, said Gary.

Husband and wife Gary and Nancy are both dealing with fraudulent unemployment claims. They are also both dealing with the Illinois Department of Employment Securitys callback-only model.

It would be, of course, nice to have the option of waiting on hold for those that are able to do so, Gary said.

Instead, they are stuck in the states queue waiting glued to the phone. It took almost 6six weeks for Gary to get a callback.

Five and half weeks later, they called back, he said.

Nancy is still waiting.

A lot can happen in five weeks, she said. More fraud can happen.

Weve heard constant complaints since the callback-only model first debuted in July from people who say its failing.

We wanted to know why.

Also From CBS Chicago:

Several public records requests later, we broke that information down, and now we have a clearer picture.

The first day the callback model debuted, IDES call-takers handled about one third of the number of the calls they did the day before 2,086 compared with 6,025. The spokesperson for IDES says thats because contractual agents were being trained in waves to staff increasingly complex queues which can and often do result in taking longer to answer questions + calls. Going on to say the information we received is not reflective of all the information.

And we found it took almost a month for the callback system to handle as many calls as call-takers were before it debuted with the average weekly handling call more than doubling from 7.9 minutes in June to 23 minutes in October. When we asked IDES spokesperson why handling time went up she said; The average time could have fluctuated in the positive or negative if you were to look at the information as a whole rather than in the pieces you have, but she did not provide the information she claims we dont have.

We learned there is an that the average percentage of the time that call agents are not ready. At one point in September, that was 24 percent of the time. We asked the spokesperson for IDES to explain that. This was her response: Call center agents are presented with a dashboard in which they are either in ready status or not ready status (accepting calls or not accepting calls). There are a variety of reasons for which an agent may not be in ready status theyre on a break, theyre discussing an issue with their supervisor, etc. The industry standard benchmark for the ready status metric is around 80%, to which the contractual agents are consistently in line. Though this metric fluctuates week to week (perhaps the week in question agents spent more time speaking with a supervisor than in prior weeks), the Department is pleased with the performance of this metric and happy with its consistency.

And finally, we found that while call-takers were added over the summer, those numbers dipped this month, with fewer call-takers working in October than September.

Molina brought all of this back to the state, and sent a request to the spokeswoman for IDES last night. On Thursday, she called to say they need more time to go through the information provided to us. She got back to us Friday. This story has been updated with her responses.

CBS 2 is committing to Working For Chicago, connecting you every day with the information you or a loved one might need about the jobs market, and helping you remove roadblocks to getting back to work.

Well keep uncovering information every day to help this community get back to work, until the job crisis passes. CBS 2 has several helpful items right here on our website, including a look at specific companies that are hiring, and information from the state about the best way to get through to file for unemployment benefits in the meantime.

Continue reading here:
Documents Shed Light On Some Of The Problems With The Illinois Department Of Employment Security Callback System - CBS Chicago

Surviving the Aftermath is the latest game to shed its Epic exclusivity and appear on Steam, along with its 11th update. It's not quite finished yet, though, and will stay in Early Access until next year.

It's a follow-up to the excellent Surviving Mars, but this time developed by Iceflake Studios instead of Haemimont Games. It remains a survival management game, but instead of setting up a colony on Mars, you're trying to rebuild after the apocalypse.

When I played last year, just before it made its surprise launch on the Epic Games Store, it felt a bit more conventional than its predecessor. The flow of Surviving Mars and the complexities of providing the basic necessities for human life made it feel like a milestone in the nascent survival management subgenre, while Aftermath starts out a lot more evocative of more familiar city builders, though not without post-apocalyptic twists.

Radiation, meteor showers, deadly storms and understandably depressed survivors all create wrinkles as you try to get your town off the ground. There's the world beyond the town to explore, too, which gives you more opportunities to get resources at a time where everything is scarce. And like Surviving Mars, there's a good chance you'll lose some survivors, whether it's from illness or because a meteor flattened their home.

