Donald Trump is officially a terrible person. Well, we've known he was terrible for a good long while now , but his latest move really just takes the whole terrible cake. In case you missed it, Trump just signed an executive order that many are referring to the “Muslim Ban.” The order prevents anyone from Syria, Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia from entering the country. Refugees from these countries, people with visas, people with green cards who have families and careers in the U.S.? If they're abroad for any reason, they can't come back. Also worth noting: though the banning of refugees is temporary, in the future they will be given a “religious test” before entering the country. Christians will receive preference. Oh, and one more thing: Trump is fine with people from predominantly Muslim countries to which he has business ties. It's alarming, it's horrifying, and it obviously discriminatory. See how celebrities are reacting to Trump's order, which is now in effect. 1. Judd Apatow “He doesn’t understand that this will lead to people in America becoming radicalized as a result of his ignorance and cruelty.” 2. Sophia Bush “THESE are the HUMAN BEINGS Trump banned today. REFUGEES fleeing ISIS. Children. Their families. Shame on him. May God help us.” 3. Michael Moore “That the President of the United States would order on Holocaust Memorial Day the banning of a people due to their religion is reprehensible. To our Muslim neighbors in the world: I & tens of millions of others are so very sorry. The majority of Americans did not vote 4 this man.” 4. Jessica Chastain “WW2- USA Turned Away Thousands of Jewish Refugees Fearing That They Were Nazi Spies. TODAY- Trump signs order banning Syrian refugees.” 5. George Takei “The 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia, Egypt & UAE–not the 7 nations in the immigration ban. These all do have Trump properties though.” 6. Andy Richter “What’s happening is repugnant. We’re supposed to be unique, a haven. We’re betraying our heroes.” View Slideshow
These muhfuggas have magazines??? Al Qaeda Releases New Issue Of Terrorist Magazine Via DailyMail Al Qaeda has released the latest edition of its English-language propaganda magazine advising would-be militants on how to torch parked cars and cause traffic accidents. The Islamist movement’s most active branch Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, published the tenth edition of its glossy quarterly called Inspire on militant websites this month. Along with tips on terrorism, it also warns France to pull back from Mali and lists 11 public figures in the West, including author Salman Rushdie, who it says are ‘wanted dead or alive for crimes against Islam’ and carries articles commemorating ‘martyrs’ who have died for its cause. AQAP, based in the impoverished, lawless state of Yemen, has previously plotted to bring down international airliners. It is seen by Western governments as a danger to oil-producing Gulf states and major crude shipment routes. In a section entitled ‘open source jihad’, the magazine gives tips on how to set fire to parked cars, including advice such as ‘don’t get petrol on yourself’, and suggests spilling oil on road bends to cause crashes. And if that wasn’t terroristic enough… In a prominent feature, titled ‘No Parking! Are There Any Safe Parking Lots Out There,’ an author identified as Ibnul Irhab lays out step-by-step procedures for lighting multiple cars in the same, vacant parking lot ablaze, turning it into a massive explosion. ‘The West should taste some burning. They should pay for bombarding and burning our Muslim brothers and sisters’ homes and our Holy (Koran). For burning down forests, plantations and houses, please refer to Issue 9,’ the author writes. ‘All you need is cooking oil, this tip-sheet says, to wreak havoc on a curvy highway. ‘Today we have something new for you, VEHICLES. Vehicle are easy to torch. And the easy part is, vehicles need to be parked somewhere, right? How safe is that somewhere, especially in deserted areas? How much more safe will the West feel parking their vehicles, when they know they’re up for a TORCHING.’ Maybe we should get a subscription so we know what to look out for. Then again, that subscription will probably land you on some government watchdog list. Image via Inspire
Taking to Instagram over the weekend, Kim Kardashian made it a point to show off two of her most important possessions: Nephew Mason. Her rear end. Both have made the family a lot of money over the past couple years, after all. Get a close look at the infamous Kim Kardashian butt in this picture and in the one below: “My little Mason,” the reality star included as a caption to this photo, even though most readers will be focusing instead on her not-so-little back side. Follow our link now for many more Kim Kardashian bikini photos .
A memo allegedly written by the U.S. Justice Department lays out the legal justification for potentially using deadly force against Americans abroad. An NBC News report said the 16-page “kill Americans memo” offers a detailed explanation of when it’s appropriate to use deadly force against Americans. Americans suspected of playing significant roles in al-Qaida terrorist operations may be killed by the U.S. government, according to the leaked memo. The document claims the federal government has the legal authority to target and kill American citizens believed to be responsible for terrorist activity. Even if there is no definitive evidence they are involved in planning a specific attack against the U.S., the memo suggests lethal force may be legitimate. The document reportedly broadens the legal justification supporting a recent surge in pilotless drone strikes, including those targeting Americans. A drone strike killed U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan in Yemen in 2011, sparking debate over how the U.S. decides who can be legally killed and why. In January, a federal judge ruled against The New York Times in its effort to compel the U.S. government to reveal information on how it determines this. What do you think? Should the government be allowed to target American citizens if they’re on foreign soil? Or is this a huge constitutional overreach?
