Good Old Joe

Sometimes, politicians say stupid things.  It's inevitable.  If you talk for hours and days on end, there will be time when you get tongue-tied or speak before you think.  Of course, these verbal blunders can haunt politicians.

 

"I'm not a crook" President Richard Nixon

 

"I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" President Bill Clinton

 

"I'm not a witch" Christine O'Donnell, Republican Tea Party Candidate for Senate in 2010

 

"I want to be clear, I'm not going nuts."  Former VP Joe Biden, Presidential Candidate

 

That one is going to show up in a campaign ad before too long.  Joe may not be going nuts but senile is another matter.  Joe once explained how FDR got on TV in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash.  Then there is his recent proclamation that he chooses "Truth over facts."  Though he has been in the lead since he announced, I suspect Joe isn't going to make it far in the primaries.

Suicide or Murder?

Jeffery Epstein's death has been fodder for conspiracy theories.  No sooner had the man been arrested than there were claims - half in jest - that he would not survive to trial.  He had dirt on too many rich and powerful people.  Less than a month after his arrest, he was found barely conscious on the floor with bruising on his neck.  Failed suicide?  No determination was made though he was put on suicide watch in the wake of that incident.  A couple weeks later, he's dead of suicide and there are a list of procedures that were not followed.

 

He had already failed at a suicide attempt so heightened security is a no brainer.

 

Guards did not check on him every 30 minutes.  There was a 3 hour window where he was not checked.

 

Guards falsified records.

 

Prisoners with a suicide risk are assigned a cellmate but Epstein was alone.

 

Is it any wonder that there are conspiracy theories that he was murdered to keep him quiet, from cutting a deal with prosecutors to reduce his sentence?  If there was ever a prisoner that the Bureau of Prisons should have kept safe, this was the one.  Epic fail.

 

Suicide or murder?  Almost certainly the answer is suicide.  Epstein was a brilliant guy and had plenty of time to plot his death and find the ideal moment.  If the choice is between criminal conspiracy or government incompetence, I'll choose incompetence every time.  Whitey Bulger was killed within hours of being transferred to a US Penitentiary in West Virginia last year.  More government incompetence.

No Warming Trend Continues

In 2005, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration established 114 temperature monitoring stations in isolated locations throughout the contiguous 48 states.  Since they were established, there has been no warming.  The temperatures, at least in the United States, are static.  This is yet another data point to explain the change in terminology from Global Warming to Climate Change.  Climate Change is a much more flexible description, allowing virtually any weather pattern to be alarming and in need of more tax dollars.

 

Coincidentally, the Obamas have purchased a $15 million beachfront mansion on Martha's Vineyard.  Clearly, they are confident that rising sea levels aren't going to drown their new residence.

Duel with the Devil

December 1799, New York City

A few days before news of George Washington's death, Elma Sands went out for the evening and did not return.  The landlord's wife heard Elma leave with a man, presumably Levi Weeks.  Also a tenant at the boarding house, Levi claimed no knowledge of Elma's whereabouts; he had been at his brother's house that night.  In early January, Elma's body was found in Manhattan Well and fingers soon pointed at Levi.  Levi's older brother, Ezra, was a successful builder.  In fact, he was involved in designing and building Gracie Mansion, the home of the mayor.  He was also working on Hamilton Grange for Alexander Hamilton and had ties with Aaron Burr.  Both men were indebted to him and he called on both to defend his brother.  The political rivals joined forces to clear Levi's name.  The author, Paul Collins, proposes that Richard Croucher, another boarder who had testified against Weeks, was the true culprit.  Hamilton himself suggested that in the trial.  The book continues after the trial, thus including the biographies of many of the characters.  Of course, Hamilton and Burr have the duel.  Despite being acquitted, Levi was unable to remain in New York and relocated to Natchez, Mississippi.  The judge of the trial was later elected mayor.  Henry Brockholst Livingston, the third member of the defense dream team, went on to be a Supreme Court Justice.

 

A true story, the book reads more like a history book than a novel.  The events are described but the characters are flat.  This is more a narration of specific events than a novelization of true events.  Nonetheless, it is engaging and provides a broad look at the city of New York at the time and a sense of the era.

 

Thumbs up.

Split Second (1992)

The year is 2008, Global Warming has left much of London flooded, rats are everywhere, and Detective Harley Stone (Rutger Hauer) is on the trail of a killer.  He arrives only moments before the murderer strikes but fails to catch him.  Playing to the cliché of such faire, Captain Thrasher (Alun Armstrong) blasts him with a profane harangue before returning his gun and badge and sending him to the streets.  However, he must now work with Detective Dick Durkin (Neil Duncan).