It's had plenty of updates since then, however, so this Steam version will probably be quite different from the one I played a year ago. Update 11's focus is on quests where you'll send your survivors out to search for people, explore dangerous locations and, apparently, make some tough choices.

Iceflake Studios is also hanging out in our forums at the moment, as it's this month's Studio Spotlight guest. If you've got any questions for the team, give them a holler.

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Surviving the Aftermath sheds its Epic exclusivity and launches on Steam - PC Gamer

According to a police incident report written up in the early hours of April 1, Stanimirovic was found, still alive, beside the road a few minutes after midnight by two officers responding to reports of gunshots in the area. They found him lying on his left side, wearing dark shorts, a red sweatshirt and croc-type sandals, with a blue towel placed on his neck to stem the blood from a wound to his upper jaw.

He was found conscious but he could not pronounce a single word, said the report.

The police followed the trail of blood to Riveras house, where two officers were shot dead.

A few hours later, in Villavicencio Hospital, Stanimirovic was pronounced dead.

Stanimirovic was widely reported to be a high-ranking member of the Balkan Keka group, wanted on cocaine charges, the reports said, in Spain, Germany and Portugal. Spanish authorities, however, told BIRN they had no record of him. German and Portuguese authorities did not respond to BIRN questions.

In Colombia, he was unknown to authorities, his previous entry into the country triggering no alarm bells at the border.

Family holds out hope Stanimirovic still alive

Lawyer Aleksandar Scekic said the Stanimirovic family in Serbia still has no confirmation of whether he is dead or alive.

Nothing has come officially. They hope hes alive, Scekic, the familys lawyer, told BIRN.

The [Serbian] embassy in Washington is trying to get information from Colombia.

Scekic also said Serbian police and Interpol were involved in the case. He disputed reports that Stanimirovic was involved in crime, saying they were inaccurate and that the family has no idea what he was doing in Colombia.

The police, however, say the circumstances of his death point strongly to criminality and likely involvement in drug trafficking.

According to the Meta police commander, Colonel Berdugo, the investigation uncovered a link between Rivera and the Gulf Clan, arguably one of the most powerful Colombian criminal groups active today. That link has never previously been acknowledged by authorities.

Riveras own association with Stanimirovic, therefore, could corroborate what has long been suspected that ties have been established between Balkan cartels and the Gulf Clan, reflecting the growing presence and power of Balkan drug groups in Colombia.

Certain groups from the Western Balkans have moved up the value chain in the past 20 years, from small-time crooks and couriers to becoming major distributors of drugs in networks that stretch from Latin America to Western Europe and South Africa, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, GITOC, wrote in a report in July.

Balkan criminal groups visiting Colombia tread carefully, GI-TOC wrote, travelling without contraband or suspicious quantities of cash, keeping a low profile and rarely staying no longer than a month. They often travel in multinational groups to avoid suspicion, and where necessary use high-quality false identity documents.

According to Felipe Tascon, an expert on Colombias cocaine economy who has worked with the Colombian state and the European Union on the issue, the lack of concrete evidence of Balkan criminal activity in the country likely only reflects how effective and disciplined Balkan criminals have been at keeping a low profile, as well as the relatively low numbers of Balkan visitors compared to other foreign criminal operatives.

We hear a great deal about an invasion of Mexican traffickers that are active here in Colombia, apparently a far greater number than any European group, and yet during my fieldwork in the likes of Tumaco, I have never met a Mexican or even heard a Mexican speaking, Tascon said.

So it is not unreasonable to believe that other nationalities could be here in much smaller numbers without being detected.

Read the original:
Marcos and Soldado: Colombian Shootout Sheds Light on Balkan Drug Ties - Balkan Insight

That the Inca sacrificed people to appease their gods is well known, but a discovery in Peru sheds new light on a far more common sacrificial practice: the ritual offering of highly prized and ornately decorated llamas.

Four naturally mummified llamas have been uncovered during the excavation of Tambo Viejo, an Incan administrative centre.

