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He did it!  He actually pulled it off!

Unforgiven (1992)

In Big Whiskey, Wyoming, a cowboy had badly scarred a prostitute.  Where the prostitutes wanted the sheriff, Little Bill Dagget (Gene Hackman), to hang the two cowboys, he opted to have them pay restitution.  To the brothel owner, not the mutilated woman.  Infuriated, the women pooled their money to hire gunmen to kill the cowboys.

William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a poor Kansas farmer with two kids.  His wife died nearly three years ago.  It is a hard life.  While trying to separate diseased pigs from healthy ones, a rider appears.  The Schofield Kid is off to collect a bounty in Wyoming.  He doesn't want to go alone.  Will was a terror in his younger days, a violent drunkard who killed without compunction.  "I'm not that man anymore," he explains, declining the offer.  However, he soon reconsiders and rides off to enlist his old buddy, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman).  The pair find the Schofield Kid on the way to Wyoming.

English Bob (Richard Harris) is known as the Duke of Death, at least that is the title of the dime novel on his adventures in the West.  He arrives in Big Whiskey to collect the bounty but soon discovers an old acquaintance: Little Bill.  It is far from a happy reunion.

There are no heroes.  The Old West is a brutal place where self-interest outweighs all.  The tales told by Little Bill, Ned Logan, and William Munny paint a picture of violence and murder.  These are not good men, though they may be men of their time and place.

Recommended.

The Tick (season 2)

After his televised heroics, Arthur found his old accounting job didn't want a superhero as an employee.  For the time being, he would need to rely on savings.  While depositing his severance check, bank robbers struck!  One of the bank robbers proved to be Lobstercules.  While Tick engaged the giant crustacean in battle, Arthur managed to pull a shoe from one of the goons.  Sadly, all of them escaped.  Could they locate Lobstercules lair in the sewers by a forensic examination of the shoe?  Thanks to the fall of the Terror and his gang, AEGIS, a SHIELD-like agency, has reopened its office in the city.  In fact, AEGIS has proposed establishing a new Flag Five.  Tick and Arthur eagerly apply.  However, Overkill is a fugitive from AEGIS.  He had been a former agent until a mission went badly and he received the blame.  Can he find the real party responsible for the catastrophe and clear his name?  Dot, Arthur's sister, has been having visions.  In fact, she has precognition!  She can predict the near-future, which allows her to dodge bullets!  The bizarre incident at the Terror's capture when Arthur's garrulous stepfather managed to defeat half a dozen goons while blindfolded is explained.  Not all of the Terror's organization has been defeated.  The lightning-tossing villain, Miss Lint, has decided to switch sides.  Now Joan of Arc, she has taken to blasting all the criminals who are moving in on her turf.

It is an entertaining show but lacks focus.  There are too many stories to tell and no binding villain like the Terror to hold it together.  There are big hints at what a third season would hold but the series was not renewed.

Good popcorn fun!

The Tariff Negotiator

And the tariffs are on pause.  Why?  Because both Mexico and Canada have agreed to Trump's demands on border security.  Access to the US economy is like one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets and Trump leveraged that golden ticket to get our neighbors on board with his new border policies.  Though there was a blip of resistance with claims of counter tariffs, that was nothing more than face-saving bluster.  As pointed out in an earlier blog, the US accounts for a huge portion of Canada and Mexico's economies whereas they are just a sliver of ours.  They were kittens meowing at a lion.

To guarantee follow through on these promises, Trump has only paused the tariffs.  Let's not have those agreements where we live up to our end while the other side doesn't.

It is funny that so much was made of Trump's tariff threat after he had used it so successfully against Colombia.  Will there be as much shock and dismay when next he rolls out his tariff tactic?  Probably.

The Tick (season 1)

When he was a boy, Arthur Everest (Griffin Newman) was out with his father when suddenly the Flag Five's ship plummeted from the sky.  His father was killed.  The blinded members of the Flag Five stumbled from the wreckage only to be killed by the goons of The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley).  In one fell swoop, Arthur had lost his father, the superhero team of his hometown, and stared into the face of the Terror.  Unsurprisingly, he is not a well-adjusted adult.  Though the Terror was reportedly killed by Superion (Brendan Hines) - a Superman-like hero, Arthur doesn't believe it.  He has spent the 10 years since the Terror's supposed death looking for signs that he is still alive.  One night, he sneaked onto the grounds of a warehouse and witnessed something going down.  Moreover, he met the Tick (Peter Serafinowicz).  Though the Tick has immense strength and is nigh invulnerable, he's not very bright.  The Tick eagerly attached himself to Arthur.  Together, they will ferret out the Terror and foil his dastardly plan, whatever that might be.

