The Argentine Surplus

Javier Milei assumed office in December and immediately sliced and diced the government.  As promised in his campaign, he took a chainsaw to the government budget and reduced costs.  Only three months later, Argentina is running a surplus!  Hey, let's try that here!  Government spends too much and does too much.  Just as Lewis and Clark blazed a trail westward that others soon followed, Milei has carved out a path to smaller government.  Let's follow that trail!

The government that governs least governs best.

Thomas Jefferson

The Scalphunters (1968)

Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster) has just spent the winter collecting pelts when he is surrounded by Kiowa warriors.  Two Crows, the leader, wants the pelts and is willing to trade a black man for them.  Joe has no interest in an escaped slave but the deal is forced on him.  Joseph Lee (Ossie Davis) was a house slave in Louisianna and happens to be surprisingly well-educated.  Though Joseph explains how he was recently captured from the Comanche and would like to be returned to the Comanche, Joe Bass decides he would be worth more if sold back into slavery.  Futhermore, Joe explains how there is a jug of whiskey hidden inside the pelts and he expects the Kiowa will be dead drunk this evening.  It will be the perfect time to sneak into camp and abscond with his pelts.  They have hardly arrived to surveil the Kiowa campsite when scalp hunters led by Jim Howie (Telly Savalas) slaughter them.  The scalphunters ride off with the pelts!  While Joseph thinks that's the end of that, Joe is still determined to get his pelts.

The scalphunters have several wagons, several women, and about a dozen men.  Jed (Dabney Coleman) is Jim's righthand while Kate (Shelly Winters) is the woman he tries to please.  Kate is not easily pleased.  She makes demands of Jim that he usually obeys.  Maybe she's Jim's righthand?

Mostly, this is Joseph Lee's story.  He starts off as property of the Kiowa, finds himself traded to Joe Bass, and later falls into the hands of Jim Howie and his band of scalphunters.  Though everyone wants to sell him as a slave (he's worth $1000 to $1500!), he is determined to get to Mexico where slavery is illegal.  He has a real talent for manipulating people.

Strange to say, this movie about men who scalp Indians was often comedic.  The interactions between Joe Bass and Joseph Lee are funny and sometimes slapstick.  Then, in the next scene, someone is run through with a spear.  That switch is often jarring.  The comedy is a little too heavy at parts.  Joe Bass, who is cunning through much of the movie, suddenly turns doltish as the plot requires.

The time period of the movie is inscrutable.  Most of the guns are post-Civil War weapons.  However, it is clearly during or before the Civil War since slavery is still legal.  The heyday of the mountain man hunting pelts was from 1820 to 1840.  Yes, many continued for years after but the fur market had crashed with a change in fashion.  The most infamous of the scalp hunters were John Joel Glanton (1819 - 1850) and James Kirker (1793-1852).  Each had crews of men with whom they slaughtered Indians or anyone whose scalp might pass as Indian.  They would collect the bounty from Mexico, who could not post enough soldiers to protect the northern frontier from Indian depredations.

Ahistorical in its setting, it is still good popcorn fun.

The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (2020)

Paul Hogan returns in this quirky comedy based on his life after Crocodile Dundee.  While his manager, Angie (Rachael Carpani), tries to get him a new movie deal and arrange his imminent knighthood, Paul's life spins out of control through a series of unfortunate events.  First, he defended himself from a snake by batting it away... into the face of a 5th grade teacher!  Oops.  Next, he doesn't like the movie pitch where Will Smith is his son... because he's black.  Did they not see the previous Dundee movies?  Of course, that's not how the press reports it.  When he finds himself in a car chase from the police through the street of LA, it has really gotten out of hand.  If it can go wrong, it does.

Though there is the overall arc of Paul's public life becoming a nightmare, he rolls with the punches and isn't much concerned by it.  Some of the comedy bits have nothing to do with the life-in-ruins arc, just random sketch comedy.  Wayne Knight as a bad house guest, failed paparazzi loitering at his house, and so forth.  I'm generally baffled why his 'son' had such a large part in the movie since he really didn't add anything.  Wow, you've got a multi-talented son who has an active social life.  This is light and fun, an entertaining diversion with a wide-variety of cameos.  John Cleese is the standout as an Uber driver, but there is also Olivia Newton-John, Reginald VelJohnson, and Oscar-winner Chevy Chase.

Some of the best comedy had nothing to do with the storyline.  At one point, the producers suggested a new Crocodile Dundee film where his wife has been killed and he's out for vengeance with a sexy park ranger!  Rachel McAdams is suggested.  Paul shakes his head.  "I'm 80!  She's like 30."

"Right!  She's too old!  Who was in High School Musical that we can cast?"  Funny!

A large chunk of the movie is Paul watching how the news reports his misadventures.  There's texting and facetime, news programs and red-carpet interviews.  Life as a celebrity is a PR campaign.

Fun and nostalgic.  Recommended.

Primaries Over

Though it is unclear as of this writing if Nikki Haley will end her campaign for president, it is clear that she has no traction.  Her home state of South Carolina, where she served as governor for 6 years, has chosen Donald Trump by a 60-40 margin in today's primary.  If you cannot carry your home state, what chance is there anywhere else?  Trump is 5-0 in the contests so far.

On the Democratic side, Joe Biden is 3-0 vs. the only remaining opponent, Dean Phillips.  As only two states have awarded delegates for the Democrats so far, I won't call this one over yet but Phillips better have a good showing in the next 2 outings or he's also done.

RFK Jr. withdrew from the Democratic nomination even before voting began and is now running an independent campaign.  Independent candidacies rarely achieve anything.  Without a party to do ground work, he'll needed to create his own party apparatus to get the vote out.  Unlikely to achieve even the impact of the Green Party or the Libertarian Party.

