CQ (2001)

Paul (Jeremy Davies) is a young American filmmaker in Paris in 1969.  He is the editor of a sci-fi movie called Dragonfly and is also doing a self-documentary in the apartment he shares with his girlfriend, Marlene (Elodie Bouchez).  The film's producer (Giancarlo Giannini) hates the end of the film and fires the director (Gerard Depardieu).  Eventually, Paul finds himself as the new director and tries to satisfy himself, the original director, and the producer.  To complicate matters, he is infatuated with the lead actress, Valentine (Angela Lindvall).

The movie has potential but it hinges on Paul, who is incredibly boring.  He is a self-obsessed fool who wanders through endless opportunities and fails to seize any thanks to his passivity.  No, everything must be explicitly handed to him, and mostly it is.  The only time he really acts was when he chased after a stolen can of film.  He's a lump.  It is baffling that Marlene ever dated him.  Davies has this uncomfortable vibe to him that shows in several roles: Corporal Upham in Saving Private Ryan and Snow in Solaris.  He talks only just above a whisper, like he's afraid to speak his mind.  He makes Michael Cera seem like a confident action hero.

Of note, this was Roman Coppola's first, and so far only, film.  He is son of Francis Ford Coppola and brother of Sofia Coppola, two very successful directors.  Roman wrote CQ, which is about a filmmaker's first film; could it be that Paul is Roman?  A director making a film about a director's first film while filming a film of his life?  Gads, that sounds like something Charlie Kaufman would write.

Hard to watch.  Skip this one.

Utopia

A young woman and her husband arrive at the house of her recently deceased grandfather.  It is immediately clear that grandpa was a hoarder.  However, among the junk are pages of a comic book called Utopia, which claims to be the sequel to Dystopia.  Though the wife suggests tossing it in the trash, the husband thinks it might be worth something.  Indeed, he gets some immediate feedback online.  Well, I guess this is something for ebay.  No?  Never heard of ebay?  You're going to rent a room at a hotel during a comicbook convention and have non-secret bids from a random set of convention attendees?  Okay.

On the other side of this are the fans, specifically a group of 5 fans who believe that Dystopia is not exactly fictional.  Yes, they are conspiracy theorists who believe Mr. Rabbit - the comic's villain - is an evil genius who plans to wipe out humanity with an engineered virus and that he is responsible for a variety of viral outbreaks around the world which are cleverly exposed in the pages of Dystopia.  With Utopia, they will be able to find out who Mr. Rabbit is and save the world!  Okay.

The hero of Utopia is Jessica Hyde, the daughter of a brilliant scientist who has been kidnapped by Mr. Rabbit.  Her goal is to rescue her father while avoiding the agents of Mr. Rabbit.  At the end of episode 1, she shows up.  So, there is indeed truth to the comic.  Oddly enough, when the conspiracy theorists meet her, they are skeptical.  Okay.

Though this is just an American version of a British show, it had the misfortune to premier during Covid-19 and some of the storyline is pretty creepy with that backdrop.  We have a villain who has intentionally spread a disease for which he has a 'vaccine.'  He wants everyone to take the vaccine.  Whenever his plot is on the ropes, he engineers some fake news.  Yes, he has an entire cadre of people who create false identities and histories for his agents, make certain stories trend on social media, and otherwise manipulate the populace.  At any other time, this might just be escapist but there is maybe a smidge too much verisimilitude here.

The 8th and final episode ends with cliffhangers for all the major characters, signaling a second season.  Not only are they cliffhangers, half of them are accompanied by a major plot twist.  With the ham-fisted way that the finale dealt with the vaccine, I don't have high hopes for the explanations for these twists.

Overall, it's not worth the effort.  I wouldn't have watched the whole thing except to write this review.  John Cusack and Rainn Wilson are the most noteworthy stars.  The background of the 'comic' that starts the ball rolling undermines the idea of a comic.  Who published Dystopia if it is just a bunch of art from a man stuck in an asylum?  When Utopia shows on the scene, it's as if everything is a mystery but there are all these fanboys who cosplay as the various characters.

Skip this one.

Pirates (1986)

The notorious pirate, Captain Thomas Bartholomew Red (Walter Matthau), and his sole remaining crewman, Frog (Cris Campion), are floating at sea on a rickety raft and starving.  The starvation is such that Red attempts to eat Frog.  Lucky for Frog, a Spanish galleon appears on the horizon.  They are soon aboard the ship and, despite Don Alfonso's wish to toss them overboard, are impressed as new crew.  Aware that the galleon has a golden throne in the hold, Red launches a mutiny to take the ship.  Those officers who survived - Don Alfonso (Damien Thomas) among them - are tossed into the brig.  The tables turn again and again.  Red is blind to everything but the golden Aztec throne, willing to toss away the lives of however many pirates as it takes to secure it.  Frog, his name is actually Jean-Baptiste but 'Frog' is a standard epithet for Frenchmen, is the naive and morale fellow who has fallen for Maria-Dolores (Charlotte Lewis).  He is torn between his duty to Captain Red and his desire for her.  Don Alfonso wants to marry Maria, hang the pirates, and take the gold to Spain.  How will it all end?

Walter Matthau would not have been my first choice to play a pirate but he is magnificent here.  He does a terrific job of being a cutthroat, greedy pirate but also comical and occasionally charming.  Despite his greed nearly costing him his life on several occasions, he never mends his ways.  This is often quite funny.

Damien Thomas was not the best choice for the villain.  He is too unlikable.  Sure, that's usually the point of the villain but he is technically the good guy.  There had originally been plans to cast Timothy Dalton, which would have been better.  Even when Thomas is trying to be charming, he comes across as an unsavory boor.

Though there is a lot to like about the movie, the story is unengaging.  Command of the ship just jumps between Don Alfonso and Captain Red.  Back and forth.  Worse, the ship gets repeatedly captured because Red is a really cunning pirate but Don Alfonso retakes it because Red is a greedy drunk.  Sure, it's funny once but it is less so with each iteration.  There is also a lot of unrelated fluff.  What's with the dying captain wishing he had been an Aztec?  Why include the attack of a comically fake snake on the minor character of Boomako?

Fun in parts.  Must see for Matthau fans.

Congress Loves to Send Money Elsewhere

 

This is an old tweet but it is timely.  And probably true.  Sigh.

Bulldog Drummond

Richard "Bulldog" Drummond was a popular character who first appeared after World War I.  A former captain in the trenches, he missed the action and excitement so he became a gentleman adventurer.  Not exactly a spy or a private eye but certainly someone who could resolve problems.  He appeared in nearly 20 novels and more than 20 films.  His last notable appearance was in a couple of films in the late 60s staring Richard Johnson, a British actor who declined the offer of James Bond in Dr. No.

Deadlier than the Male (1967): Richard Drummond, veteran of the Korean War, has been called upon to investigate some peculiar deaths that have been very beneficial to a mysterious and nameless figure.  This mysterious person's representative is Irma Eckman (Elke Sommer).  Irma is an assassin who uses her sex appeal to seduce men and kill them.  She often teams with fellow assassin Penelope (Sylva Koscina).  To complicate Drummond's investigation, his nephew has arrived in London and needs a place to crash.  The nameless figure proves to be Carl Peterson (Nigel Green), an evil mastermind with a castle for a lair that is filled with beautiful and deadly women from all over the world.  Drummond must outwit him to save a Middle Eastern monarch, his nephew, and himself!  It is a standard James Bond knock-off with beautiful femme fatales, a menacing villain with a lair full of minions, and plenty of action.  It drifts a bit to the campy side in some scenes but is generally fun.

Some Girls Do (1969): Carl Peterson (James Villiers) has returned and this time he is trying to sabotage the development of a supersonic plane.  As before, he has a bevy of gorgeous women who do his dirty work, the most notable being Helga (Daliah Lavi).  Most of them have been 'robotized,' which is not well-defined.  Peterson's final gambit is to destroy the prototype while in flight by use of infrasound technology.  Drummond is called upon after early sabotage efforts have plagued the project and follows leads that take him to Peterson's latest lair with the "help" of Flicky (Sydne Rome) and Peregrine Carruthers (Ronnie Stevens).  Flicky is a gorgeous ditz who follows - unasked - Drummond from place to place with unlikely stories to explain her presence.  Carruthers is a comic relief sidekick who tends to be more hindrance than help.  This is practically a remake of its predecessor but campier.  Villiers lacks the magnetism of Nigel Green though he does exhibit the master-of-disguise talent that Green didn't.  Nonetheless, I preferred Green in the role.

The movies are entertaining but it's clear why the series did not continue.  It's very sixties.  Drummond is kind of a bland adventurer with the attributes of a spy in the mold of Bond but not a government.  Peterson is a weak villain compared to Blofeld and SPECTRE.  Of course, the second movie is clearly inspiration for Austin Power's fembots.

Popcorn fun.