Archaeologists say the extraordinarily well-preserved specimens, sacrificed more than 500 years ago, may have been killed not only to please the gods to ensure successful harvests, healthy herds and victory in war but also to win over newly conquered locals.

Historical records indicate animal sacrifices were important to the Inca, who used them as special offerings to supernatural deities, said Dr Lidio Valdez, from the University of Calgary, who uncovered the remains with a team of archaeologists from San Cristbal of Huamanga University. This was especially the case of llamas, regarded second only to humans in sacrificial value.

Spanish conquistadors documented how llamas would be killed by the hundreds as ritual offerings to the gods, but radiocarbon dating found that the offering of the four Tambo Viejo beasts took place after the region was peacefully annexed by the Inca. Further excavation revealed evidence of a big party, including large ovens and other traces of feasts and celebration.

The offerings likely were part of much larger feasts and gatherings, sponsored by the state, said Valdez. The state befriended the local people with food and drink, cementing political alliances, whilst placing offerings allowed the Inca to claim the land as theirs.

Excavation at Tambo Viejo started in 2018 and has found a large plaza, an Inca ushnu (a symbolic or religious structure), and that an important road from the Nazca Valley stopped at the settlement.

When the conquistadors arrived in the Inca empire, they observed that the native people worshipped a variety of deities that were said to govern aspects of life including the sun, rain and rivers.

Although human sacrifice was part of appeasing these deities, llamas were the preferred offering. Bernab Cobo, a colonial-period Spanish chronicler, wrote that brown llamas were sacrificed to the creator god, Viracocha, and white llamas to the sun.

The rituals would happen at key times of the year: in October, 100 llamas would be sacrificed to promote rain, and in February another 100 were sacrificed to stop it.

The Tambo Viejo discovery, published in the journal Antiquity, gives new insight into the rituals. The llamas were decorated with valuable bracelets and string and buried alive alongside decorated guinea pigs. Their graves were marked with tropical feathers, perhaps to further cement the Incas new authority over the land.

The archaeologists wrote in their research: Through these ceremonies, the Inca created new orders, new understandings and meanings that helped to legitimise and justify their actions to both the conquerors and the conquered.

Read the original here:
Sacrificial llamas found buried in Peru shed light on Incan rituals - The Guardian

Golden Brooks stars in A Long Look in the Mirror, a new short film that shines a light on breast cancer.

Sadly, [breast cancer] is a condition that really hits African-American women, says Brooks (Girlfriends, Blunt Talk).

A Long Look in the Mirror is part of BET Hers initiative called The Waiting Room, which promotes Breast Cancer Awareness. Written by Deshawn Plair & Sade Oyinade and directed by veteran actress Vanessa Bell Calloway it takes a look at a broken relationship between Cynthia (Brooks) and her daughter, Tianna (Trinity Hawkins) thats tested after Cynthia receives a cancer diagnosis and struggles to cope with the disease and with Tianna. Victoria Rowell co-stars as Dr. Williams.

Its a scary moment when you hear the diagnosis that you have breast cancer, says Brooks. Whats important when something like that happens is that it becomes part of your story. Early detection is everything. As women, we just have to really be on it so its good to get those Pap smears and mammograms.

Brooks, best-known to viewers for playing Maya Wilkes on Girlfriend for eight seasons, says she felt really female-empowered during shooting, since A Long Look in the Mirror featured a predominantly female production team. I love the fact that BET Her pays attention to the female side of the story, she says. Theres a female producer and director Vanessa Bell Calloway. It felt great to be a part of this machine that was running on all this estrogen.

Theres a scene in the movie where Cynthia removes her wig after undergoing chemotherapy and that, says Brooks, took a real emotional toll on her.

Hair is our crown. Its our call to fame, our morning glory, she says. Its not the be-all and end-all, but I think whats so interesting is that [Cynthia] is very youth-obsessed. She has a very young boyfriend and looks are everything to her and then it all comes full circle.

When all is said and done she has to take her wig off and look in the mirror and see this is really who she is, Brooks says, and thats a hard thing for her to do and she gets angry.

