Final Update: Here is a transcript of Chris Rock's opening monologue.

The Oscars are about to begin. Who looked great on the Red Carpet? Lady Gaga and Charlize Theron are getting lots of press. I agree, they both looked terrific.

Will Leonard DiCaprio take home Best Actor?

I haven't seen most of the films, but that won't stop me from commenting on the show.

This is a thread for all things Oscar and movie related. Updates below: [More...]

Hillary Clinton won South Carolina in a landslide. She did especially well among African Americans.

About 6 in 10 voters in South Carolina's Democratic primary were black, by far the largest proportion of African-Americans in any of the contests so far. And nearly 9 in 10 black voters supported Clinton.

As one African-American voter told the L.A. Times, "It's Hillary's turn now."[More...]

Last week it was former Mexican President Vicente Fox who said he wasn't to pay for Trump's F*cking Border Wall." Today it was former Mexican President Felipe Calderon complaining about Trump and his "white supremacism."

Trump’s political rhetoric was “racist” and evocative of the Nazi dictator.

“This logic of praising the white supremacy is not just anti-immigration,” Calderon said. “He is acting and speaking out against immigrants that have a different skin color than he does, it is frankly racist and [he is] exploiting feelings like Hitler did in his time,” Calderon said.

[More...]

It's not easy to find a list of the Oscar nominees in text format -- who wants to watch a video to see the list of nominees, or view a list in photospread format? Not me. I want text. I know how to read. Whoever designed this year's Oscars site should be fired. It's horrible. Here's a list of the nominees in the major categories.

• The Big Short
• Bridge of Spies
• Brooklyn
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Room
• Spotlight

• Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
• Matt Damon, The Martian
• Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
• Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
• Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

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Shepherds and Butchers premiered this month at the Berlin Film Festival. It's about the death penalty in South Africa, and the country's notorious Pretoria Prison, which houses its Death Row. The film is adapted from the book by a former South African defense lawyer, Chris Marnewick, who moved to New Zealand. Marnewick says the film's message isn't the same as the one he wanted to portray. He may not want to see it. The book earned several awards. You can get it here or read the first chapter here. [More...]

Should be a big day for Hilary Clinton in South Carolina today and may be followed by a big Super Tuesday 3 days later.

The results may define the contours of the contest from that point, or perhaps the March 15 contests (when Florida and Ohio vote) will do that.

What I mean by that is these contests MAY relegate Sanders to a "message" candidate, which is not unimportant by the way. But it does lower the tolerance for negative attacks. Remember how Hillary Clinton should have dropped in February of 2008? When she was nearly tied? I would think Sanders wouldn't be asked to drop out, just drop the attacks.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of the voters which is always a mistake. Let the voters vote! Starting in South Carolina today.

From the AP, here's what happened today with the presidential hopefuls of both parties.

Bernie Sanders has never run for national office as a Democrat. Donald Trump has never run for office, let alone as a Republican. Jack Shafer at Politico calls them the "Political Parasites of 2016."

Trump isn’t the only political parasite on the hustings this season. Bernie Sanders, who never ran as a Democrat before this election, has likewise attempted to colonize the gastrointestinal tract of a major party in hopes that it will eventually deposit him at the White House. True to his parasitical nature, Sanders loves the idea of the party but has little interest in actually supporting it. He has raised only $1,000 for the Democratic Party’s fundraising alliance, while Hillary Clinton, who is many things but assuredly not a parasite, has raised $26.9 million.

I don't really get why Chris Christie's endorsement is important. Reuters has this article on Christie's benefit to Trump. I wonder what position Trump has promised him if he wins the election.

In other news, the Guardian has a very interesting article on how both the media and terrorists have adapted and made use of new technologies to capture viewer attention.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Trump vs Cruz vs Rubio at the debate in Houston tonight on CNN.

If sparks fly, can we expect John Kasich to hug it out and fix things for everyone? [More...]

We have a thread up for the Republican debate. Our last open thread is full, so here's a new one, for non-debate topics (politics is ok, just not the debate.)

So how much clout do Martin Scorcese and Mick Jagger have? Not only is Vinyl on HBO in the U.S., but check this out, from Mick Jagger's website:

The second episode of Vinyl airs tonight on HBO in the USA and Canada.Go here for listings in Latin America

The show airs in the UK and Ireland on Sky Atlantic on Mondays at 9pm.

Vinyl is also available on HBO Asia, HBO Nordic, HBO Czech Republic and Sky Italia.

Viewers in North America can stream the first episode for free here.

Explore the Vinyl website here.

Is there any other show that airs simultaneously in so many countries? I wonder which country has the highest ratings.

I didn't care for the first episode, it was too depressing and I'm into happy these days. Maybe I'll it give another chance. Has anyone watched both episodes? What do you think?

Again, this is an open thread, all topics welcome except tonight's debate, which you can comment on here.

Too funny. Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico, responds to Donald Trump's plan for a border wall saying "I'm not paying for that f*king wall. He should pay for it, he's got the money."

Fox says Trump is not a Republican, he's a crazy man, he's just himself and egocentric. He wanted to know who the Hispanics are are who are supporting Trump because they are "following a false prophet." But he's not concerned Trump will win.

Trump responded on Twitter:

FMR PRES of Mexico, Vicente Fox horribly used the F word when discussing the wall. He must apologize! If I did that there would be a uproar!

Don't hold your breath, Donald.

Donald Trump is catching a lot of flack for his Nevada victory speech in which he proudly counted the "poorly educated" as being among his supporters.

"We won the poorly educated. I love the poorly educated."

Jimmy Kimmel made a campaign ad about it. James Corden also mocked him on the Late Late Show.

I can't believe "poorly educated" got applause. There were people in the crowd going, "That's me, Hell yeah. I haven't learned a damn thing my whole life. I love you Donald Trump."

[More...]

Apple filed a motion today saying the Department of Justice has no right to make it hack into iPhones.

Apple argues that not only does it not even know exactly how to create the software in question, the larger issue is the bad precedent of allowing the FBI to compel it, or any other tech company, to write code against its will.

“If Apple can be forced to write code in this case to bypass security features and create new accessibility, what is to stop the government from demanding that Apple write code to turn on the microphone in aid of government surveillance, activate the video camera, surreptitiously record conversations, or turn on location services to track the phone’s user?” asks the brief. “Nothing.”

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