It does look like we are headed for a rematch from 2020.  Both candidates now have presidential records that can be compared.  Which one looks better?  Does it matter?  Of course, a lot can happen in the next 8 1/2 months.

Hunted Like a Wolf

In this brief book, Marvin Meltzer describes how the Seminoles came to live in Florida, their lifestyle, and how they soon became an obstacle to white expansion into the state.  The book mostly details the Second Seminole War, which started at the end of 1835 and didn't conclude until August 1842.  After a series of clashes between Seminole Indians and whites, the US government foisted treaties on the Seminoles.  The Seminoles were mostly helpless observers where these treaties were concerned.  One of the big issues with the Seminoles was that they had become a haven for runaway slaves.  That nearly half of Seminole warriors were escaped slaves or free blacks was a closely guarded secret.  The war might look too much like a slave revolt than just another Indian war.  By 1835, Florida was a powder keg.  President Jackson had already arranged for moving the various tribes from the east and into Oklahoma.  The Seminole proved the most intransigent and attacked US forces in December 1835.  Francis Dade and his column of around 100 soldiers were almost complete wiped out; only one survivor to tell the tale.  The Seminole War was on!

President Jackson dispatched General Winfield Scott to bring the Seminoles to heel.  His plan for converging columns didn't work well in the trackless swamps of Florida.  He was soon replaced by General Call, the territorial governor.  His efforts proved no more effective than Scott's.  General Thomas Jesup was given the command and admitted it was tougher than he expected.  He resorted to treachery, asking chiefs to come discuss peace only to then toss these very chiefs into prison.  Osceola, one of the most effective Seminole leaders, was captured this way and died a few months later in a military prison.  Zachary Taylor was the next to take command and he fought the largest engagement of the war, the Battle of Lake Okeechobee.  However, Taylor was just as unable to tame the Seminole as his predecessors.  Next, General Armistead took his turn, providing the same mediocre results.  Colonel William Jenkins Worth was given the command and made it a policy to always be pursing the Seminoles.  Where other generals had taken the summers off, Worth kept the men in the field.  Though he had some success and managed to nab the last of the notable leaders, there were still Seminoles hiding in the Everglades.  Worth suggested leaving them there, which is what several of his predecessors had also advised.  President Tyler, the 4th president to preside over the war, agreed.

Drawing heavily on John Mahon's account of the war, this is a shorter treatment.  The tone is very harsh toward the Americans, which may be entirely justified.  Clearly, the Americans displaced the Seminoles from lands they had long inhabited and offered comparatively little compensation and bad justification.  Of course, 19th century attitudes were very different from 20th century attitudes.  Every culture took advantage of the weaker cultures.  Such goes back millennia.

Just okay.  Even so, I recommend reading Mahon's History of the Second Seminole War instead.

The Sea Wolves (1980)

In the Indian Ocean during World War II, the Germans are sinking British ships with astonishing regularity.  It is as if the Germans know when and where to find the ships.  It is suspected that the Germans have a spy in the Portuguese port of Goa on the west coast of India.  Indeed, three German ships are anchored in the harbor but the Portuguese - who are neutral in the war - have removed the radios.  Colonel Lewis Pugh (Gregory Peck) and Captain Gavin Stewart (Roger Moore) travel to Goa to investigate.  While there, attempts are made on their lives and they conclude that a secret radio is on one of the German ships.  Again, as this is a neutral port, British commandos can't just attack.  Instead, Colonel Pugh calls upon the Calcutta Light Horse, a group of retired soldiers who are eager to help the war effort.  Colonel William "Bill" Grice (David Niven) is their commanding officer.  They plan to sail a junker of an Indian riverboat into Goa harbor and assault the German ships by surprise.  Major Crossley (Patrick Macnee) is an explosives expert who will make sure all the German ships are sunk.  Can a bunch of middle-aged and out of shape former soldiers pull off a daring assault?

While Colonel Pugh leads the assault, Captain Stewart and Jack Cartwright (Trevor Howard) plan a variety of distractions for the night of the raid: a high-end party, a fireworks show, and free brothels paid by an eccentric German philanthropist!  Not one to be all business, James Bond... er... Gavin Stewart finds time to romance Mrs. Cromwell (Barbara Kellerman).  Of course, he does not realize that she is a German spy who is having a hard time deciding if she should kill him or not.  Gee, that doesn't sound like a retread of The Spy Who Loved Me.

Made by the same team that produced The Wild Geese, the original casting had hoped to include Richard Burton and Richard Harris as Pugh and Grice.  The movie does have a Wild Geese feel to it with a batch of older men playing soldier in this off-the-books raid.  The movie delivers what it promises, a commando raid by retirees, but it fails to have memorable characters or particularly good action scenes.  The most interesting characters were James Bond... er... Gavin Stewart and Jack Cartwright.  Trevor Howard, who is usually the commander in such films, is here a retiree desperate for action and willing to take any role.  He can be cantankerous, funny, and oddly charming.  Something of a departure for him, at least of the roles I've seen of his.

This is based on a true story and the historical photos of Pugh, Stewart, and Grice are shown in the credits.  Even so, it is just okay.

The Dain Curse (1978)

Hamilton "Ham" Nash (James Coburn) is a private investigator working for an agency.  The "Old man" who runs the agency sends him to investigate a diamond heist.  Nothing seems to add up.  One diamond was on the stoop, apparently dropped by the thief.  The rest of the diamonds were tiny and hardly worth stealing.  Looking around the house, the thief would have to ignore far more valuable stuff to take the diamonds.  Nash has an odd encounter with the daughter, Gabrielle, who claims to be suffering the Dain Curse.  Nash has hardly begun the investigation when the diamonds are recovered, and the thief is found dead.  Nash realizes there is more to this heist than meets the eye.