But that moment is real, she says. [Her wig] is just a vanity aspect of us as women, especially as black women, and to take that journey was definitely eye-opening for me. I think it exposes us, and its important for our community to see us as actresses strip down to that role the make-up, lashes, the hair, the outfit, the nails its really shedding light on breast cancer but, at the same time, freeing us to say I can take roles where I can be the person whos not completely put-together.'

And, Brooks says, the movie has made her view life differently, particularly when it comes to her 11-year-old daughter.

I look at [the movie] as a coming-of-age story about a mother and a daughter, she says. It goes into so manydifferent chapters from birth to toddler to preteen to adult and all of that. God forbid that something should happen to me or vice versa.

My daughter and I are so close and mothers are expected to be superheroes, she says. I feel like that with my own mom. It doesnt matter what color, race, culture or gender your mom is she wears the cape.

More here:
Golden Brooks sheds light on breast cancer in 'A Long Look in the Mirror' - New York Post

By Dwight BrownNNPA Film Critic

Fiery rhetoric. Conflicting politics. Angry activists. Heated demonstrations. Violent police clashes. Government subterfuge. Duplicitous judges The anti-war uproar of the late 60s is so relevant today. One particular incident pulls all those volatile elements under one roof, into one courtroom: The historic Trial of the Chicago 7.

Writer/director Aaron Sorkin won a Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Social Network and marked his directing debut with Mollys Game, a film about a woman who ran high-stakes poker games. Both projects were based on true stories, which would lead audiences to believe that fact-based films are Sorkins thing. Theyd be right. Here, he pulls together the bits and pieces, participants and locations, rivalries and relationships of people involved in a trial that defined a movement. With meticulous research, his reflection on the historic Chicago trial seems to be mostly in words, versus action. Similar to his approach to Mollys Game, dialogue supersedes other modes of conveying a story. This very intellectual reinterpretation is fact-filled to the point of being dense. Yet it is emotionally charged enough to be compelling.

In 1968, MLK and RFK have been assassinated. President Johnson is sending more and more troops to fight in Vietnam, an endless war involving 30,000 American casualties and counting. Fathers, sons and brothers die. Vice President Hubert Humphrey will be formally named the Democratic Partys presidential candidate, and anti-war activists mount their protests in the streets and parks in Chicago, Illinois. Mayor Richard Daley employs the National Guard and the CPD on the demonstrators. A bloody battle ensues. Protestors, police and civilians are injured.

In 1969, eight people are charged with conspiring to start a riot defined as a plan among two or more people conspiring to plot across state lines. The case is presented in a courtroom by lead prosecutor Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Inception), at the behest of the U.S Attorney General John Mitchell, who serves under President Richard Nixon. A guilty verdict could land the defendants in jail for decades. Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon) quickly shows he is the boss in his courtroom, even if hes a bit ditzy. The accused feel like they are part of a media circus, and act accordingly:Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) head the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); counter-culture activist Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong, Mollys Game) lead the Yippies (Youth International Party); organizers David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), John Froines (Danny Flaherty) and Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins) represent Mobe (National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam); and Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen) is on trial too, morally supported by fellow Panther Fred Hampton (Kelvin Harrison Jr., Waves) and getting occasional assistance from defense attorney William Kunstler (Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies), who is actually representing other defendants.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Fred Hampton in The Trial of the Chicago 7. (Niko Tavernise/NETFLIX 2020)

Thats a lot of characters, moving parts and subplots for any audience to discern and remember. Yet as the prosecution makes its case and those on trial claim their innocenceeither reverently (Hayden), with rebellion (Seale) or party antics (Rubin and Hoffman)following who is who and why they do what they do is an achievable goal for attentive audiences, though probably not for casual viewers. Under Sorkins guidance, everything plays out accordingly. Flashbacks to the riots and debated events are displayed, breaking up the certain monotony of a pure courtroom drama.