Harry Palmer

With the boom of spy thrillers in the 1960s that started with Dr. No (1962), new franchises appeared.  One of the more successful ones followed the adventures of Harry Palmer, played by Michael Caine.  While James Bond travels to exotic locations to engage in action-packed adventure, Palmer finds himself navigating the bureaucracy of the intelligence service.  There are forms to sign, paperwork to fill out, and places to surveil.  Whereas Bond spends his time wearing tuxedoes in posh casinos, Palmer shops at Safeway and cooks at home.  Palmer is very middle class though, like Bond, he has a gift for seducing beautiful women.  Also like Bond, he has his M, Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman), who appears in all three Harry Palmer films.

The Ipcress File (1965): Professor Radcliffe, one of the leading physicists of the UK, has been kidnapped and his bodyguard killed.  Harry Palmer, an agent with a criminal record, is reassigned from surveillance duty to replace the murdered agent.  Now working for Major Dalby (Nigel Green), he is assigned to track down the man most likely to have Radcliffe and arrange a ransom.  Along the way, he launches an unsuccessful rescue, learns of a mysterious brainwashing technique, kills an American spy, and has multiple dustups with both his current and former bosses.

A Funeral in Berlin (1966): Colonel Ross dispatches Harry to Berlin to arrange a high-value defection.  Harry has many friends and acquaintances in Berlin as he served there just prior to the Ipcress File.  Most of these acquaintances are criminals, something that infuriates Inspector Reinhardt of Berlin Police.  After meeting the local man in Berlin, Johnny Vulkan, Harry learns that the would-be defector is Colonel Stok (Oskar Homolka) of the Russian Army.  Harry thinks it's a con job but reluctantly travels to East Berlin and meets with Stok.  Harry still doesn't believe him but Ross gives the go ahead and forwards the money.  Stok demands that Kreutzman, a man famed for his ability to smuggle defectors from east to west, take charge.  The plot proves more complicated with the involvement of Israeli Nazi hunters, double agents, and people who aren't who they seem to be.

The Billion Dollar Brain (1967): Harry has left the service and is a private detective who is reduced to eating corn flakes in his office.  Ross arrives to ask him back into service, offering a promotion and more pay.  Harry declines but soon after receives a call from a computer that sends him to Helsinki with a mysterious package and a promise of 200 pounds.  In Helsinki, he meets an American friend, Leo Newbigen (Karl Malden).  Leo takes the package and pays Harry.  Then, he proposes that Harry join a private outfit that has no risks and high pay.  He's intrigued and will think it over.  Enter Colonel Ross, who carries out the threat of drafting Harry back into service.  He must recover the package and return it to the UK.  To do this, he finds himself entangled with Latvian rebels, the Russian Army - including a return of General Stok, a Texas oil billionaire with his cowboy goon squad, a super computer - the titular billion dollar brain, and yet another gorgeous woman throwing herself at him.

Of the three, The Ipcress File is the most gritty.  It takes place entirely in London and follows Palmer on his first real case.  In the later two, he's a veteran and not fazed by some of the situations.  Here, he is daring and direct but inexperienced.  A Funeral in Berlin is the best as far as classic spy movies go.  There are lots of characters with conflicting goals and unknown motivations.  Harry is a professional here and has some secrets of his own.  The Billion Dollar Brain is the most like a standard Bond movie.  Harry travels to Finland, Latvia, and Texas.  General Midwinter (Ed Begley) is the standard mad villain with a private army, a secret bunker, and dreams of conquest.  It is the weakest of the bunch, an unfortunate conclusion for the series.

Michael Caine had signed up to do 5 movies but balked after the financial disappointment of The Billion Dollar Brain.  He was released from the contract but, in the 1990s, he reprised the role in a couple more movies.

Highly recommended.  The first two are top notch and the third is still a lot of fun.

Hell Drivers (1957)

Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) is recently out of prison and seeking a job.  He finds a position as a truck driver for a company that delivers gravel to building sites.  His fellow drivers are a rough crew led by C. "Red" Redman (Patrick McGoohan).  Red takes an immediate dislike to Tom and most of the drivers join in that attitude, except Gino (Herbert Lom).  Gino plans to earn enough to travel back to Italy with the company secretary, Lucy (Peggy Cummins).  However, Lucy suddenly has eyes for Tom.  When Tom refuses to fight in a brawl with the rest of the crew, the general dislike grows to hate.  Talk about a hostile work environment.

The noteworthy thing about the movie is the number of stars who appear before their big break in show business:

1. Sean Connery - future James Bond - has a small role as truck driver Johnny Kates.  He doesn't have a lot of lines but his charisma shows.

2. Herbert Lom - Chief Inspector Dreyfus of the Pink Panther Series - is truck driver Gino Rossi.  Lom was an established actor by now and received second billing.

3. Patrick McGoohan - Danger Man/Secret Agent/The Prisoner - is the prime villain, Red.  I have long liked McGoohan but here he is a one-dimensional villain.  Constant hostility with a cigarette clamped between clenched teeth and an angry glower on his face.  He's got less depth than a comic book villain.  Of course, the moment Tom stops taking his guff and proves that Red's bark is worse than his bite, Red makes dastardly plans to kill Tom.

4. William Hartnell - the original Doctor Who - is Administrator Cartley.  He has the commanding gruff demeanor that is familiar to his later fans but it isn't counterbalanced with his Doctorly charm.

5. Jill Ireland - frequent co-star of future husband Charles Bronson - is the landlady's daughter.

6. David McCallum - the Russian Man from UNCLE - plays Tom Yately's younger brother.  Also of note, he was Jill Ireland's first husband and they met on this movie.  When McCallum was working on The Great Escape (1963), he introduced his wife to Charles Bronson.

The movie is just okay but it is worth seeing for the cast.

Jack's Back (1988)

There is a serial killer in Los Angeles and he's duplicating the crimes of Jack the Ripper, 100 years to the day later.  The victim profile matches and the method of death matches.  As the movie begins, it is the day of the last Jack the Ripper murder and the police are desperate to find the likely victim.  Meanwhile, John Wesford (James Spader) is a do-gooder par excellence.  Currently working his residency at a free clinic in the neighborhood where he grew up, he also volunteers at a homeless camp nearby.  In a case of horrible timing, he stumbles upon the final murder and is killed soon after, his death made to look like a suicide.  He becomes the prime suspect as the Jack the Ripper copycat.

Richard "Rick" Wesford (James Spader) awakens from a nightmare in which he witnessed his brother's murder first hand.  Determined to clear his brother's name and get the man who killed him, Rick becomes a thorn in the side of a police department that is eager to have the case closed.  Where his brother was a nice guy, Rick is mostly hard edges.  He has a criminal record, mostly from being a teenage delinquent but one count that sent him to jail or the military.

The movie is generally good though there are times when I shook my head at the nonsensical decisions of the characters.  When John encountered the killer, he chased him.  Why?  You can ID him.  Just call the cops and let them know.  They'll get him.  Nope, after being clearly identified at the final murder, he runs away and confronts the killer, and gets himself killed.  Later, his brother does exactly the same thing!  What is wrong with these Wesfords?  Do they have a death wish?  Luckly, Rick isn't the easy meat in a fight that his brother was but it was still stupid.

There is some really good misdirection in the film.  Several characters seem particularly suspicious.  Robert Picardo is good as a consulting psychiatrist who seems a bit off.  The twins bit was done well.  John mentioned his brother to a patient and also looked at a picture of the two of them as toddlers.  That should have been a big hint that his days were numbered.  Spader was very different as each brother, one being a good boy and the other the bad boy.

Just okay.  If you like Spader, definitely check it out.

The Fourth Protocol (1987)

Kim Philby, infamous British intelligence officer who defected to the Soviet Union, arrives at a remote dacha for a meeting with the head of the KGB.  No sooner has he stepped out of his car than he is murdered by a Soviet soldier.  It should be noted that Kim Philby (1912-1988) was a real person who was still alive in Russia when this film was released.

Valeri Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) arrives at a Soviet base where he is met by the very soldier who shot Philby.  The soldier introduces him to the head of KGB, who has a special mission for him.  He is going to assemble an atomic bomb that the KGB intends to smuggle - piece by piece - into England.  He will then detonate it next to a US Airforce Base.  This was the plot of Octopussy (1983)!

Meanwhile, John Preston (Michael Caine) is busy ferreting out a traitor in London.  He exposes the man but does so by ignoring the orders of his director (Julian Glover).  This earns him a demotion to Ports & Airports duty.  As luck would have it, a Russian sailor was hit by a truck while running from a security guard.  He had an unusual metal disk that is an integral part for an atomic bomb.  It is now a race to see if Preston can track down Petrofsky before he finishes the bomb.

Michael Caine is terrific.  He can be charming, funny, or intimidating.  His character is well-developed without beating the viewer over the head.  A single glance at a picture of him, a woman, and his son explains that his wife is dead and he is a single father.  Despite a demanding job, we see he makes time for his young son.  Really, a well-written and acted role.

By contrast, Brosnan is bland.  In every situation, he has the look of a guilty character.  He spends his time glowering at everyone.  Even when he goes drinking with an American (Matt Frewer AKA Max Headroom), he is stone-faced.  Brosnan is an actor who is overflowing with charisma - Remington Steele had 5 season thanks to it - but here he is one-dimensional.  What kind of spy just looks suspicious all the time?