The Sundance Film Festival heads into the week with more world premieres and a peek at many of the films that will grace the Specialty Big Screen this year. Beginning last week , Movieline posted details about this year’s U.S. and World Competition films and filmmakers in their own words. In this round, Richard Rowley ( Dirty Wars ), Dylan Mohan Gray ( Fire in the Blood ), Roger Ross Williams ( God Loves Uganda ), Hannah Fidell ( A Teacher ) and Andrew Bujalski ( Computer Chess ) preview their films. [ Related: WATCH: Get To Know 5 Sundance Film Festival Filmmakers (And Their Films) ] Dirty Wars by director Richard Rowley [U.S. Documentary Competition] Synopsis: It’s the dirty little secret of the War on Terror: all bets are off, and almost anything goes. We have fundamentally changed the rules of the game and the rules of engagement. Prior to 9/11, it was customary for America to sound a formal declaration of war on a given country before attacking. Today drone strikes, night raids, and U.S. government–condoned torture occur in hidden corners across the globe, generating unprecedented civilian casualties. Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill traces the rise of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the most secret and elite fighting force in U.S. history, exposing covert operations carried out by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress. No target is off-limits for the JSOC “kill list,” even if the person is a U.S. citizen. [Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival] Responses by Richard Rowley Dirty Wars quick pitch: Part action film and part detective story, Dirty Wars is a gripping journey into one of the most important and underreported stories of our time. We follow investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, who is pulled into an unexpected journey as he chases down the hidden truth behind America’s expanding covert wars. …and why it’s worth checking out at Sundance and beyond: Dirty Wars takes on the issues everyone’s talking about right now. With Zero Dark Thirty , Argo , drones, Benghazi, and the nomination of John Brennan — America’s covert wars are back in the headlines. Dirty Wars reveals how these wars have been hidden in plain sight all along and offers a behind-the-scenes look at a high-stakes investigation into the operations, and even the same people, fictionalized by Hollywood and discussed on Capitol Hill. Dirty Wars is not “based on actual events” — it is actual events. The focus has been on one raid by Special Forces that killed one man, Osama bin Laden. That same year, there were thousands of raids and we’re ten years into wars not just in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in Somalia, with new fronts in Yemen and elsewhere. That’s the story of Dirty Wars and it couldn’t be more timely and urgent for Sundance and other audiences. How it all came together: The film that will premiere at Sundance looks and feels nothing like the film we set out to shoot. During our three years in production, we hit major roadblocks just trying to confirm basic information about the Joint Special Operations Command, a secret, elite force reporting directly to the White House. Few in government would go on record. Talking heads? That was out of the question. We had to find another way in to the story. So we went far afield and to new sources. As a result, the final film is more compelling, and surprising. When I realized that there were two dramatic arcs — one of America’s expanding covert wars, and another the personal story of the reporter, Jeremy Scahill — I knew I’d have to convince Jeremy to be in front of the camera. It made him uncomfortable. But he was the right choice to guide us through a complex story. By the end, in our editorial meetings, even Jeremy started to refer to himself in the third person. Mogadishu was by far the most dangerous place I’ve ever been, though I’ve reported from war zones for many years. We didn’t want drive-by journalism: in and out in a few days, talking to government officials in hotel lobbies. But getting to the war’s front lines, without drawing too much attention to ourselves, proved complicated. Our Somali country coordinator made it possible. Meanwhile, our producers took out kidnapping, dismemberment, and ransom insurance. Estimating the cost of my arm before we set out – well, that was something new. —
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (also known as Sam Bacile) has been revealed as the creator of the anti-Muslim film that has contributed to violent protests in the Middle East. “Innocence of Muslims”, a low-budget movie filmed this year, has been blamed at least in part for the recent political and social unrest in the already volatile region. Here’s the New York Daily News’ photo of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (a.k.a. Sam Bacile ) on the set of Innocence of Muslims with actress Anna Gurji … Nakoula, who resides in Cerritos, Calif., is believed to have gotten considerable financial backing for the now-infamous movie from strident anti-Islam organizations. The film triggered violence in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestinian territories and Libya, where Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed. Federal investigators questioned – but later released – Nakoula, who is on probation for a check-kiting scheme. The 55-year-old was not arrested by authorities. The Egyptian-born filmmaker has since gone into hiding, according to The AP. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the video as “disgusting and reprehensible” last week but defended the right of American citizens to express their opinions.