This made for TV miniseries is a convoluted mess that takes several short stories and stiches them into a single meandering narrative.  The 3-hour version is incomplete, having sliced out large chunks from the full miniseries.  At the end of one scene, Gabrielle is holding a bloody knife and confessing to a murder while her fiancé and Nash stand nearby.  Then, practically the next scene, there is a discussion of her husband's murder and her kidnapping.  Huh?  When did he get killed?  When was the wedding?  What kidnapping?!  There are several times that Nash or someone else refers to an event or conversation that was not shown.  Who edited this cut?  Entirely too much time is dedicated to Nash's efforts to cure Gabrielle of morphine addiction.

Nash is a keen investigator and seldom misses clues.  However, I had picked out the main villain fairly early and was a bit disappointed that it took Nash so much longer.  Coburn is good in the role and may even be terrific in the full cut, but the Amazon cut is confusing and incomplete.

Skip.

Dinotopia (2002)

In a sudden storm, half-brothers Karl (Tyron Leitso) and David Scott (Wentworth Miller) crash into the ocean with their father on a small plane.  The brothers escape the sinking plane but their father does not.  The pair manage to swim to shore and encounter Cyrus Crabb (David Thewlis), a vaguely sinister fellow who proves to nonetheless be helpful.  He guides them to the nearest town.  Here, the brothers encounter dinosaurs!  An ankylosaurus with a toothache rampages through the street until Marion (Katie Carr) calms it and yanks out the troublesome tooth.  Karl and David are agape.  With a return to civilization declared impossible, the two must somehow acclimate to this new world.  David eagerly embraces Dinotopia, but Karl resists all efforts to assimilate.  To add to their troubles, the sunstones that power this world are failing.  Without the sunstones, the carnivores - led by a herd of T-Rexes - will lay waste to the cities and towns of Dinotopia.

Right out the gate, the idea of an undiscovered island the size of Jamaica is ludicrous.  Sure, maybe in the Age of Sail you could have unknown islands, but not in the Age of Satellites.  These dinosaurs survived the extinction thanks to the world below.  They took shelter underground until it was safe to come out.  The society of Dinotopia has both human and dinosaurs.  The human population has arrived in Dinotopia through shipwrecks over the centuries, thus providing a mix of cultures that have integrated into the wider society.  Though dinosaurs and humans are equal, there is only one dinosaur of note: Zipeau the Librarian.  Zipeau is the only dinosaur who is shown to have mastered English and accompany the heroes on their journeys.  Though friendly and helpful, he is rather dull-witted and a klutz: a dinosaur geek.

Jim Carter - best known for his role as Mr. Carson in Downton Abbey - plays Mayor Waldo.  Waldo is introduced in something close to a clown costume and never recovers.  As the society is collapsing around him, he chows down his vegetarian feast and claims all will be fine.  It is unclear if he is really in charge as he often defers to the grunting of dinosaurs.  Mayor Waldo is also Marion's father.  Alice Krige plays Marion's mother who lives far from Waldo.  She has a gift for identifying the attributes of people and this talent is unleashed on Karl and David.  She sees David as a man of the sky, which he views as crazy since he is afraid of heights.  Nonetheless, he is sent to Canyon City to learn how to fly dinosaurs.  Oonu (Colin Salmon) is the commander of the Skybax Riders.

Throughout the series, Cyrus Crabb plots.  Usually, he convinces Karl to steal this chronicle from the library or that sunstone from the hatchery in order to advance his inscrutable plans.  Despite his attempted murder of Zipeau, Cyrus is still walking freely through the capitol.  Like all villains, his cleverness varies depending on the needs of the plot.  Thewlis brought enough ambiguity to the character that he could easily have become an antihero.  In fact, but for his selfish machinations, Dinotopia would have been doomed with the failure of the sunstones.

The main characters are mediocre.  Karl is hostile to virtually everyone in Dinotopia and essentially demands that they figure out how to send him home.  He has no interest in getting along with anyone and says so.  He is not against committing crimes to further his efforts to escape Dinotopia.  He is hard to like.  David is more open to Dinotopia, embracing the culture and learning the language.  However, he comes across as a loser when he professes his love for Marion and is too terrified to jump over a gap that literally a dozen others have just safely and easily done.  Marion is the princess of Dinotopia, though not so named.  She has a knack for communing with dinosaurs.  Both brothers pursue her, but it is clear she is more attracted to Karl than David.  This love triangle is not resolved.

Though this was produced 9 years after Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs are less convincing.  Then again, this was a made-for-television production, so the special effects budget was limited.  It is good enough.  Had the story been better, the effects would not have had to carry so much weight.

Overall, mediocre.  Skip.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

John Watson (Alan Cox) arrives at Brompton Academy in London.  He has transferred in the middle of the term from a northern school.  He has hardly set down his bags when a tall, lean fellow regards him briefly then offers an uncanny description of him.  However, he guessed James rather than John.  This teenaged wonder is Sherlock Holmes.  Watson soon finds that Holmes spends a great deal of time with Professor Waxflatter and Elizabeth (Sophie Ward), Waxflatter's niece.  Coincidentally, Waxflatter has newspaper clippings lying around that detail recent peculiar deaths.  Holmes concludes they must be murders and begins his investigation with Watson and Elizabeth in tow!

The movie has some funny similarities to both the Harry Potter franchise and Indiana Jones.  Brompton Academy has a Hogwarts vibe, which is funny as it long predates the Harry Potter series.  However, writer Chris Columbus went on to direct the first two Harry Potter movies.  Ah, interesting.  One can see the heroic trio as Harry, Ron, and Hermione!  The bad kid looks uncannily like Draco Malfoy!  The scene where all the kids eat in the great hall only needed a few floating candles to fit neatly into Hogwarts.  As for the Indiana Jones connection, Stephen Spielberg was an executive producer of this film.  The presence of a secret society in a hidden temple who make sacrifices with boiling wax had an uncanny resemblance to Temple of Doom (1984).  In fact, if one takes Watson to be Short Round, Elizabeth to be Willie Scott, and Sherlock to be Indy, the similarities are uncanny.