Ned Beatty had a cameo as a Russian general.  That was unexpected.  There was no effort to do a Russian accent which made it odder still.  Yeah, not buying him as a Russian general.

Ian Richardson was a stand out as Sir Nigel Irvine, a high-ranking secret service official who plays realpolitik with cool demeanor.  His cold-blooded rebuke of a man who unwittingly betrayed the nation was great stuff.

Though it has a strong plot and good characters, it lacks action.  There aren't a lot of thrills in this thriller.  Still, enjoyable to watch and a must see for fans of Michael Caine.

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986)

Quatermain (Richard Chamberlain), now frequently called just 'Q' by friends and family, is back.  While he and Jesse (Sharon Stone) are planning a trip to America to get married, Dumont, a colleague of his Q's brother, stumbles to their home.  Q fights off a pursuer and captures a peculiar blade.  Dumont is feverish but explains how he and Roberson - that would be Q's brother - found the lost city of gold.  In the morning, Dumont is dead - murdered!  Much to Jesse's disappointment, Q opts to go in search of his brother rather than sail to America.  Recruiting Umslopogaas (James Earl Jones) along the way, he ventures into darkest Africa and discovers the lost white race as well as his brother.  Unfortunately, gun runners and cannibals are eager for the lost city's gold.  Can Quatermain fight off the greedy hordes?

Whereas King Solomon's Mines was campy fun, this is campy cringe.  Jesse was only just tolerable in the last one but has now devolved into a screeching nag.  Where Herbert Lom was fun as a comic German villain, Robert Donner is disastrous as the obviously deceitful and greedy Swarma who is nonetheless a member of the party.  Cassandra Peterson - best know as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark - has a small role as one of the queens of the Lost City but is little more than a prop.  Despite being queen, she is just a minion of high priest Agon (Henry Silva).  Now there is an interesting choice in casting.

At one point, the party ventures into a stone tunnel that has an uncanny resemblance to the trap-laden tunnel from the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  And sure enough, there are traps that kill a couple of nameless luggage handlers.  However, when the action resumes, the party is now in canoes.  What?  They never got more then 10 yards into the lethal tunnel but now they're on the river?  Where did they get the canoes?  Did the tunnel end on the river's edge with canoes awaiting?

Quatermain carries a revolver that seems to shoot a dozen rounds or more before needing to be reloaded.  He had a rifle this time around but has misplaced it before the climactic battle.  Beneath the castle is a pool of molten gold.  Uh, that's going to be really hot.  Gold melts around 2000 degrees!  You don't just walk walk around that.  Somehow, Q hammers a gold figurine of a lion on the top of the temple and that unleashes streams of molten gold to slay those sieging the city.  There is no explanation for this unless Umslopogaas' axe had the magical ability to melt gold when struck by lightning.  Yeah, it was like that.

This was tremendously bad and nixed the idea of a third film.  I'm sure all involved were glad they didn't have to make another turkey like this.

Hard pass

Law of Averages

The Law of Averages is a weak law when applied to small numbers but becomes more reliable as the sample grows.  For instance, if 100 people flip a quarter 10 times each, you can expect about 500 heads and 500 tails.  However, if Bill flipped 10 consecutive heads while Stacy flipped 10 tails, that would not be surprising.  The more coin flips, the closer to 50-50 it should be.

In Michigan, Joe Biden had his strongest showing in Washtenaw County.  He crushed Trump, winning 72% of the vote compared to Trump's 26%.  His next best showing was Wayne County.  Biden won 68% of the votes to Trump's 30%.  As these are some of the most populous regions of the state, that explains how Biden could win despite only carrying 11 of Michigan's 83 counties.  But this leads to a question of those early morning batches:

3:50 AM, 59,215 votes were processed that were 92% for Biden.  Huh.  This is a vastly better showing than Biden had in his two strongest counties.  As noted in an earlier post, he stomped Trump with mail-in ballots by a 2 to 1 margin but this is 12 to 1.  Of course, there were 5.5 million votes cast so this is only 1% of the total.  This is like the example where Bill flipped 10 consecutive heads.  Just happened to lean very Biden.

6:31 AM, 185,069 votes were processed that were 95.9% for Biden.  Huh.  That's over 3% of all the votes cast in the state and it is even more lopsided.  As a whole, the state went to Biden by 50.6% to Trump's 47.8%.  The bigger the sample of ballots, the more it should tend toward that ratio.  If Biden had won these two batches by 63% to 37% - still stomping Trump, Trump wins Michigan.

Food for thought.

Trump's Landslide vs. Biden's Landslide

According to Pew Research, 27% of votes were cast on election day, 27% at early voting sites, and 46% via absentee or mail-in ballots.  The breakdown by candidate is interesting:

Trump - 37% election day - 30% early voting - 32% absentee/mail-in

Biden - 17% election day - 24% early voting - 58% absentee/mail-in

That means that 67% of Trump voters went to a polling station to cast their ballot while only 41% of Biden's did so.  What does the election look like in that case?

Trump 49,728,639 vs. Biden 33,325,465

This is a Trump landslide, a 60 - 40 split.  The number of people leaving their house to vote for Trump dwarfs the number who did the same for Biden.  Now let's look at the absentee/mail-in votes.

Biden 47,144,756 vs. Trump 23,750,992

That is a Biden tsunami, a 66 - 33 split.  This is a massive drubbing.

This split between Trump and Biden voters follows the candidates' behavior.  Trump was out campaigning and his voters came to the polls.  Biden spent most of the campaign season in his house and that is what the majority of his voters did.

King Solomon's Mines (1985)

Allan Quatermain (Richard Chamberlain) has been hired by Jesse Houston (Sharon Stone) to locate her father in deepest Africa.  Not until he rescues her from being kidnapped by Dogati the Turk (John Rhys-Davies) and Colonel Bockner of the German Army (Herbert Lom) does he learn that her father is searching for King Solomon's Mines.  Of course, that is a myth so her father must be some crackpot.  However, he is now committed and zany adventures ensue.

Made in the mold of the Indiana Jones movies, this is non-stop action.  There is a chase through an African city that goes through crowds, on rooftops, on a horse-drawn cart, and even in a truck.  Later, we have the fight on the train.  Sneaking under the train, across the train roof, on the side of the train, and so on.  Then there is the biplane with Quatermain dangling from a wing while Jesse attempts to fly.  Of course, it is mostly campy action.  Sometimes the silliness just goes over the top, such as when Quatermain bluffs his way through a train car full of Germans by acting the fool with a cheap horn.  While John Rhys-Davies mostly plays it straight as a villain, Herbert Lom is a comic relief villain.  Sharon Stone is dressed in exactly the way a woman in the 1910s wouldn't dress.  This is early in her career and she isn't given much to do.  She is no Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).  Chamberlain wasn't the right man for this role.  The beard doesn't look right on him and he is too cheery and upbeat.  What sort of big game hunter is armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a revolver?  Though meant to be campy fun, he is the butt of too many jokes and is more often portrayed as an incompetent bumpkin who gets lucky rather than a skilled adventurer.

Cheesy fun.

ffolkes (1980)

A criminal band led by Mr. Kramer (Anthony Perkins) cons its way aboard a Norwegian supply ship that is bound for some North Sea oil drilling and processing platforms.  No sooner is the ship underway than they hijack it.  During stops at the platforms, divers are dispatched to plant explosives.  Once all the explosives are in place, Kramer contacted the British government and demanded millions in payment to save the platforms.  As luck would have it, Rufus Excalibur ffolkes (Roger Moore) had trained his commandos for just such a situation.  Summoned to deal with the terrorists, ffolkes is soon calling the shots.  Oil Platform Administrator King (David Hedison), Admiral Brinsden (James Mason), and even the Prime Minister (Faith Brook) are following his dictates.

As a thriller, it is just okay.  There is very little action, mostly just tense situations.  The most interesting thing about the movie is the atypical casting of Roger Moore.  Rather than a suave ladies man in the vein of his ongoing role as James Bond, here he is a bearded, cantankerous, cat-loving misogynist.  The misogyny is played to the full with ffolkes.  Rather than make a request of Mr. King's secretary, he would tell King to tell her even though she was in the room.  Rather than the cultured drinking of Bond, here he swigs directly from the bottle that he keeps in his bag.  I suspect he found this role to be a pleasant change of pace, an opportunity to play against type.  Worthwhile just for that.

Election in Four Vote Batches

At midnight on November 3, Trump was leading in Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  If he held these three states, he would win re-election.  The balance shifted in four discrete batches of votes.

At 1:34 AM on November 4, Georgia ran a batch of 136,155 votes.  Of these votes, 82.4% were for Biden and 17.6% were Trump.  That is a 107,040 vote margin for Biden.  As of this writing, he leads Georgia by 12,670 votes.  Hmm.

At 3:42 AM, a batch of 168,542 votes were run in Wisconsin.  Biden received 85.1% of these votes.  He thus gained 118,216 votes in the statewide race.  His margin of victory for the state is 20,608.  Hmm.