From a historical standpoint, whats on view is pretty flabbergasting. The governments case is more about retribution than defending the country from anarchists. The prosecuting attorney has just enough consciousness to keep the audience guessing about his intentions. Friction between the white activists and lone black defendant boils over into heated discussions about racism and how the petulant schoolboys have parents who can save them, and the Panther does not. He has no sense of entitlement. No safety net. Clashes between the always irreverent Yippies and the more sober SDS are equally contentious. In these striking ways, Sorkins script has just enough of an unpredictable edge to keep that average egghead, history buff, counter-culture devotee or child of the 60s engaged.

Some of the outdoor scenes look like a set, even if they arent. The interiors (production designer; Shane Valentino, Nocturnal Animals) fair better. Exterior and interior shots, from lighting to composition, (director of photography Phedon Papamichael, Ford vs. Ferrari) are fine. The wardrobes for the lead actors make sense (costume designer Susan Lyall, Mollys Game) but the clothes on the demonstrators look like they were bought from TJ Max and never worn before. It takes a full 2h 10min to retell this drama/history/thriller (editor Alan Baumgarten, Mollys Game) and there are not many extraneous moments. Its a pity that the over-hyped musical score does a disservice to the beginning of the film (composer Daniel Pemberton, Mollys Game).

The cast is pretty earnest. You never question their conviction or strategy for their performances. Frank Langella is suitably wicked and crazed. Mark Rylance plays Kunstler as bright, courageous and a bit of a showman. Strongs performance as Rubin greatly outweighs that of Cohens Hoffman; the former is a real actor and the latter is a British actor/comedian who cant go as deep or master a Worcester, MA accent. Similarly, the pivotal role of Tom Hayden was given to British Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne who emotes well but cant mimic Haydens Michigan accent and doesnt resemble him at all. Bobby Seales outrage is well represented by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Ditto Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton who is equally electric.

As a director, Sorkin is better at the inside scenes, less deft at the outside crowd sequences that look fake and arranged. It takes a director with a great feel for action to make demonstrations and riots look real. Hes not there yet, and that may not be his goal. Staging all the actors of this fairly large cast while theyre indoors seems to be more in his wheelhouse. He gives the cast and characters time to shine. Even when their monologues get preachy or sound too perfect. Even when their overly academic discussions feel more like lines from a play than real life.

As you get caught up in the bickering, betrayals and last-minute revelations, its almost easy to forget why the activists put so much on the line and why the government focuses so much attention on them and not the cause of their ire. That all becomes clear in one extremely profound moment when the names of the soldiers who died in Vietnam are read aloud. Its the money shot. Heartbreaking. A supreme injustice is exposed. Its the reason why they crusade and why audiences may care about this film.

Premiers on Netflix on October 16th.

Visit NNPA News Wire Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com and BlackPressUSA.com.

Excerpt from:
Film Review: 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' sheds light on historic moment - Northdallasgazette

For a while, though rarely now as I get older, white women used to tell me I was good-looking for an Asian. I used to believe it myself. Until I moved to Korea when I was 23, visiting for the first time since my adoption at age two, I dated only white women. As an adoptee with white parents, whiteness was the model of desire I knew. For an Asian seemed as desirable as I could get.

During my childhood, my parents insisted that we were the same as any other family which, because they were white, I took as saying I must be as white as them to be their son. If I were white, I would be accepted became because I must be accepted, I must be white.

I wasnt able to see myself clearly. I mean this literally. One day, I stood at the mirror and suddenly realized that I was Asian. I cant remember where this thought came from, but it is a realization that is common for transracial adoptees with white parents. I used to wonder what took me so long to see myself. Now I wonder what I saw before that day. A white boy with white skin? Or did I simply assume that the image in the mirror was white, because it was normal and normal was whiteness?

It wasnt my gaze with which I looked, of course. It was my parents. I saw who they wanted me to see. That is the thing about desire: it comes from the outside. Desire is a story in which you are a character.