"I work alone."

Ha!  Talk about clichés!  What kind of name is Dick Durkin?  Sounds like he belongs in a porn film.  Dick proves to be the over-educated know-it-all who is nonetheless shown up by the grizzled veteran.  Who cut and pasted this script?  It turns out that - no surprise at all - the murderer had killed Foster McClaine, Stone's previous partner.  Michelle McLaine (Kim Cattrall) was having an affair with Stone at the time of Foster's death.  Awkward.

The murderer proves to be either a demon from hell or a genetic oddity, the story never decides.  It looks kind of like Venom.  It has a fondness for human hearts and painting crime scenes with buckets of blood.  For some reason, it opts not to kill the primary characters despite having multiple opportunities to do so.  It is bulletproof except at the very end when it isn't.

Rutger Hauer has no character arc.  He's a tough guy with a psychic connection to a monster, a cookie-cutter loose cannon.  Neil Duncan goes from a by-the-book straight-laced cop to a pale imitation of Harley Stone.  Sadly, Duncan doesn't sell the transformation and it just comes across as goofy.  Other than going topless during a shower scene, Kim Cattrall brings nothing to this bland and undeveloped role.  She is a mostly overlooked love interest and run of the mill damsel in distress.  There wasn't much chemistry between her and Rutger.  Pete Postlethwaite is wasted in a tiny role as a cop who dislikes Stone, and for good reason.

It is funny to see a film made in 1992 that proposes Global Warming was going to flood the world in the distant future of 2008.  Didn't happen.  Blade Runner (1982) took place in the even more distant year of 2019 when pollution was going to leave LA in darkness.  Didn't happen.  Now Climate Change is going to destroy the world in 12 years.  I was promised a dystopia by now!

An extremely mediocre film with a plot that never congeals.  The ending even offers the possibility of a sequel.  Ha!  I watched this on account of Rutger Hauer's death; not the best choice of films.  Skip this one.

RIP Rutger Hauer

The Boys

Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) is an ordinary guy who works at an electronics store.  He's walking down the street with his girlfriend when she is vaporized when A-Train (this setting's version of The Flash) accidently runs into her.  A-Train is a member of the Seven (think Justice League), which is owned by Vought International.  Vought offer to pay Hughie for Robin's death as long as he signs a non-disclosure agreement.  He declines.  Enter Billy Butcher (Karl Urban).  Billy seeks to recruit Hughie in his vigilante efforts against Supers.  Vought is just a marketing and PR firm that makes the Supers look like heroes when they are, in truth, more like villains.  Hughie agrees and goes way down this rabbit hole.

Meanwhile, Annie January (Erin Moriarty) is a small time superhero named Starlight who works in Iowa.  When a slot opens in the Seven, she applies.  To her amazement, she is accepted!  She has hardly entered the citadel of the Seven when her naivety is pounded into the dirt when another superhero has his way with her.  But things get worse as her heroics become scripted and she is excoriated for rescuing a woman from rape while out of costume.  Most of the Seven have lost their idealism, if they ever had it.

 

Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue) is a VP for Vought and in charge of the Seven.  She treats the heroes as products that require branding and marketing.  She has a strange relationship with Homelander (Antony Starr), leader of the Seven.  He is clearly obsessed with her and jealous of her newborn.  Homelander is an ultra-dark version of Superman, having no qualms about killing criminals or even non-criminals who present a threat to his interests.  However, he can be charming, which makes him all the more creepy.

 

Great series and highly recommended.  However, it is extremely violent, painting rooms with blood on more than one occasion.

Good Omens

Crowley (David Tennant) the Demon is given the job of delivering the Antichrist to the hospital, allowing the nurses to swap him out for a newborn.  Though he does his part, he is not keen on the Antichrist's arrival.  He rather likes the world and - despite being a demon - he'd rather have the status quo.  Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) the Angel has been Crowley's rival since the Garden of Eden.  Despite the wishes of Archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) to have a final battle between Heaven and Hell, Aziraphale sides with Crowley in trying to prevent Armageddon.  Together, they try to influence the Antichrist as he grows to adolescence.  It is only a few days before Armageddon and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have assembled when they discover they have the wrong boy.  Yes, the nurse switched the wrong baby.  The series is quirky with tongue firmly in cheek.  Ironically, Aziraphale says "I'll be damned" while Crowley says "For Heaven's Sake."  There is a lot of that.  The end of days are surprisingly comedic.

 

Thumbs up!  It is available on Amazon.