At 3:50 AM, a batch of 59,215 votes were processed in Michigan, 92% going to Biden.  At 6:31 AM, a batch of 147,226 votes were run, 95.9% for Biden.  Biden gained 185,069 in the race thanks to these two batches.  The margin for the state is 154,188.  Interesting.

Of course, this could totally be cherry picking.  The margin is always somewhere but this does make for some peculiar graphs:

This graph could just be a brilliant piece of propaganda but there are several such graphs.  Some Democrat should produce graphs from previous elections that have this same pattern so as to debunk this.  Failure to do so only makes it more suspicious.  The only counterargument I keep hearing is there is no widespread fraud.  All right.  Four instances is hardly widespread.  It doesn't need to be widespread to make a difference.  Assure me there isn't fraud in these four lopsided vote batches.

Hannie Caulder (1971)

Hannie Caulder (Raquel Welch) and her husband are living a happy life when the Clemens brothers ride onto the scene.  Emmet (Ernest Borgnine), Rufus (Strother Martin), and Frank (Jack Elam) murder her husband and then gang rape her.  On their way out the door, they light the house on fire and leave her to burn.  Unsurprisingly, she escapes the inferno and swears vengeance.  Soon thereafter, noted bounty hunter Thomas Price (Robert Culp) comes across Hannie.  She hires him to teach her to shoot.  Though he advises her not to seek revenge, he agrees to train her and also take her to a gunsmith, Bailey, to make a revolver more suited to her.  Bailey (Christopher Lee) lives in Mexico and hosts the pair while Hannie is trained.  While they are with Bailey, some bandits attack.  Hannie finds herself unable to gun down a man who is about to kill her.  Again, Price advises her to abandon her plans for revenge.  Instead, the two part company though it is clear that he has fallen for her and she him.

Here is a Spaghetti Western with ketchup for blood and filmed in Spain.  The Clemens brothers prove to be hapless bumpkins who spend most of their time berating each other.  They're like the three stooges at times.  With the exception of their initial murder/rape/arson, these guys seem more like they are in some campy comedy western.  Very odd.  As a character, Hannie isn't well-developed.  If not for stupidity or outside intervention, she would have been killed by 2 of the 3 brothers.  Why is she so intent on letting them know she's after them or even scheduling where to meet.  Hey, they are wanted criminals; just shoot them without warning.

Mediocre.

How the West Was Won (1962)

The epic 1962 film is told in five parts, all following the Prescott family.

The Rivers (1839): Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) has decided to move west.  He sold his farm in the east, packed up his family, and boarded a boat on the Erie Canal in Albany, NY.  Soon, the family is rafting down the Ohio River in search of land to farm.  On the way, they meet mountain man Linus Rawlings (Jimmy Stewart) and have a run in with river pirates.  Zebulon and his wife drown in the river and their elder daughter, Eve (Carroll Baker) decides that this is where she will settle with Linus.  Her younger sister, Lilith (Debbie Reynolds), has no desire to farm and plans to return to the East.

The Plains (1851): Lilith, who showed a knack for singing, dancing, and just being entertaining during The Rivers, is now a professional entertainer in St. Louis.  She receives word that an admirer has left her a gold strike in California.  She decides to claim her gold mine and joins a wagon train headed to California.  The wagonmaster, Roger (Robert Preston), finds her attractive and pursues her.  Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), a down on his luck gambler, had heard of her gold claim and is following to take advantage.  The journey makes him a better man and he weds Lilith.

The Civil War (1861 to 1865): Zeb Rawlings (George Peppard) wants to join the army and follow his father to war.  Eve tries to convince him to work for her sister in California but he's determined.  He joins and soon finds that war has no glory.  His father dies at Shiloh in 1862.  When the war is done, he returns to the farm to find his mother has died.  He declines his brother's offer for half the farm and stays in the army to go further west.

The Railroad (1868): The railroad is being built to join the east and the west.  Mike King (Richard Widmark) cares not a whit about anything but getting the railroad constructed as fast as possible.  It is left to Lt. Zeb Rawlings to try to keep the peace with the Arapaho.  He is helped in that task by Jethro Stuart (Henry Fonda), a man who used to trap with his father.  Eventually, King presses the Arapaho too far and Zeb can take it no more.  He resigns the army and rides out west.

The Outlaws (1889): Lilith is forced to sell most of her belongings in San Francisco as she is broke and Cleve has died.  However, she still has a ranch in Arizona and she knows just the man to run it: her nephew Zeb.  Zeb spent much of the intervening years as a marshal.  He has married and has 3 children.  A settled life appeals to his wife.  However, an old enemy, Charlie Gant (Eli Wallach) happens to be in Arizona and is keen on revenge for his brother's death at Zeb's hands.  Deducing that Gant has arrived to stage a train robbery, Zeb plans to be on that train to catch him in the act with the help of Sheriff Ramsey (Lee J Cobb).

At 2 hours and 44 minutes, it's a long film.  Some casting choices are goofy.  According to his tombstone, Linus Rawlings was born in 1810, meaning he was 28 or 29 when he met Eve in The Rivers.  In fact, Jimmy Stewart was 53!  Agatha Clegg has joined the wagon train to find a man in the west but is played by 60 year-old Thelma Ritter.  Optimistic.  Though I like Harry Morgan, he is totally overshadowed by John Wayne in their scene together.  General Grant should not be so overshadowed by a subordinate, even Sherman.  Someone with more star power should have been cast as Grant to balance out John Wayne.

This is a Western that covers all the bases: mountain men, buffalo stampede, railroads, Indian attacks, wagon trains, gambling on steamboats, train robbery, gun fights, romance, dancehall girls, and on.  Five movies in one which tie together neatly.  Entertaining from start to finish.  Thumbs up.

On The Rocks (2020)

Laura (Rashida Jones) thinks her husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), is acting peculiar.  In fact, she suspects that he is cheating on her with his attractive co-worker, Fiona (Jessica Henwick).  She tells her father, Felix (Bill Murray), about her concerns and he immediately sets about investigating.  He is very soon certain that Dean is unfaithful and takes Laura on increasingly outrageous stake-outs to catch Dean in the act.  Along they way, Felix also flirts with every woman they meet and shows he is a charming though often unreliable man.  He had left his wife, Laura's mother, for another woman.

Murray is fun, but not really funny here.  The comedy is more of the ludicrous situation variety.  He's the center of attention because he is charming and talented, not because he is a barrel of laughs.  Rashida is a downer from beginning to end.  The very plot of the film makes it hard for her to be otherwise.  

When the movie concludes, it is just a letdown.  Maybe we could have had some father-daughter bonding in picturesque New York City with some other foundation than infidelity.  After all, Laura is a writer.  Maybe she could have been doing research when dad re-enters her life and joins in her project with passion.  As is, if felt like the director, Sofia Coppola, just wasted my time with a nothing movie that was only lightly flavored with Bill Murray comedy.

Skip.

Distant Drums (1951)

It is 1840 and Lt. Richard Tufts (Richard Webb) of the US Navy has been selected for a special mission with Captain Wyatt Quincy (Gary Cooper) of the US Army.  The assignment is to sail across Lake Okeechobee and destroy the fort of gunrunners who supply weapons to the Seminoles.  The joint operation is hugely successful and also saw the rescue of captives, among whom is Judy Beckett (Mari Aldon).  While waiting for the boat to come get them, a band of Seminoles arrive.  The heavy fire prevents the boat from coming to shore so Wyatt's company must flee into the everglades to avoid being overrun.  Now they must trek 150 miles through dangerous swamps while evading the Seminole pursuit.  The high stress flight is the perfect setting for romance between Wyatt and Judy.

Much like Seminole, this one is terrible on history.  The soldiers are wearing uniforms from the Spanish-American War (1898) rather than the Second Seminole War.  Though the Patterson revolver was available by now, the Peacemaker that Wyatt carries is decades in the future.  Nobody seems to be using muskets, which is the weapon of the day.  However, it does show some knowledge of the era.  Wyatt declares himself to be a Georgia Cracker and picks out Judy as one too.  The Seminoles are mostly played by Seminoles.  The navy and army did have joint operations and saw a crossing of the Everglades from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.  The Seminoles were armed with rifles that were supplied by Spanish smugglers from Cuba.

The plot is good but the execution has much to be desired.  Like the love triangle in Seminole, this one is equally unsatisfying.  Judy has chosen Wyatt right out the gate and Tufts spends most of his time as a tag along character.  Why didn't he stay with his boat?  Of particular note, this is the movie that had the original Wilhelm Scream when a soldier was eaten by a crocodile, which has proven to be the most enduring part.  Unfortunately, sounds from an African jungle are played to set the mood.

Zachary Taylor, who gained his promotion to brigadier general thanks to the Battle of Okeechobee in 1837, is the commanding general here.  Yes, he really was the commanding general from 1838 to 1840, so this is accurate.  He earned his nickname of 'Old Rough and Ready' during his tenure in Florida.