There are the ludicrous bits, of course.  Professor Waxflatter has perfected a flying machine in 1870, which Holmes and Watson use to save the day in the climax.  Holmes stands on top of a chandelier that is 10 feet above a crowd of dozens and no one notices him.  Seriously, how did he get up there without being seen?  How is the guy at the altar blind to this skinny youth standing on the chandelier?  Ugh.  Where previous victims of a hallucinogenic poison could be counted on to accidentally kill themselves, Holmes and his crew are merely inconvenienced, somewhat comically in the case of Watson.

The movie openly admits that it is outside the Holmesian canon, as it proposes a meeting between Holmes and Watson when they were each 16.  In fact, they met in 1881 in A Study in Scarlett.  Rather than a bespectacled and pudgy man, Watson was described as thin and brown as a nut; he had just returned from India and the Second Anglo-Afghan War.  Clearly, the makers of the film used Nigel Bruce as their model rather than the literary Watson.

Like an Indiana Jones film, it has good pacing and plentiful action.  Though it clearly teases a sequel, a sequel was never made.  It had a mediocre box office performance, failing to launch the Young Sherlock series.  Just okay.

Climax at Buena Vista

In this 1966 book, David Lavender tracks the paths taken by Zachary Taylor and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to the epic battle at Buena Vista.  He details how Taylor established Camp Jessup on the Texas border as far back as 1821 and how Santa Anna himself had crossed La Angostura (the Mexican name for the narrows where the battle was fought) as far back as 1813.  In the wake of the annexation of Texas, Mexico and the United States had a diplomatic break and no effort by the US to cajole Mexico into negotiations worked.  So it was that Zachary Taylor was dispatched to the Rio Grande.  Both sides grew weary of the stalemate.  President Paredes ordered his army to attack the Americans.  Before President Polk even knew a battle had happened, he was composing his war message for Congress.  The war had begun.

While Taylor fought his way toward Buena Vista via the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterrey, Santa Anna had to smuggle himself back into Mexico.  He had been exiled in 1844 but the war offered opportunities.  He convinced Polk to let him through the blockade and he would negotiate.  Ha!  Once back, he assembled the largest army he could and marched north to crush the Americans.  Of course, it is entirely possible that Santa Anna was sincere when he made promises to negotiate but the political situation in Mexico would not allow it.  He was a man to capitalize on the currents rather than fight them.

Taylor heard rumors of a grand army but repeatedly dismissed them.  It would be impossible to march an army through the desert from San Luis Potosi.  The Mexicans had captured dispatches exposing the planned landing at Veracruz and it was more logical for Santa Anna to oppose General Winfield Scott's landing.  Even as more credible news arrived of a grand army approaching, Taylor dismissed it as overblown.  Boy, was he in for a surprise.  By the time he was convinced, it was almost too late when 15,000 troops appeared in the distance; Taylor had fewer than 5,000 troops.  Taylor abandoned his forward camp and raced back beyond the narrow pass at Buena Vista to secure his supplies and rear.  He left General John Ellis Wool to layout the planned battleground.

As Santa Anna assembled his troops, he requested Taylor's surrender.  Taylor declined.  Most of Taylor's regular troops had been taken for the landing at Veracruz.  He was left with mostly volunteer regiments; Taylor had long distrusted volunteer soldiers, but now his career - his life! - depended on them.  Luckily for Taylor, the Mexican troops were exhausted.  They had marched through the desert and were sent to battle with hardly a rest and hungry.  Santa Anna urged them on by saying the Americans had food aplenty if only we break through their lines.  And break the lines did!  The America left retreated before a strong Mexican press.  Jefferson Davis and his Mississippi Rifles, among others, plugged the hole and sent the Mexican Lancers back to their side of the line.

The battle began on February 22 and was resumed on February 23.  It was a very near thing.  In fact, Taylor fully expected to resume the battle the following day, but Santa Anna withdrew.  His troops were starving and exhausted.  Where the Americans had almost 300 killed and 400 wounded, the Mexicans had 600 killed, over 1,000 wounded, and nearly 2,000 missing (probably deserted).

Lavender does an outstanding job of leading both principal generals to the field of battle and detailing their epic clash.  A Mexican victory would have changed the war.  No other Mexican general could have assembled so great an army.  Polk had allowed the most potent threat against his war aims into the country!  Santa Anna came so close to victory.

Taylor was not a great tactician but he was a boon to troop morale.  His homespun demeanor and absolute fearlessness as bullets and cannon balls whizzed about him transferred to his troops.  He was unflappable.  After his first couple of battles, he was willing to hand off further fighting to General Winfield Scott.  However, then there was talk of him as a presidential candidate.  At first, he brushed it aside as nothing but as time went on, he warmed to the idea.  After he had captured Monterrey, he was sold on the idea.  This also made him see political machinations in everything thereafter.  President Polk was trying to ruin him, General Scott was out to sabotage him, Secretary of War Marcy was bypassing him.  He needed one more battle to cement his candidacy, but not as big as the one he got.

The book is absolutely terrific.  It is well-researched and makes for a gripping narrative of Taylor's part in the war.  Highly recommended.