The Avengers (titled Avengers Assemble in the UK) exploded at the UK box office with £15.78 million — or roughly $25.6 million — over the weekend, including its Thursday preview screenings, giving the superhero film the winning spot among British releases. And coming in the heels of John Carter (which has yet to even break the £5m mark in Britain), Disney is wasting no time celebrating, calling the result the biggest superhero-movie opening of all time, The Guardian reports . By comparison, The Dark Knight debuted in Great Britain with £11.19m ($18.1m, including previews), while Spider-Man 3 kicked off with £11.83m ($19.1m, sans previews) in May 2007 and Iron Man 2 grabbed just £7.66m ($12.3m, including previews) back in April 2010. Meanwhile, Battleship , which launched April 11 in the UK, has dropped from first to sixth place, taking in the rough equivalent of $811,000 from 436 locations — a 61-percent decline from the previous weekend. Rounding out the British theatrical top five, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen took in £1.08m ($1.75m) from 417 sites, The Hunger Games followed with just over £744K ($1.2m) from 398 locations, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists landed at number four with nearly £664K ($1.07m) at 511 theaters, and The Cabin in the Woods closed the top five with almost £562K ($911K) at 383 locations. [ The Guardian ]
Although it’s set in the present, the characters in Lasse Hallström’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen seem to have been imported from a different time. The good ones behave in a courtly manner and speak in dignified tones and the rascals twinkle and flounce. Often the effect of Simon Beaufoy’s script (adapted from Paul Torday’s 2007 novel) is refreshing, due in no small part to the congenital irresistibility of the actors speaking his lines — Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas. It’s when the adorably priggish Cary Grant type is accused of having Asperger’s by his plucky but labile future love interest and the benevolent Sheik bankrolling the duo’s wacky experiment is nearly assassinated by Yemeni jihadists that things get to feel a little pear-shaped. Things open on a sprightly note: Harriet (Blunt), the attaché to a wealthy Arab Sheik (Amr Waked), taps off an email to Dr. Alfred Jones (McGregor), a fisheries scientist with a government job, about the Sheik’s desire to fill the Yemen River with North Atlantic salmon. Whatever the Sheik wants the Sheik gets, although his reasons are never really clear — or convincing, anyway. Although all the salmon fishing any man could want is available at his English estate, we are supposed to believe the Sheik has a vision of bringing two worlds together. This is all British diplomatic relations guru Patricia Maxwell (Scott Thomas) needs to hear. After a decade of war in the Middle East, the Sheik’s plan looks like a human interest oasis in a PR desert. Fred’s not having it, of course. Fred’s not having much of anything, including his awful wife (Rachel Stirling). Although McGregor is novel as the endearing but highly repressed nerd, his scenes with Stirling — who treats Fred like a pet who has outlived his welcome — are the only ones in which he feels a little miscast. Middle aged and stagnant is not a look McGregor can pull off quite yet; even his most consternated furrow feels a beat away from that wolfy grin. He’s more natural with a fellow ingénue like Blunt, and their scenes together are charming enough to give the story and its sleepy, slightly TV movie-ish pacing that something extra. Fifty million pounds and a weekend seduction at his sprawling estate convince Fred to help the Sheik with his idea, and the rest of the film involves the trio working together to stock a desert river with salmon and see if they’ll swim upstream. Even if you don’t think this seems like a horrible idea in every possible way, it’s tough to get too excited: Hallström is like a human shock absorber, and that smoothness is reflected in every emotionally airbrushed moment, whether Blunt is mourning for her new boyfriend (Tom Mison) — who disappears mysteriously after being deployed to Afghanistan — or those angry terrorists who seem to have escaped from another movie are trying to pop off our handsome Magic Arab. When the recessive style works with the characters and the kooky international-incident story, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has an absorbing, old-fashioned sweetness. The crackle of Scott Thomas’s performance — rarely has someone had more fun saying ahhhh- sss — cuts the breathless tension developing between Fred and Mary, and the exotic settings are just fabulous enough to sweep you away. But when the blend of classic and hyper-contemporary are not working together they are working against each other, making for some pretty jarring tonal lurches. We see Muslim men praying several times throughout the film, and when the script finally pauses to address it, the general wistful tone feels disingenuous: “I don’t know anyone who goes to church anymore,” Fred says in wonderment. “On Sundays we go to Target.” I imagine in the fullness of the novel a line like that has the resonance of context and perhaps even self-satire. In this often perilously simplistic film it just comes off as dopey. It’s too bad Blunt and McGregor have to compete with the flimsy conceit holding the story together. They make a lovely couple, even buried behind a heightened writerly style and the awkward persistence of those cliff-scrambling extremists. Surely there’s a sympathetic Sheik out there with fifty million to drop on a second go around? Follow Michelle Orange on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Lifetime movies are better than movie movies. They’re melodramatic, inbred morsels of filmic stank. And the best ones — as of today — possess a sacred ingredient called “Rob Lowe’s Moustache-y Acting Talents.” As Bolingbrook, IL cop-turned-murder suspect Drew Peterson in the new TV feature Drew Peterson: Untouchable , Lowe tries on his best Da Bears accent and dons a moustache that reminds me fondly of Reno 911 and his Parks and Recreation costar Nick Offerman. You will not be able to handle his sole line of dialogue in the new teaser trailer.