As mindless popcorn fun, the movie is fine but don't think you have learned anything when the credits roll.

Seminole (1953)

The story opens with the court martial of Lieutenant Lance Caldwell (Rock Hudson), accused of murder and treason.  As such, the story is mostly a flashback.  It is 1835 in Florida and the Seminoles have refused relocation to Oklahoma.  Major Degan, commander of Fort King and a hero of the Creek War, intends to move the Seminoles or slaughter them.  Lt. Caldwell, newly arrived at Fort King and a native of Florida, suggested peace talks.  Furthermore, he is opposed to an assault against the Seminoles as the swamps will be difficult to navigate.  In no time, he and Major Degan have a contentious relationship.  Degan marches a detachment into the swamps, intending to make a surprise assault on the camp of Osceola (Anthony Quinn).  Of course, Osceola knew they were coming and set a trap, wiping out almost the entirety of Degan's troops (one supposes this was to represent the Dade Massacre that triggered the Second Seminole War).  While a wounded Degan is dragged to safety by Sgt. Magruder (a very young Lee Marvin!), Caldwell is captured by Osceola.  Soon thereafter, Osceola is summoned to a peace talk by Major Degan.  Osceola comes under flag of truce and is immediately imprisoned.

The movie doesn't know what it wants to be.  Is it an action-adventure film?  Is it a story of a love triangle?  Is it a historical epic?  It tries to be all of the above and fails.  There are a few action scenes, the battle in the Seminole village being the big one.  Not much action really.  Revere Muldoon (Barbara Hale) plays the love interest for both Caldwell and Osceola but there's no tension here since she has already chosen Osceola when the story begins.  This feels tacked on and could have been dumped in favor of more development of Osceola.  Much is made of his being a half-breed which is true but is not further explained.  As far as history, this story gets all the specifics of Osceola's life wrong but still has the gist of it.

Osceola was the son of a Creek woman of mixed heritage and a Scottish trader.  Though he is named John in the movie, his given name was Billy Powell.  He was born among the Creek in Alabama but he relocated to the Florida after the Creek War (1813-14) when he was only 9 or 10.  Despite being a Creek with mostly Scottish ancestry, he became a chief among the Seminoles.  He killed an Indian agent named Thompson in 1835 around the same time as the Dade Massacre, which began the 2nd Seminole War.  In 1837, he was summoned to a peace conference under flag of truce.  General Jessup had him arrested and imprisoned.  He died three months later in Fort Moultrie, South Carolina.

Anachronistically, both Degan and Caldwell are armed with revolvers in 1835 though Samuel Colt didn't patent his revolver until 1836.  The soldiers marched with their bayonets fixed which makes it very difficult to reload a musket.  There were many escaped slaves among the Seminoles, called Black Seminoles; none are to be seen here.  Rather than the fictional Kajeck (which isn't a Seminole name as far as I can tell), how about John Horse, a famous Black Seminole of the time.  Or what of Coacoochee or Micanopy?  Did the screenwriter read any sources before naming these other Indians?  Why not have General Jessup instead of the fictional Degan?  Why are there monkey screams in the background?  Someone grabbed jungle sounds from the shelf and thought that was appropriate.  Ha!

Entertaining film but terrible history.  I did like seeing Lee Marvin and James Best (best know for his role of Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane in The Dukes of Hazzard) early in their careers.

Ballot Breakdown

Here's what I want to know.  This should be available but I haven't seen it.  What portion of each vote type did the candidates get?  Who won the early voters at polling stations?  Who won the absentee ballot vote and what is the ratio?  Who won election day voters?  Who won the mail-in vote?

There are, as far as I know, 4 types of vote:

1. Early in-person voting at a polling station.

2. Absentee ballot - one that the voter had to apply to receive.

3. Mail-in ballot - one that was mailed to registered voters unsolicited.

4. In-person election day voting at polling station.

What is the breakdown between Trump and Biden of these various types of vote?  Heck, what proportion of the vote do each of these types of vote represent?  Are mail-in ballots 10% of the votes or 50%?  My preference is for in-person voting, ideally on election day.  I have the least confidence in unsolicited mail-in ballots.  If mail-in ballots change the result, I have serious concerns.

China, Russia, and who knows who else have databases full of American voter rolls.  What would prevent them from setting up a print shop and just churning out mail-in ballots with their preferred candidate and sending them in?  Sure, lots of them will get rejected and many will be challenged when the actual voter shows up and claims to have not voted.  But a lot will be accepted.  Wisconsin had 89% voter turn out.  Really?  That seems high.  How many of those votes were mail-in ballots?  I want to know.

The Kid Detective (2020)

Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody) is a detective in a small town.  When he was 13, he solved mysteries like the Scooby Doo crew.  He was a precocious kid who solved TV mysteries as soon as the eventual villain was introduced.  His office wall is covered with newspaper clippings of his great achievements.  His career nosedived when his secretary and secret crush, Gracie, vanished.  He never solved the case.  Nonetheless, he is still a detective.  Now 32, he is a bit of an embarrassment.  He still has the same office and solves cases like finding a lost cat.  However, a teenaged girl, Caroline (Sophie Nelisse), arrives in his office and hires him to solve a murder.  Her boyfriend was stabbed to death and the police have made no progress.  Abe jumps at the opportunity.  As Abe doesn't have a car, Caroline chauffeurs him around town in her car.

The comedy elements are rarely laugh out loud funny.  The humor derives from the ridiculousness of the situation and the seriousness of the characters involved.  Also, he is generally incompetent as an adult detective.  His clever tricks repeatedly bite him and he is shown to have implicated the wrong person in one of his famous cases.

Mediocre and slow, best avoided.

Synchronic (2020)

A man and a woman in a hotel room in New Orleans are sitting on a bed when they each take a pill.  Soon, both are hallucinating.  She finds herself in a jungle and sees a snake slithering toward her.  He finds himself falling from a great height in a desert sandstorm, grinning like an idiot while plummeting earthward.

Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) are paramedics who have been responding to strange injuries.  In each case, they find some new drug called Synchronic is involved.  Then they respond to a couple in a hotel room.  The woman has been bit by a snake and her leg is swollen.  The man is found in pieces at the bottom of the elevator shaft.  Then Dennis' teenaged daughter, Brianna, vanishes and it turns out she took a dose of Synchronic.

Steve buys as much Synchronic as he can get his hands on and tests it while filming himself.  The drug sends him back in time for 7 minutes but where and when he goes is determined by his location.  Can he use the last of his supply to track down Brianna?

The movie had a lot of potential but never got there.  There is a lot of nonlinear story telling which just confuses the plot.  The score begins as heavy and oppressive, like this is some dark horror but mostly nothing happens until Steve starts experimenting.  Steve has a lot of backstory that doesn't add to the movie.

Mostly disappointing.  Skip.

Love and Monsters (2020)

In the near future, the earth is threatened by an asteroid.  The nations of the world respond by blasting it to bits with a barrage of missiles.  However, the resulting fallout has a mutating impact on many animals.  Much of the population is wiped out and the survivors live in bunkers.

Joel (Dylan O'Brien) was 17 when the disaster struck.  It is now 7 years later and he lives in a bunker but pines for Aimee (Jessica Henwick).  With great effort, he learned that she is in a bunker 85 miles away.  He decides it is time to be with her and sets out.  Being something of a bumpkin, he is nearly killed but for the intervention of a dog.  He adopts the dog or perhaps the dog adopts him.  They meet Clyde (Michael Rooker) and Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt), a pair who survive above ground thanks to certain rules which they teach him.

A rather comical take on the apocalypse, Joel takes the hero's journey where he starts as a bumpkin and ends as a leader.  He's still a bit goofy though.

Mindless popcorn fun!

Benford's Law

Though I took a lot of math and even a couple statistics courses, I was unfamiliar with Benford's Law.  Even having read it, I'm not clear on why the pattern holds.  However, the graphs are interesting and it is funny that every candidate follows the pattern except Joe Biden in certain key locations.  Is this just so much cherry picking?  Could easily be.  Have the Russians turned against Trump and now sided with Biden?  Doubtful.  An interesting read.

Joe Biden's votes violate Benford's Law

Against the Trend

For the last 120 years, if an incumbent president received more votes in his re-election campaign than he received in his election, he was re-elected.  In fact, if the incumbent president merely maintained 90% of his original vote total, he has always been re-elected.  Until now.

Here is a chart that shows only presidents who were elected and then ran for re-election, which is why Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, LBJ, and Ford are not included:

In 2008, Obama received 69.5 million votes but won re-election with 61 million votes.  By contrast, Trump won in 2016 with 63 million votes but lost re-election win 70.5 million (as of this writing) votes.  Joe Biden, who doesn't hold a candle to Obama in the charisma department, received 75 million votes.

Ruinous Election

Whoever wins this election will be illegitimate to much of the country.  Already the courts are involved, making this Bush v. Gore II.  There are enough irregularities that will only serve to confirm to Trump voters that he was right when he claimed it was a rigged election.  Changing election rules on the fly was doomed to create problems and the piles of mail-in ballots have slowed the counting.  It's Florida 2000 all over again but in multiple states.  This kind of disaster is how you ruin faith in elections.