The Game of Werewolf

Just encountered a brief clip from Triggernometry in which Graham Linehan details the game of werewolf, which is uncannily like the modern game of Among Us.  Cards are distributed among lots of players.  Most players will be villagers, but two will be werewolves.  Each turn, the werewolves pick someone to kill.  Then, everyone discusses who they think the werewolves might be and kill them.  The werewolves win the game if they kill all but two villagers.  The villagers win if they kill both werewolves.  Interesting, sure, but so what?  Well, it turns out that the werewolves usually win.  The game was designed as a sociological experiment to demonstrate that an informed minority will always win against an uninformed majority.

That our education system churns out uninformed voters is not accidental.  Back when Davey Crockett returned to his district in the 1830s, he had voters complain to him about voting for this or that bill when the Constitution clearly did not allow this or that provision.  Though they may have been farmers, they were clearly informed voters.  They held the government to account.  Today, we have voters who think 'hate speech' can be outlawed despite the 1st Amendment.  Having put education in the hands of government, the government has designed a curriculum to domesticate the population like a flock of sheep.

On another front, by curating what is and isn't news, the populace become the villagers while the news curators become the werewolves.  As shown, we know who wins that game.  Might cancel culture be a case of the werewolves killing the most troublesome villagers first?  As in a game of Among Us, are those who correctly identify the Impostor the first targets to be voted off the ship?

Putin Interview

The interview was mostly a history lecture delivered by Vladimir Putin.  His promised minute of background soon expanded to an hour of Russian history going back to the 9th century and the founding of Kiev (Kyiv) by the Rus.  The Rus were Vikings who raided east and are the titular source for Russia.  He explained how this early Russian state had the two poles of Novgorod and Kiev.  Through the centuries, what is now Ukraine was considered part of Russia, most especially that part east of the Dnieper River.  He blames Stalin for having allocated that region to the administrative authority of Ukraine, not really a country so much as a governmental district.  With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the mostly ethnically Russian eastern Ukraine and Crimea were stuck with the mixed ethnicities of western Ukraine.  That was not so bad.  The West promised not to advance NATO.  However, NATO did advance in waves and, in 2008, said the door was open for Ukraine.  He labeled the 2014 revolution in Ukraine to have been a coup d'etat engineered by the West.  From his perspective, the ethnically Russian east was being attacked by Western-backed neo-Nazis.  How could it be wrong for him to fight Nazis?  He brought up the instance of a former Nazi addressing the Canadian parliament and getting an ovation.  Sadly, that's a true story.

It was interesting but not particularly engaging.  Putin was very repetitive and Tucker mostly just sat listening.  This was not a back and forth conversation since they do not speak a common language.  Tucker did have some good questions.  Who blew up Nord Stream pipeline?  Putin said, "You."  Obviously, he meant the United States but Tucker responded by saying he had an alibi for that day.  Silliness.  Clarifying, Putin pointed the finger at the CIA, saying it required certain abilities to blow up a pipeline that far beneath the surface and that most countries didn't have the capacity.  Later, he asked why Putin didn't just deal with the US - as Ukraine is nothing but an American proxy - in order to secure a peace deal.  Putin stated that America could easily have Zelinsky agree to a peace if America wanted peace.  He announced a willingness to come to an agreement.  Tucker asked if he might invade Poland.  Certainly not.  Such would only happen if Poland attacked Russia.

Part of Putin's argument for annexing those parts of Ukraine that are east of the Dnieper River sounded a lot like Hitler's reasons for taking the Sudetenland in 1938.  Hitler said the region was populated by ethnic Germans, which was true.  However, it was also a natural barrier against German invasion.  Is this a case of history repeating?

Putin frequently accused the West of dealing in bad faith.  The advance of NATO and the long history of meddling in Ukraine was mentioned several times.  He suggested that US presidents weren't really in charge of foreign policy.  In a conversation with President Clinton, he asked if Russia could join NATO.  Clinton didn't give an answer at the time but later said not.  Putin viewed this as Clinton being told by the true powers that be what the answer should be.  He mentioned that he had good relations with George W. Bush and Donald Trump.  One supposes that means he didn't have good relations with Obama and Biden.

Clearly, if Putin ever leaves office, he has a bright future as a guest lecturer or even a professor of Russian History.  I took Russian History in college and he sounded spot on from my recollection.  However, the interview is slow and monotonous, only occasionally interesting.  Accusing the West is what you expect him to say, so little of it was a surprise.  The reaction from other media sources is the most surprising thing.  Jealousy that Carlson got the scoop?  Disappointment that Russia's side of the story has an outlet?  If you read to this point, you can skip watching the interview.

The Homesman (2014)

It is 1854 in Nebraska Territory and a trio of women are suffering prairie madness, a fairly common ailment at that time.  Obviously, the sparsely populated region cannot care for them and it is determined to send them east.  Mary Bee Cuddy (Hillary Swank), who is an unmarried woman, is selected to transport them.  On her way to her farm with the wagon, she comes across a man (Tommy Lee Jones) with a noose around his neck and sitting on a horse.  She agrees to release him if he will agree to accompany her to Iowa.  Of course, he agrees.  The pair retrieve the three women - one is catatonic, one is bound and shrieking, and the last is listless.  The journey across the desolate prairie begins.

Hillary Swank is excellent as the lonely but self-sufficient frontier woman.  Her precise backstory is not detailed but she has a fine plot of land that is well-maintained.  She grew up in New York, can sing and play piano, knows how to handle a rifle, and is viewed as the equal of most men in her community.  Though she has tried to marry, she has thus far failed to attract a husband.  It is soon clear that she has a prepared script for proposing to single men.  However, she has been rejected for being plain and too bossy.  Mary is a caring and compassionate woman, but intensely lonely.  Swank embodies this beautifully.  Outstanding performance.