When the film The Big Sick, starring Kumail Nanjiani, came out in 2017, it seemed like progress for Asian American representation yet it received mixed reactions from Asian American critics, especially south Asian American women who wrote about the films stereotypes of brown women. The most difficult sequence to watch is a montage that switches back and forth between shots of Kumail the main character courting a white woman, Emily, and shots of him tossing images of brown women into a cigar box one after the other, each deemed unworthy by comparison.

Its a striking sequence, making literal Kumails rejection of brown women in exchange for whiteness. The film heavily links Kumails masculinity to the performance of race and sexuality he picks up Emily after she jokes that he might be good in bed and he writes her name in Urdu. He hides his relationship with Emily from his parents, and when he finally tells them about her, he is the one who connects his love for Emily to his nationality. In the face of their disappointment, he demands to know why they immigrated in the first place if they didnt want him to become American, completing his association of Americanness with whiteness.

As an isolated case, the film would still be problematic, but what really frustrates critics like Tanzila Ahmed and Amil Niazi is how frequently stories about Asian American masculinity rely on sex with a white woman. As early as 1982, scholar Elaine Kim noted this trope in Asian American literature, where the symbol of the white woman indicates an Asian American male character has been accepted into society or not. If the terms of masculinity are white, women of color are excluded.

But so are all people of color.

In fact, Kim found that one other group of writers also symbolized white women as access to American masculinity: straight white male writers writing about Asian male characters.

In other words, the story of how we view Asian American masculinity can be understood as a story about white male insecurity.

Perhaps some history is necessary. The current stereotype of Asian American men as emasculated, weak, and effeminate can be traced back to white insecurities over the male Chinese labor force during and after the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the late 19th century.

Chinese railroad workers were both valued and devalued as men. Railroad work was seen as exclusively male, and Chinese men were expected to work more, in more dangerous situations, and take less pay than white counterparts. In addition, it was cheapest to prohibit wives and children from joining them, which also conveniently limited population growth (the 1875 Page Act legalized this prohibition). By 1880, there were 27 Chinese men for every one Chinese woman, and with the railroad completed, the economic value of Chinese masculinity decreased while white fear of Chinese masculinity increased.

Out of this context, two different stereotypes of Asian American men emerged: emasculation and hypermasculinity (two sides of the same racist, misogynist, homophobic coin).

The current stereotype of Asian American men as 'emasculated', 'weak', and 'effeminate' can be traced back to white insecurities

Leading up to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration completely, much of the propaganda depicted Chinese men as out to rape and pillage. Specifically, to rape white women and pillage white mens jobs. White masculinity depended on the sexual and economic possession of white women. By 1907, white masculinitys fear of its own emasculation produced anti-miscegenation laws that promised to revoke citizenship from any white woman who married an Asian American.

If the hypersexualization of Asian American males was an expression of white male insecurity, their desexualization was an attempt to ease that insecurity.

Despite depictions of Chinese men as desperate for white women, they were also represented as asexual or homosexual (both considered antithetical to white masculinity). Labor and immigration laws further contributed to the emasculation, as Asian Americans were forced to take any work they could get, namely the work white men didnt want, often service jobs like cooking and laundering. (This is where the stereotype of the Chinese American laundromat comes from.) This work was seen as womens work, and further associated Asian American men with sexual and gender deviance. The effect helped both to address white male anxiety and to establish white heterosexual masculinity (and patriarchy) as the norm.

Anxiety haunts desire.

In 2014, Elliot Rodger, half white and half Asian American, killed six people and injured 14 in an act of revenge against white women.

Its an injustice, he explained in a 100,000-word manifesto, that he was still a virgin, a condition he linked to being Asian American. In a particularly self-hating passage, he writes: Full Asian men are disgustingly ugly and white girls would never go for you Youll never be half white and youll never fulfill your dream of marrying a white woman.

In his twisted mind, Rodger managed to turn his self-hatred into the beliefs both that he had a right to white womens bodies because he was white and that he was not attractive to white women because he was Asian. Neither of these inventions, notably, are really about Asian American desire at all. These are problems of the limited male imagination. Rodgers was especially problematic.