Our voting system needs to be overhauled.  It has needed it for years.  One would think that after Florida 2000, something would have been done.  Nope.  20 years later and it has gotten worse.  Nevada can count billions of dollars in an instant but can't figure out millions of votes.  Of course, voting is a state issue.  Personally, I'd like to go back to a system where we have election day rather than election season.  No early voting, no mail-in ballots.

This is par for the course in 2020.  What a year.

A Campaign in New Mexico with Colonel Doniphan

In the wake of the war declaration on Mexico, the United States called up volunteer soldiers.  In St. Louis, Missouri, the 1st Regiment of Missouri Mounted Volunteers was formed under the commanded of Colonel Alexander Doniphan.  Part of the Army of the West, commanded by General Stephen Watts Kearny, the regiment marched across Kansas and arrived at Bent's Fort in what is now Colorado.  From here, they crossed into Mexico and captured Santa Fe; not a shot was fired.  Kearny took only a portion of the army and continued westward for California while Doniphan marched south with plans to rendezvous with General John Wool in El Paso.  Just north of El Paso, the regiment met a Mexican force and the regiment had its first battle on Christmas Day of 1846.  Despite being outnumbered, they soundly trounced the Mexican troops and occupied El Paso.  After a month in El Paso, the regiment set out to meet General Wool in Chihuahua.  On the last day of February, the regiment met an army on the outskirts of Chihuahua and again emerged victorious.  The regiment occupied Chihuahua for two months before receiving orders to meet General Taylor in Saltillo.  Upon arriving, they finally found General Wool.  Declining to enlist for another year, the regiment made its way to the mouth of the Rio Grande and a ship to New Orleans.  In its year of service, the regiment had marched 5,500 miles, the longest military campaign since the days of Alexander the Great.

Written by the regiment's quartermaster, the book is more of a travelogue than a tale of war.  The battles are few and far between.  Most of the book details the places and small events: a rain storm in Kansas, the cultural differences of the many parts of Mexico, the landscapes, commentary on flora and fauna, issues with feeding the regiment, and so forth.  Though the author gives lots of information about the voyage, very little is mentioned of the soldiers.  Only a vague picture is painted of Colonel Doniphan and less so of other officers and men.

For those interested in an eye-witness account of the period, highly recommended.

Kit Carson (1940)

Kit Carson (Jon Hull) and his band of trappers are coming down from the mountains to return to civilization and sell their furs when they are set upon by a band of Shoshone.  Worse still, these Shoshone are armed with rifles!  Most of Kit's party was killed but he and two others escaped.  Arriving at Fort Bridger, they are offered a job by Capt. John Fremont (Dana Andrews), who is seeking a trail to California.  Moreover, Fremont is escorting a wagon train funded by Dolores Murphy (Lynn Bari), who hails from Monterey, California.  Though Carson refuses Fremont's job offer, he reluctantly accepts Murphy's, mostly because he expects she will get scalped if he doesn't.

In California, General Castro has been arming the Shoshone with specific purpose of killing migrants.  He sends one of his underlings to make sure that Fremont and the wagon train are wiped out before crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Back in the wagon train, John is fallen in love with Dolores but Dolores has fallen in love with Kit.  The love triangle must be put on hold in order for Kit to save everyone from a concerted assault by rifle-armed Shoshone.  When the party arrives safely at the Murphy Hacienda, Kit decides it is time to leave.  Such plans are ruined when he comes upon a Mexican wagon train of weapons and gunpowder.  It turns out that Castro is going to wipe out all the American settlers.  Kit warns the American settlers and they reply by establishing the California Republic and raising the Bear Flag.  Carson and Fremont arrange for a battle with General Castro.  Of course, they defeat him.  Kit kisses Dolores and heads south with Fremont toward Los Angeles to join US forces there in the Mexican American War.

Of note, Ward Bond - a character actor who was ubiquitous in the 40s and 50s - played an Australian with an American accent but he did have a boomerang.  Clayton Moore, who would go on to play the Lone Ranger in the long running TV series, appears as the leader of the wagon train.

Though a fun film, it is wildly inaccurate.  Jim Bridger was only 5 years older than Carson but he is played by 53 year-old Raymond Hatton to the 25 year-old Jon Hall.  Huh.  Carson was only 5'6" but is portrayed by 6'1" Hall.  Huh.  Carson and Fremont's first expedition in 1842 never went to California.  Their second one, in 1843, did.  It was their third expedition in 1845 that coincided with the Mexican-American War and the Bear Flag Revolt.  Jose Castro was the commanding general of Alta California during the war but never engaged in a battle.  In 1840, Fremont married Jessie Benton, daughter of the powerful Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and was therefore unlikely to propose marriage to a woman on her way to California.  Likewise, Carson had married Josefa Jaramillo in 1843, with whom he had 8 children.  The romance angle of the movie is out of place.

Popcorn fun but terrible history.

A Quest for Amber

If you enjoy my blog, perhaps you'll like my book: A Quest for Amber

The Final Debate

Whoever you are for won the debate.  If you're for Biden, the attacks on Trump's finances, racist policies, and lack of empathy were damning.  If you're for Trump, the pounding on Biden's decades of not getting it done and frequent references to Hunter were devastating.  If you were for Welker, she was by far the most commanding of all the moderators although her bias toward Biden was pretty clear.

I would give the win to Trump.  He was more controlled than his last debate.  This is probably because he was forced to be thanks to the muted microphone.  He repeatedly hit Biden on the obvious question: you were VP for 8 years and didn't get it done.  Why didn't you let Obama know how to get it done.  Though the MSM is still trying to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story, Trump hammered it.  Joe replied with denials that could come back to bite him soon.

For a guy who everyone says is suffering dementia, Biden did well but never effectively answered the point of having been there already and not gotten it done.  He made the claim of a Republican congress.  True.  But there was the first year where the Democrats controlled both houses and the presidency.  Trump had that same benefit for 2 years.  As for Hunter, one has to be willfully obtuse not to know his financial success is directly tied to his father's political career.  Same goes for any of Trump's kids.  Hunter isn't rich because of his keen business sense.

As to the moderator, I was unimpressed.  Why is it that in the four debates (#2 was cancelled but still worth mentioning), all the moderators are Democrats.  Admittedly, I don't know their registration but it was obvious in every case that they were pro-Biden and anti-Trump.  Who's Chris Wallace voting for?  How about Susan Page?  Steve Scully?  Kristen Welker?  Every one of them is a Biden voter.  Why do Republicans let this happen every single election?  Welker was more of an interviewer than a moderator.  She constantly cut off any debate between Trump and Biden because 'we have a lot of questions to get to.'  Who came up with this format?  Why not let the candidates decide what questions to ask and have the moderator just try to keep the time even and maybe move things along if there is a lull.  You know, what the candidates thing is important might tell us a lot rather than what the moderator thinks is important.  When the interruption numbers come in, it is going to be astonishingly lopsided as to how often she cut off Trump vs. Biden.  Two Democrats vs. one Republican.  Typical.

The Dog that Didn't Bark

Jonathan Turley offered a keen insight about the Hunter Biden's emails regarding the Biden Campaign's reaction.  There are three obvious responses that have not been offered.

1. That's not Hunter's laptop.  If it's not his laptop, say so.  Get in front of this hoax.  That the campaign hasn't pursued this line of attack says they think it probably is Hunter's laptop.

2. Those aren't Hunter's emails.  If this is bogus, why not challenge the authenticity of the emails or the pictures.  No claims that these are fake.  Interesting.

3. Defamation.  A major paper has printed clearly defamatory claims against Hunter Biden and, if it's not true, he should be suing them.

Rather than deny the authenticity of the claims, the campaign has offered specific responses regarding Joe Biden's schedule not showing the meeting reported in the emails.  Huh.  Well, if it isn't on his schedule, it must not have happened because nothing gets left off the schedule.  This doesn't exactly sound like a denial.

It is clear that Hunter Biden got his high paying position in Burisma because he was the Vice President's son.  Why else would a foreign company hire a man who was kicked out of the navy for drug use?  Not for his judgement.  Could it be that his father was the point man for Ukraine in the Obama Administration?  No, that's just a coincidence.

An October Surprise

The New York Post has emails revealing Hunter Biden's dealings with Burisma and implicating his father in the scandal.  Here's Tim Pool on the topic:

Of note, Facebook and Twitter have blocked this story.  There are stories that the public should not read.

VP Debate

Quick thoughts

Pence was calm, collected, and unflappable.  Unlike Trump, he was controlled and measured, rarely offering an interruption.  However, he did finish his point.  It was almost comical how he would drone away as Susan Page kept telling him that his time was up.  He was never rude but definitely firm and resolute.  Wow, this guy is great.  He got a little repetitive but that is how you make it stick with the audience.  What I took away from his comments was that Biden will raise my taxes, cozy up to China, coddle the Iranians, rejoin the Paris Accords, and end fossil fuels.  Sounds grim.