Tommy Lee Jones plays a disreputable prairie tramp who, through his association with Mary and the trio of mad women, is somewhat reformed.  Though he didn't want this task and has opportunities to abandon it, he sees it through.  His character is less well-developed than Mary's.  His motives run the gamut from duty to mercenary to compassion to vengeance.  In his final scene, he's a singing drunkard who is not paying attention to his property or the propriety of his actions.  Has he resumed his status as a prairie tramp?  Probably.

As I had no idea what a homesman was when I watched the movie, I looked it up.  A homesman is one who escorts settlers from the frontier to civilization.  "Go east, young man!"  One supposes that a person who led the wagon train on the westward journey was called a scout or guide, but he became a homesman when he traveled the other way.

Based on a story by Glendon Swarthout (who also wrote John Wayne's last movie, The Shootist), it deals with the real affliction of prairie madness.  People who were used to close neighbors in the East or, more especially, in Europe, were subject to deep depression in the sparsely-populated isolating prairies of North America.  One cure was often to just return east to counter the isolation.

The movie is mostly a tragedy - how could it be otherwise - but still engaging.  Certainly not a feelgood movie.  Nonetheless, recommended.

North West Frontier (1959)

It is 1905 in the northwestern region of India where Prince Kishan is heir to rulership.  However, he is only 5 years old.  Captain Scott (Kenneth More) and a small detachment of Indian Soldiers escort him to Hyderbad, where the plan was to take him by train to Delhi.  The last train has already left and now Muslim troops have circled the city.  Governor Sir John Windham does not believe the city will be able to hold out against the impeding siege and plans a daring escape for the young prince.  There is an older train engine - Empress of India - that could breakthrough the siege lines and race to safety.  Captain Scott is placed in command of the effort.  In addition to Gupta the engineer (I. S. Johar) and two Indian soldiers, there is Catherine Wyatt (Lauren Bacall) the prince's governess, Lady Windham the governor's wife, Mr. Bridie (Wilfrid Hyde-White) the ex-patriot, Peter van Layden (Herbert Lom) the reporter, and Mr. Peters the arms dealer.  The train trip is not without its dangers, from attacks by mounted horsemen, damaged railways, and an unstable bridge.  Can this aging train and ragtag crew take the prince to safety?

I.S. Johar is the most entertaining character of the bunch.  His broken - but entirely intelligible - English always brings a smile and his constant good cheer despite the stresses of the trip and his responsibility for the train makes him the standout.  Kenneth More, who was a top British actor at the time, is fine as the lead.  He plays the never-say-die heroic type quite well.  It's a solid performance but not particularly memorable.  Bacall likewise makes for a good leading lady and love interest for Capt. Scott.  Wilfrid Hyde-White felt very out of place.  Though I liked Gupta's upbeat attitude, it was odd to have a second sunny face on this grim adventure.  Hyde-White is such a genial and gentlemanly fellow, hardly the kind of man to take on this journey.  He was more concerned with teatime than the rebel bullets.  By contrast, Herbert Lom provides most of the acerbic attitude on the train.  He wheedled his way onto the train against the governor's wishes and clashes with many of the passengers.

It is noteworthy that Pakistan did not yet exist in 1905; it was the northwestern frontier of India until it claimed independence in 1947.  Of course, this is a fictional story, not even a based on real events type of movie.  It has been described as a British Western and even an adaptation of Stagecoach (1939).  In any case, it is good popcorn fun.  Recommended.

From the Senate to the Presidency

Though 17 presidents have served in the Senate, only three successfully moved directly from Senate to the White House.

1. Warren G. Harding (1921-1923) was a senator from Ohio (1915-1921) when he ran for president in 1920.  Interestingly enough, the Democratic nominee was James Cox, the sitting governor of Ohio!  There was going to be an Ohioan in the White House either way.  The Democratic nominee for vice-president was none other than Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

2. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) was a senator from Massachusetts (1953-1960) when he defeated Richard Nixon in 1960.  He was, and remains, the youngest man to be elected president.  He was the first Catholic.  His vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, was also a senator.  In fact, LBJ went from outranking JFK in the Senate (LBJ was the Majority Leader while JFK was the junior senator from Massachusetts) to being his inferior as VP.  Not unlike what happened for...

3. Barack Obama (2009-2017) was the junior senator from Illinois (2005-2008) and still in his first term when he ran for president.  His VP candidate was the senior senator from Delaware, Joe Biden.  Of course, if the Republican candidate had won, he was also a senator: John McCain of Arizona.  Barack Obama is the only senator to president who didn't die in his first term, making him the most successful of the bunch by default.

What about those other 14 presidents who served in the Senate but ran for the presidency from a different post.  Who are they?

1. James Monroe (1817-1825) had served as a Virginia senator (1790-1794) but went on to many other offices before his terms as president.  After the Senate, he served as Minister to France, Minister to England, Governor of Virginia, Secretary of State, and Secretary of War before winning the presidency.  Few men had so much training for the office.

2. John Quincy Adams (1825-1829) had been in the Senate (1803-1808), but that is little more than a footnote for him.  Like the three presidents before him, he served as Secretary of State before winning the presidency.  Unlike most former presidents, Adams was elected to the House of Representatives (1831-1848) where he served until his death.  He was played by Anthony Hopkins in Amistad (1997).

3. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) had been a senator from Tennessee (1823-1825) during his first run at the presidency in 1824.  Jackson had only run for the Senate to aid his planned presidential run in 1824.  Though he was the candidate with the most electoral votes and the plurality of the popular votes, he lost the contingent election in the House of Representatives.

4. Martin Van Buren (1837-1841) had been a senator from New York (1821-1828).  From there, he ran for governor of New York, which he won, only to resign 6 weeks later for an opportunity to be President Jackson's Secretary of State.