To complicate matters, Arthur has a well-meaning older sister, Dot (Valorie Curry), who urges him to both abandon his quest for the long-dead Terror and avoid the obviously disturbed Tick.  There is also Overkill (Scott Speiser), a Punisher-like vigilante who is out for revenge.  He does not reveal his reasons for wanting to kill the Terror.  Overkill has a self-aware boat, Dangerboat (Alan Tudyk) that serves as his lair and sidekick.  One of the Terror's former lieutenants, Ms. Lint (Yara Martinez), can fire bolts of lightning.  However, she is rather staticky as a result and attracts a lot of lint, thus her name.

The Tick has been different in each incarnation, from comicbook (1980s) to the cartoon (1994 to 1997) to first live-action series (2001-2002) to this.  Where the 2001-2002 series was a straight episodic sitcom, this one is a miniseries with an overarching story.  There is plenty of comedy, but far less silliness.  Also, Arthur is the main character and Tick is the sidekick.  Despite the change in tone and humor from each iteration, Ben Edlund - creator of the Tick - has been involved in all of them.

Lots of fun and highly recommended.

On Threat of Tariff

President Trump warned that he would levy tariffs, and he has done just that.  Colombia refused to accept repatriated Colombians.  Have a tariff.  Canada and Mexico aren't securing their borders with the US.  Tariff.  China is still enabling the Fentanyl trade.  Tariff.

Though Trump has claimed that these countries would be paying into the US treasury with these tariffs, that is looking at the tariff backwards.  If Canada was selling widgets in the US for $10, but now they are $12.50 thanks to the tariff, who is paying the extra $2.50?  Well, the customer.  That would be the American who chose to buy the Canadian widget despite the price increase.  So, does this just make the tariff self-defeating?  No.  Widget buyers in American will now be more likely to buy American widgets or maybe Italian or German widgets, which are now cheaper than the Canadian widget.  Overall, the number of widgets - and other products - that Canada sells in the US will drop.  The higher the tariff goes, the greater the fall in sales of Canadian goods.

Let's look at the big picture.  Canada exports approximately $500 billion in goods to the USA, while the US sends about $450 billion to Canada.  Now, that $500 billion accounts for almost one quarter of the Canadian economy.  By contrast, the $450 billion is only 2% of the US economy.  Who has leverage here?  A trade war between the US and Canada will be devastating for one and barely an inconvenience to the other.

How about Mexico?  Mexico exports $493 billion to the US while importing only $362 billion from the US.  That means 35% of the Mexican economy counts on US trade while less than 2% of the US economy depends on exports to Mexico.  Which party should be more eager to prevent an interruption in the status quo?

Many countries have based their economies on selling to the US, because the US is the biggest economy.  Being on the receiving end of a trade war with the US will be a heavy blow to their economies.  The tariff is not meant to be implemented long term.  It is a negotiation tool that encourages our trade partners to implement our preferred policies.

Secret Level

Amazon has a new original series called Secret Level.  It is an anthology of 15 stories - each about 10 to 15 minutes long - that are based on various video games.  The tone varies widely from one to another.  Some are quite dark while others are light and funny.  Arnold Schwarzeneggar has a role as a conquering king who repeatedly resurrects each time he dies.  His repeated efforts and failures are quite funny.  "And yet Aelstrom lives," he proudly states each time he finds himself alive again, always posing to display his muscular physique.  Such a great role for Arnie.  In another, Keanu Reeves is a mercenary pilot of a battlemech on a mission against a mysterious band who are almost as skilled as him, maybe even more skilled.  There is a Dungeons and Dragons story, a martial arts adventure, a modern day shoot 'em up between competing mercenary teams, a chase through space at lightspeed where the pursed and the pursuer age at different rates, a game of Go in a fantastical AI city, Warhammer 40,000, and even a bizarre take on Pac-Man.  Much of the animation was done with screen capture.  It gives the characters more vitality than typical CGI animation.  I hope some of these stories get another chapter next season.

Great popcorn fun and highly recommended.