By comparison to the granite like calm of Pence, Harris seemed nervous.  Of course, compared to Trump, she would have appeared to be the calm one.  Oddly enough, this debate also reminded me of the VP debate of Biden vs. Ryan but in a completely different way.  Biden had come across as the confident old hand while Ryan was the young recruit.  In this case, Pence was the veteran while Harris was the recruit.  This same thing happened with Benson vs. Quayle in 1988.  Harris was mostly on attack.  From her, I took away that Trump has ruined the economy, failed in addressing Covid-19 such that 210,000 Americans are dead, that Trump tax cuts were for the wealthy, that our world standing is in the toilet, that we lost the trade war with China, and Trump won't condemn white supremacy.

Susan Page was better than Chris Wallace but that may just be that she had more cooperative debaters.  Her questions were slanted left, as one expects.  Of note, she is writing a biography of Nancy Pelosi but had previously written one of Barbara Bush, so the complaints on that point are weak.  It was odd that she asked what Pence would do if Trump didn't accept electoral defeat and for balance she asked Harris what she would do if Trump didn't accept defeat.  Hmm.  Pence noted that Hillary advised that Biden should not concede under any circumstances and that the Democrats still haven't accepted defeat from 2016.  Maybe a fair question for Harris would have been, "Will Joe Biden accept the election results?"  You know, like Chris Wallace asked Trump, but not Hillary, in 2016.

Pence won.  His demeanor and iron control were palpable.  His attacks were more difficult to rebut - especially the Green New Deal line of attack - and he had better replies to Harris's attacks.  His question about stacking the court and Harris's refusal to answer was telling.  After she was done with her non-answer, Pence tossed in the aside that she didn't answer.  Nice.  His reply to the 8th grader was reassuring and uniting while Harris offered a youth are the future boilerplate.  Really, Pence's answer seemed like it was pre-planned it was so good.  Nonetheless, I don't think this moved the needle.  People don't vote for VP.  Then again, as Susan Page brought up, one of these two will be VP to the oldest president in American history.  They have higher odds than most VPs of getting elevated.  If it did move the needle, it was toward Trump-Pence.

The First Debate

Quick thoughts.

Trump was boorish and overbearing.  He barely let Biden speak with his constant interruptions.  What is funny is that it reminded me of how Biden debated Ryan in 2012.  Well, Biden wasn't rude and overbearing but he constantly interrupted.  Trump had a hard time staying on topic but he was dogged about answering Biden's accusations.  Though he clearly dominated, it didn't come across well.  Seemed almost like bullying.

Biden was rather passive.  Where was that Biden who schooled Ryan?  Though I thought Ryan won that debate on substance, Biden won it on optics.  Here, he was getting steamrolled and waited for Wallace to tame Trump.  If Biden can't handle Trump, what is he going to do when facing Putin and Xi? 

Wallace was clearly on Biden's side, especially as the debate continued.  Trump even asked if he was debating Wallace, which he often was.  To an extent, perhaps Wallace was trying to balance the scales since Trump was bulldozing Biden.  When it came to climate change, Wallace was debating Trump and Biden was just a bystander.  Has this become a hostile interview?

Overall, I'd say it was a draw.  Biden exceeded expectations in that he didn't say something truly bizarre (e.g. "dog-faced pony soldier") and managed to remain coherent.  Despite his verbosity, Trump lacked focus.  Sometimes, he was on point but other times he rambled.  Browbeating a senior citizen (I know they are both senior citizens but Joe looks it) is not commendable.  Wallace was a failure as a moderator.  He couldn't maintain control and let his bias show.  He grilled Trump about the recent tax story but then pretended that the ballot harvesting story from Minneapolis (released the same day as the tax story) never happened when they discussed ballot integrity.  He demanded Trump denounce white supremacists but didn't make a similar demand for Biden to denounce Antifa/BLM.

The Nest (2020)

Rory O'Hara (Jude Law) lives in New York with his wife Alison (Carrie Coons) and two kids, Samantha - Alison's daughter from a previous marriage - and Benjamin. It is the early 1980s and Rory's professional career is not what he wants so he suggests a move to London. Alison is not so keen but nonetheless the family moves. Rory is greeted as a prodigal son at his old firm, a genius trader who moved to America for the American Dream. At first, all seems amazing. They moved from a nice suburban home into a huge country estate. Rory is the toast of the town while Sam and Ben are enrolled in fine schools. It's all a facade. Soon, the family is crumbling, emotionally and financially.

This is mostly a difficult movie to watch because it is one long slide into oblivion. There is nothing really to like about the characters. The acting is fine but the story is about failure.

Hard pass.

Red Dwarf: The Promised Land

3 million years ago, Dave Lister (Craig Charles) brought a pregnant cat aboard the mining ship Red Dwarf. The captain demanded that he hand over the cat so it could be terminated. Dave refused and was placed in stasis. Thus, he was spared from the radiation leak that killed the crew. His cat also survived and spawned a race of Felis Sapiens. Eventually, the cat folk departed the Red Dwarf with the exception of Cat (Danny John-Jules). Today, three cat priests have been sentenced to death for adhering to the worship of Cloister (i.e. Lister). They escape only to have a chance meeting with Cloister himself.

The Red Dwarf crew return for another comic sci-fi adventure. Lister, Cat, Rimmer (Chris Barrie), and Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) find themselves ejected from Red Dwarf thanks to having reinstalled Holly (Norman Lovett), who now has no recollection of these stowaways. While seeking a new ship, they come upon the trio of priests and soon find themselves pitted against Rodon (Ray Fearon) the leader of the feral cats and self-proclaimed living god.

Though funny throughout, this is more sentimental than the standard Dwarf fare. The series has been going for more than 30 years and its hard not to be sentimental.

Highly recommended.

Supreme Court Emergency

With the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court is down to 8 members.  It went a whole year with only 8 members in 2016/7 so this should be no big deal.  No urgency.  Or is there?  Obviously, the Republicans have an incentive to move as quickly as possible lest they lose either the Presidency or the Senate - possibly both - in the election.  That's a politics question and politicians love to play politics.  However, there is another thing to consider.  The coming election may be contested.  Hillary Clinton has advised Joe Biden not to concede under any circumstances.  The push for unsolicited mail-in ballots - if enacted - is litigation waiting to happen.  Unless someone landslides - and maybe not even then - this election is already looking to replay the Bush v. Gore Fiasco of 2000.  Who decided that one?  The Supreme Court.  If we go to the court and it has only 8 members, a 4-4 decision could happen.  Then what?  The decision of a lower court stands?  Some regional court has final say on a national crisis?  I don't think that will be satisfying to the losers of that ruling.  Of course, the losers of a Supreme Court ruling won't be happy either.

2020 has been such a crazy year that a confirmation hearing during the election season is just what the country needs.  Trump can nominate a woman and let's see if the Democrats give her the Kavanaugh treatment.  Heck, Joe Biden should welcome the topic during the debates.  Although, there is some doubt about Joe doing debates.

Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Younger Sister

Enola Holmes is set for release later this month.  Huh, what is this about?  Clicking over to the description on IMDb, I see the following introduction:

When Enola Holmes-Sherlock's teen sister-discovers her mother missing, she sets off to find her, becoming a super-sleuth in her own right as she outwits her famous brother and unravels a dangerous conspiracy around a mysterious young Lord.

His younger sister 'outwits' him.  The most famous sleuth in fiction is outwitted by a teenaged girl.  Gee, yet another movie that elevates a female character by diminishing an established male character (e.g. Rey and Luke Skywalker).  That sounds like a great way to turn away fans of the established character.

It happens that this is based on a novel series by author Nancy Springer who has written half a dozen such mysteries.  Are they good?  I don't know and I'm unlikely to find out.  Go create an original character without borrowing the fame of an established one.  I don't want to read about Hercule Poirot's smarter younger sister, Philip Marlowe's wittier sister, or Sam Spade's more intelligent sister.  How about creating a unique, new female sleuth like Veronica Mars, Miss Marple, or Nancy Drew.  Eidos didn't create Indiana Jones more adventurous younger sister, Florida Jones.  No, they made Lara Croft!  That is how it's done.  This is akin to fan fiction that rides on the shoulders of established characters while simultaneously belittling them.  However, it is clearly a successful strategy.  I somehow doubt that there would have been a book six for Enola Smith and her less intelligent brother Walter Smith.

When Police Kill

Franklin Zimring, criminologist and law professor at UC Berkley, was a guest on EconTalk and they discussed his 2017 book, When Police Kill.  He posited that police are far too willing to resort to deadly force.  Far more people are killed by police than are executed after a conviction.  To resolve this, he suggested specific rules for police officers so as to reduce the number of civilian deaths.  For example, a suspect armed with a gun is a truly lethal threat but a knife or a bat is virtually never lethal according to the statistics.  Therefore, rules should be established for not shooting given certain circumstances.  If the officer does shoot, sanctions can be imposed and the police department can be sued.  Many civilians die because police continue to shoot.  If struck by one bullet, survival odds are good.  With each additional bullet, the odds of death go up.  Zimring proposes a stop shooting rule.  Zimring observed that NYC was a model to follow as the civilian deaths had fallen from 70+ a year in the 1970s to less than 10.  However, he doesn't detail what NYC did to improve the numbers.  Did NYPD institute his new rules?