5. William Henry Harrison (1841) had been a senator from Ohio (1825-1828) before being appointed Minister to Columbia (1829) by President John Quincy Adams.  He had been out of government for more than 10 years when he finally won the presidency.  He had run as one of 4 Whig candidates in 1836.  Though the Whigs lost, Harrison was by far the strongest Whig candidate, which is why he was nominated for the 1840 election despite his age.

6. John Tyler (1841-1845) had been a senator from Virginia (1827-1836).  Oddly, he represented 3 different parties during his Senate career: Democratic Republican, Democratic, and Whig.  His Whig bona fides proved weak when, after ascending to the presidency, he found much of the Whig legislation unconstitutional and vetoed it.  Also, unlike the Whigs, he was in favor of Texas Annexation.  From a party point of view, Tyler was the worst vice-presidential selection ever.

7. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) had served as a senator from New Hampshire (1837-1842) and was an important figure in New Hampshire's Democratic Party operations.  Like Polk in 1844, Pierce was a dark horse candidate in 1852.  The slogan was "The Whigs we Polked in forty-four, We'll Pierce in fifty-two."

8. James Buchanan (1857-1861) had been a senator from Pennsylvania (1834-1845) before President Polk selected him to be Secretary of State.  Like many Secretaries of State before him, he ran for president.  He lost the nomination in 1848 to Lewis Cass and fell short again in 1852 to Franklin Pierce.  His turn finally came in 1856, which he unfortunately won.

9. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) served in the Senate both before (1857-1862) and after (1875) his term as president.  Though a Southern slave owner, he was strongly against secession.  As such, Lincoln plucked him from the Senate and made him military governor of Tennessee.  Later, Lincoln called upon him to be his 2nd vice president.  After the House impeached him, the Senate failed to convict by a vote of 35 to 19; a switch of one vote would have met the 2/3 requirement for conviction.  Therefore, it was somewhat awkward when Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875.  He died of a stroke only 5 months after assuming office.

10. Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) served as a senator from Indiana (1881-1887) but was defeated for re-election on account of gerrymandering.  It must be remembered that senators were selected by the state government, not through popular vote, thus a state with a Democratic legislature was unlikely to choose a Republican.  The 17th Amendment changed senators to a state-wide elective office.  He was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison.

11. Harry Truman (1945-1953) had been a senator from Missouri (1935-1945) until he was chosen to be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's running mate for the 1944 election.  FDR won an unprecedented 4th term and then promptly died.  The gap between being a senator and becoming president was the three months he spent as vice president.

12. Lyndon Banes Johnson (1963-1969) was elected to the Senate from Texas (1949-1961) and very soon became the chief arm-twister (Whip) and then Majority Leader (1955-1861).  LBJ was a powerhouse in the Senate.  He had competed with Senator Kennedy for the 1960 nomination but fell short.  For the general election, Kennedy needed more Southern support, which Johnson had.

13. Richard Nixon (1969-1974) served as a senator from California (1950-1953) before becoming Eisenhower's vice-president (1953-1961).  Interestingly, this made him President of the Senate, where his 1960 electoral rivals - Senator Kennedy & Senator Johnson - served.  Nixon had long been out of public office when he secured another nomination for the presidency (1968). 

14. Joseph Biden (2021-present) was a senator from Delaware (1973-2009).  He had made two presidential runs as a senator.  In 1988, he was accused of plagiarizing speeches.  He also had a habit of exaggerating his resume.  He made another run in 2008, but quickly dropped out as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton dominated the primaries.  He had been 12 years out of the Senate and 4 years out of office when he ran a successful presidential campaign in 2020.  Third time was the charm.

Though a stint in the Senate appears to be a positive for presidential contenders, sitting senators only rarely rise to the presidency: Harding in 1920, JFK in 1960, and Obama in 2008.  It takes a lot of charisma - which each of these Senators had - to overcome a lack of executive experience.

Governor's Mansion to the White House

Since the beginning of the republic, governors have been strong candidates for the presidency.  Many candidates ran for office while governor.  Others had been governor but moved on to other positions, which then led them to the presidency.  Let's start by looking at governors who moved directly from the governor's mansion to the White House:

1. Rutherford B. Hayes was the governor of Ohio when he was elected in 1876.  Hayes actually lost the popular vote to Samuel Tilden and a contingent election was required to get him into office.  As Tilden won 51% of the votes to Hayes 48%, there needed to be some dealmaking to assure Hayes as the winner.  The deal that was struck ended Reconstruction.  Of note, Samuel Tilden was governor of New York, making this a governor v. governor election.

2. Grover Cleveland was governor of New York when he won election in 1884.  He was the first Democrat since James Buchanan to be elected president.

3. William McKinley was governor of Ohio when he was elected in 1896.  He was the last of a line of Ohioans elected to the presidency after the Civil War: US Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, and Benjamin Harrison.

4. Woodrow Wilson was governor of New Jersey when he was elected in 1912.  He owed his election - and the breaking of a decades long Republican lock on the presidency - to the party split caused by Theodore Roosevelt and his Progressive Party.  Wilson won with only 41% of the popular vote, but an electoral landslide.

5. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was governor of New York when he was elected in 1932.

6. Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas when he was elected in 1992.  Like Wilson, Clinton benefited from an unusually popular 3rd party candidate, Ross Perot.  He took 43% of the popular vote and an electoral landslide.

7. George W. Bush was governor of Texas when he was elected in 2000.  He was also the first son of a president to be elected since John Quincy Adams in 1824.

Many more presidents had governor on their resume but didn't happen to run a successful presidential campaign while governor.  Let's check out the former governors who captured the White House:

1. Thomas Jefferson was governor of Virginia (1779-1781) during the Revolutionary War.

2. James Monroe was governor of Virginia twice!  His first term was 1799 to 1802.  He was elected again almost a decade later but only served four months in 1811.  He was called upon by President James Madison to serve as Secretary of State, which he accepted.