In Lacanian psychoanalysis, a persons desire is not self-made but rather is the desire of the other. You experience this phenomenon when you dress as someone else would like you to dress, or when you act in a way you hope will attract the attention of your crush.

That is the thing about desire: it comes from the outside. Desire is a story in which you are a character

This theory of desire seems especially useful in explaining the model minority stereotype that Asian Americans find success by working hard and following the rules and why some Asian Americans perform the stereotype so dutifully. To be the model minority is to fulfill the desire of the other. That is, you perform the stereotype because it is the performance that whiteness wants from you. Just as I saw in the mirror what my parents wanted from me.

What makes the performance so alluring is that you also feel yourself become desirable to yourself. We internalize the others gaze whether the other is our beloved, or society and soon enough the desire seems like our own.

For straight Asian American men, this means wanting to be wanted in the way white heteronormative men are wanted. If an Asian American man can win the love of a white woman, he thinks, then he might have a claim to America in all its whiteness and straightness and maleness after all.

Such is the storyline of Adrian Tomines 2007 graphic novel, Shortcomings, about an Asian American man, Ben Tanaka, so obsessed with sleeping with a white woman that his relationship with an Asian American woman goes to hell.

Ben begins the book as essentially the model minority hes in a relationship with an attractive Asian American woman, he lives comfortably in California, he owns a movie theater and has enough money to drop everything and fly to New York on a whim but he is far from happy. Throughout, he makes snarky jokes at the expense of his own perceived emasculation (such as how small his penis is). He has internalized the white male gaze so completely that he doesnt even need anyone else to put him down; he can do it himself. Like Rodger, he blames his unhappiness on not being able to have sex with a white woman. He doesnt feel masculine enough. He doesnt feel wanted enough.

If an Asian American man can win the love of a white woman, he thinks, then he might have a claim to America in all its whiteness and straightness and maleness after all

Tomine is clear that Ben is no hero, that he is his own biggest problem. The tone is critical. Ben doesnt get any happier even after he fulfills his dream of having sex with a white woman, it doesnt make him any more masculine. The dream, and the masculinity, was never his to begin with. The best he can do, in the wreckage of his life, is to see that it has been a wreck for a while. The book ends ambiguously, with Ben in an airplane, flying home, perhaps ready to see himself for the first time.

Its necessary to link Asian American masculinity to the model minority myth and a hierarchy of racist stereotypes. Deeming Asian Americans the model minority was a divide-and-conquer strategy, to pit Asian Americans against African Americans during the civil rights movement. African American masculinity has long provoked white fear of emasculation. Pitting a desexualized Asian American model minority against the hypermasculine stereotype of Black men marks (yet) another attempt to make Black men responsible for white male fear.

In the white imagination, Asian American masculinity symbolizes what white men fear about being less masculine than Black males. That is, that societal power may come at the cost of sexual power. The model minority Asian American male might become a doctor or lawyer or engineer, but he cant get the girl.

This is the imagination with which Kumail courts Emily in The Big Sick. Though he finds some kind of love in the end, its hard not to see in that love the images of all the brown women that he threw aside (and, eventually, burned).

When I returned to Korea for the first time since my adoption, I met a woman I would love for the rest of her life. I mean, we got married. I also mean, she died young. It was in her desire that I was able to see what for an Asian meant. I had been carrying those three words at the end of every sentence. I had needed them to remind me that someone else was looking. Then I didnt any more.

Widowed now, I desire in the shadow of desire. When I dress up, my kids ask who Im trying to impress. No one will see you, they say. They wear their pyjamas all day, except on our daily walk. I say I will see myself, but they are not convinced.

Once, in a bar, a white woman tried to pick me up with the line, Once you go Asian, you never go Caucasian. A bad rhyme, I thought. That was all she saw. So I ran.

I mean this literally: I opened the door and fled.

Read more from the original source:
'Good-looking for an Asian': how I shed white ideals of masculinity - The Guardian