Overall, I found his proposals to be mostly ludicrous.  The reason that bats and knives are rarely lethal to police officers is because the assailant brought a knife/bat to a gunfight.  If police must match threat level, the lethality of knives and bats will go up.  He puts most of the onus on the police to prevent civilian deaths but none on the assailants.  Gee, if you didn't rush the officer, fight with the officer, refuse to follow instructions, you would be just fine in 99% of the cases.  On the EconTalk webpage, the comments were almost all in opposition to Zimring's arguments.

Though the topic is clearly an important and timely one, Zimring is the wrong person to address it.  He came across as anti-police rather than someone out to improve policing.  His primary method of modifying police behavior was to expose them to substantial fines.  Police departments already get sued and it is the taxpayer who pays.

Generally, not an episode I would suggest.  I was mostly annoyed by it.  As mentioned, the commentary was almost entirely anti-Zimring and often more thoughtful than Zimring.  I got a better understanding of police shootings based on the commentary than from the podcast.

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

A pair of bushwhackers flee from a posse and find themselves in a peculiar Indian burial ground.  There is eerie howling that doesn't sound natural.  Suddenly, one is shot in the throat and the other flees for his life.  Eleven days later, he finds himself in the town of Bright Hope.  His manner attracts the attention of Sheriff Hunt (Kurt Russell).  As he tries to run, Hunt shoots him in the leg.  With the town doctor drunk, Mrs. O'Dwyer (Lili Simmons) is summoned to the jail to extract the bullet.  By morning, the prisoner, the deputy, and Mrs. O'Dwyer are missing along with half a dozen horses.  The stable boy is dead.  An unusual arrow is found and a local Indian identifies it as belonging to troglodytes, a savage band of cannibals who reside in the Valley of Starving Men.  Sheriff Hunt, Deputy Chicory (Richard Jenkins), John Brooder (Matthew Fox) and Arthur O'Dwyer (Patrick Wilson) set out to rescue the missing people.

Though the story has a horror element to it, it mostly plays as a standard western until the final act.  The four men who set our are not well-suited to the task.  O'Dwyer has a broken leg, the reason why he was still in town rather than herding cattle north to Wyoming with most of the town's other men.  Though urged to stay behind, he must try to rescue his wife.  Brooder is a dandy who kills without compunction and has a special dislike for Indians.  He is the best equipped of the group.  Sheriff Hunt is competent but has only nominal command over Brooder and O'Dwyer.  Chicory is an elderly fellow who talks endlessly, much to the irritation of his fellows.

As promised, the troglodytes are cannibals who speak by howling and keep their 'meals' alive until it's time to dine.  Their weapons are amazingly crude but lethal.  Of note, they use an animals jawbone as an axe, the titular bone tomahawk.

The movie has one particularly funny bit.  Brooder claims to be the smartest member of the posse.  When challenged on that by Chicory, he states that O'Dwyer and Hunt are married and Chicory is a widower.  So?  "Smart men don't get married."  QED.  :)

The movie is overlong and spends much of its time on the journey to the Valley of the Starving Men.  Though they encounter hazards along the way, it is never the troglodytes.  Imagine Aliens where three quarters of the movie is spent before the characters engage the aliens.  There is a lot of time spent on the interrelationships of the posse and not a lot of fighting the monsters.

Just okay.

Free Market Health Care

Anesthesiologist Kevin Smith was a guest on Econtalk.  He established the Surgery Center of Oklahoma in the late 90s.  The goal of the center was to offer posted prices for various surgical procedures.  Amazingly, by removing insurance and providing cash-only procedures, the surgery center costs a fraction of what it does under the predominant system. The repeated example during the discussion was a back surgery that was listed at $100,000 on the hospital bill. The insurance company 'negotiated' a payment of $13,000. Wow, that sounds like they did a great job. The surgery center provides the same procedure for $10,000. That is a tenth of the 'supposed' price and even 30% below the 'negotiated' price. How does any of this make sense?

According to Kevin, insurance companies take the 'savings' to their customers and then ask for a percentage. Thus, in the case of the back surgery, they 'saved' the client $87,000 and request 10% of the savings, $8,700. The client is still only paying $22,700 for a $100,000 procedure. It's still a deal, right? On the other side, the hospital can report $87,000 of uncompensated care to get money from government funding. An inflated list price benefits both the hospital and the insurance company.

Also noteworthy was the number of Canadians who travel to Oklahoma and pay for a surgery despite the fact that they have full coverage under the Canadian system. What's up with that? It turns out that a single payer system leads to long wait times. You can wait 3 months in Canada or come to Oklahoma.

Our health care cost structure is intentionally indecipherable because the complexity benefits insurance companies and some in the health care industry. Smith has no trouble luring surgeons to his center on a piecework basis; cash work pays better than the headache of Medicare, Medicaid, insurance submissions, etc. Smith holds that a movement toward free market health care is underway and will transform the health care industry.

Faster, please!

Brandon Straka

Just watched a YouTube video of Brandon Straka, founder of the #WalkAway movement.  I had blogged about the movement shortly before the 2018 midterms and, based on the results, figured it was more hype than grassroots movement.  What was interesting about the video was Brandon's backstory.  He had been a Democrat voter all his life and voted for Hillary in 2016.  He loathed Trump, especially for Trump's mocking of a disabled reporter.  Check it out here.  Brandon blasted Trump supporters with this incident, asking how they could support such a person.  One of those Trump supporters asked him to view this.  It turns out that this is something Trump does when criticizing people and had nothing to do with the disability.  This was Brandon's epiphany.  This was the moment when Brandon asked if the media was lying to him?  A long time fan of MSNBC, he now questioned what the network reported.  His belief system collapsed and #WalkAway was born.

That this small event should be the keystone to Brandon's politics is strange.  Trust, once broken, is hard to restore.  Once he questioned the reporting, he had to confirm the accuracy.  Of course, the Very Fine People Hoax only confirmed that the media lied about Trump, a lie that is still being told in the current presidential campaign.  Glenn Reynolds suggests that if you view the mainstream media as Democrats with bylines, you won't go far wrong.

Is #WalkAway a real movement now?  Maybe.  It didn't make a difference in 2018.  Will it in 2020?  Maybe.  There is also Blexit (Black Exit), the movement launched by Candace Owens to convince African-Americans to leave the Democratic Party.  Is it a real thing or just hype?  These and more questions to be answered in November.

Read the Transcript

Joe Biden has referenced the Very Fine People Hoax again.  If you read the transcript, not only does Trump explain who he meant by fine people, he also explicitly condemns Neo-Nazis and white supremacists.  This is exactly why he rants about fake news.

Check it out for yourself here.

According to Scott Adams, Joe Biden has either shown that he doesn't know it's a hoax (in which case he is too dumb to be president) or he does know and wants to divide the country for his electoral benefit (in which case he is evil and not fit to be president).  It is most likely the former.  Joe doesn't seem like the kind of guy who could Google it.  He probably takes the word of his handlers.

Mail-In Voting Fiasco

Many say that mail-in voting is no different than absentee voting.  Why all the panic?  Why will it be a disaster, Trump?  One needs to request an absentee ballot.  In fact, if everyone requested an absentee ballot under the current system, we could do mail-in voting already.

One must apply for an absentee ballot.  Once the request has been submitted, the ballot is provided and the voter can send it in before the deadline.  Easy peasy.  But note that first part: one must apply for the ballot.  Under the proposed plan for mail-in voting, ballots will be mailed en masse to registered voters.  I still get mail for the previous owners of this house; will I get a ballot for them?  Could I send it in?  Under the current system, only 60% of voters bother to go to the polls.  It is under 50% during non-presidential election years.  How much you want to bet someone will collect that 40% of mailed ballots and send them in?  The opportunity for fraud is staggering.  Then there is the problem of rejecting ballots and delayed counts, like in the NY primary.  You can't reject 20% to 30% of the mail in votes and then declare a winner in a close contest that will be accepted by the losing side.  Heck, it turned into a court case.  Remember how well it went when the court 'decided' the 2000 election.  Now, that's the ballots that arrived to be counted.  What about the ones that got lost by the post office?  Not likely?  Well, CBS ran a test.  On the first batch, 3% didn't arrive.  Well, that's not so bad.  On the second batch, 21% didn't arrive.  Oh, this is going to go great.

Given 40% apathetic voters with 'unused' ballots, plus 3% to 20% loss in the mail, plus 20% to 30% mail-in ballot rejection, I am totally going to trust whatever the results are.  Yeah, there isn't going to be any doubt about the results.  If the mail-in results overturn the polling station results, look for Scott Adams' civil war to commence soon after.

If it is safe enough to go to the grocery store, it is safe enough to go to the polls.  If you can't be bothered to either go to the polls or at least apply for the absentee ballot, you shouldn't vote.