Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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JULY 19-25, 2017 UCW 7 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM one year special $ 15 for UP & CoMING WEEKLY rEadErs oNLY you save 89% off Tv GuIDe MaGaZINe Get A GreAt DeAL from tV GuiDe mAGAzine start Your subscription online, By Mail or Call online: tvguidemagazine.com/newsoffer mail: complete order form below call: 1-800-365-1940 WHeN CaLLING use PRoMo: K6fNsWPZZ Every issue delivers inside scoop on your favorite shows Breaking news keeps you in the know Highlights help guide you to what's worth watching Your favorite stars take you behind the scenes 28 Pages of easy-to-use primetime listings GrEaT rEasoNs To sTarT YoUr sUBsCrIPTIoN Recent events involving our fearless leader Presi- dent Trump and his merry band of Russophiles spurred me to think about "From Russia With Love," my favorite James Bond movie. is was the second in the James Bond series and starred the greatest Bond ever, Sean Connery. e plot in "From Russia" is actually more believable than the widely varying explanations coming out of the White House regard- ing its relationship with Russia in 2017. We recently learned of the fascinating versions of alternative facts as told by Donald Trump Jr. about his once-forgotten meeting with the lovely Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Jared Kushner the im- perial son-in-law, and Paul Manafort the campaign chairman. According to one version of the story that Don Jr. was peddling, the purpose of the meeting was to get some secret dirt from the Russians on Hillary's campaign. He didn't know who he was going to be meeting with, but he thought it was important enough to get Jared and Manafort involved. ey apparently didn't ask who or what the meeting was about either. According to Don Jr., Natalia's story about Hillary dirt did not hold up, evolving into a touching story about the adoption of Russian orphans. If you believe Don Jr.'s story, I have a martian slave colony under a pizza parlor on the angry red planet I would be willing to sell you at a discount. Let us wallow for a moment in 1963 nostalgia, which is when "From Russia" graced the silver screen. e photograph of the lovely Russian lawyer, Natalia, reminded me of Tatiana Romanova, the dazzling Russian spy who set a honey trap for James Bond by sleeping with him. Unknown to Tatiana and James, a rogue criminal outfit called SPECTRE secretly filmed Tatiana and James making whoopee for the purpose of blackmail. As you may recall, there is a dossier story float- ing around from the Russian spyworks that makes reference to a video made of e Donald and some high-class Russki hookers. Yet another case of life imitating art. Perhaps there really is nothing new under the Moscow moon. A great character in "From Russia" is Colonel Rosa Klebb, who defected from the Commies to join SPECTRE. Rosa is one tough cookie. She wears sensible work shoes that have switch blades dabbed in poison, the better to kill you with. She takes no guff from anyone. As the saying goes, Ms. Klebb would rather climb a tree and tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth. She reminds me of Kel- lyanne Conway. e McGuffin in "From Russia" is the Russians' top-secret Lektor decoder machine. SPECTRE wants James Bond to steal it, and then SPECTRE will kill James to take the machine. In Trumplandia, the McGuffin was secret information from the non-col- luding Russians on Hillary's campaign that suppos- edly revealed that she and the Democratic National Committee were taking money from the Commies. SPECTRE's ace-killing machine, who was to as- sassinate Bond once James purloined the Lektor decoder, was a giant, blond, lean and mean kill- ing machine named Red Grant. Grant cannot be stopped. No rules apply to him. He off 's Russians, Brits and Turkish gypsies without any human emo- tion. He reminds me of a clean-shaven version of Steve Bannon. I suspect Bannon eats live puppies for breakfast. My favorite presidential tweet o' the week was the one e Donald sent out right after the G20: "Putin and I discussed forming an impenetrable cyber se- curity unit so that election hacking and many other negative things will be guarded." is was the equiv- alent of King Kong tweeting: "Chiquita Banana and I discussed forming an impenetrable banana security unit so that bananas will be guarded." Trump left his tweet dangling in cyberspace just long enough for his hapless Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin to come out and announce that Trump's proposed "U.S./Russia cyber security partnership was a very significant accomplishment." en Trump hacked off Steve Mnuchin's feet by tweeting that "e fact that President Putin and I discussed a cyber security unit doesn't mean I think it can happen. It can't." e Donald giveth, the Donald taketh away. As Doonesbury once accused George H.W. Bush, apparently Trump's advisors have put their man- hood in a blind trust. What does Trump really be- lieve? e answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. e answer is blowing in the wind. Turns out you do need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. From Russia with Love by PITT DICKEY OPINION PITT DICKEY, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. (910) 484-6200. Perhaps there really is nothing new under the Moscow moon.