3. Martin Van Buren was governor of New York for 43 days in 1829, the shortest term for New York governor.  He had run for governor while Andrew Jackson made his second attempt for the presidency.  Both won.  Jackson offered Secretary of State to Van Buren and he eagerly accepted.

4. William Henry Harrison was the governor of Indiana Territory for over a decade (1801-1812).  He was appointed by President John Adams, not elected.  While serving as governor, he led troops against Indians on the Tippecanoe River in 1811.  The Battle of Tippecanoe was still remembered when Harrison ran for president in 1840.

5. John Tyler was governor of Virginia (1825-1827) before being elected to the Senate and finally being selected to run with Harrison as the VP candidate.  He is the third and final Virginia governor to become president.

6. James Knox Polk was governor of Tennessee (1839-1841) but was defeated for re-election.  He sought to win back the governorship in 1843, but again suffered defeat.  It looked like his political career was at an end.  Then, out of the blue, he was selected to run for president in 1844 and won!

7. Andrew Johnson was governor of Tennessee (1853-1857).  From the governor's mansion, he went to the Senate.  During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln appointed Johnson to be the military governor of Tennessee, where he served until he became Lincoln's vice-president.

8. Theodore Roosevelt was governor of New York (1899-1900) before he was selected as McKinley's second vice-president.  In less than 5 years, Roosevelt had gone from Police Commissioner of NYC to Assistant Secretary of the Navy to Colonel of the Rough Riders to Governor of New York to Vice President of the United States to President.  It was a very busy time.

9. Calvin Coolidge was governor of Massachusetts (1919-1921) when he was selected to be Warren Harding's vice-president.

10. Jimmy Carter was governor of Georgia (1971-1975) when he announced his candidacy for president but was out of office when he won the 1976 election.  He is one of three US Presidents to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

11. Ronald Reagan was governor of California (1967-1975) and made a run for the presidency in 1976 but lost the primary to Gerald Ford.  He made a successful run in 1980.

Of the 45 presidents, 18 have been governors.  Executive experience at the state level is good training for the chief executive office in the land.

Death Valley Days: Camel Train

It is 1847 as Edward Beale (Stanley Lachman) and Kit Carson (William Reynolds) ride through the southwestern deserts.  It is difficult terrain but Beale claims that camels would be ideal.  He intends to lobby Congress to buy some camels from the Middle East.  Back in Washington, he convinces Senator Jefferson Davis (Harry Fleer), who promises to get funding.  Unfortunately, the rest of Congress is unconvinced.  Years pass.  In 1853, Davis is Secretary of War and is able to push funding for a Camel Corps.  Beale hears the good news from David Dixon Porter (Ed Hinton).  Porter explains how he will go to the Middle East to purchase camels and deliver them to Texas.  After that, it will be up to Beale.  Eventually, the camels arrive and Beale uses them on a trek from Texas to California.  He has high hopes but then the Civil War!  The War Department has no use for a camel corps and wants to cut costs on this unneeded program.

This is a fairly accurate retelling of the Camel Corps.  After California was secured a second time during the Mexican American War, Kit Carson and Ed Beale rode east together as shown.  The role of George Crossman as the chief proponent for camels and the man who likely bent Jeff Davis' ear on the subject is given to Ed Beale.  David Porter did sail to the Levant for camels and landed them at Indianola on the Texas coast.  Hadji Ali was the chief cameleer and was called "Hi Jolly," Beale mapped a new route across the southwestern deserts with the aid of camels.  The Camel Corps was disbanded and the camels sold on account of the Civil War.  Overall, good history to be had.

The story is almost a documentary in style.  Both Beale and Mary, his wife, break the fourth wall and narrate on several occasions.  That was very strange for a half-hour show.  Being only half an hour, there is a lot of compression.  The narration is clearly to pack in more information given the time constraints.  Even so, recommended.

Khartoum (1966)

While leading an Egyptian army against the force of the Mahdi in Sudan, British soldier Colonel William Hicks was killed.  The English newspapers reported this as a British defeat, though only a handful of the officers were actually British.  Something must be done.  Prime Minister William Gladstone (Ralph Richardson) elects to send General Charles "Chinese" Gordon (Charlton Heston) to evacuate Khartoum before it should be sacked by the Mahdi's forces.  Gordon is renowned for leading a Chinese army during the Tai-Ping Rebellion and for ending the slave trade in Khartoum.  He is also known to be a loose cannon who doesn't follow orders.  Colonel Stewart (Richard Johnson) is provided as second in command for Gordon and also a spy for Gladstone.  No sooner has Gordon arrived in Sudan than he confronts the Mahdi (Laurence Olivier) to determine what drives the man.  The Mahdi views himself as a figure of religious prophecy, the "Expected One" who will unite Islam.  Gordon, who is himself a religious man, sees that there can be no reasoning with the Mahdi.  Somehow, Gordon must convince Gladstone to send an army to relieve Khartoum before the Mahdi slaughters everyone.  Can he lure a British Army to rescue him and thereby rescue Khartoum?  He sets out to see.

Heston is good as Gordon.  His accent doesn't seem out of place, which is strange as he is the lone American in the film.  Heston exudes charisma and command.  When he and the Mahdi talk, it is Heston who steals the scene rather than the legendary Olivier.  By contrast, Laurence Olivier is weird as the Mahdi.  His blackface is off-putting.  Yes, this was a common thing at the time, but it has not aged well.  Ralph Richardson is terrific.  His Gladstone is a politician, able to connive to his benefit, but also frequently exasperated when plans go awry.  Of course, Richardson is always a joy, whatever role he happens to play.  Nigel Green appears as General Wolsley, an old friend of Gordon's and the man sent to rescue him.  Sadly, there isn't a lot for Green to do in the role.

The movie is an epic.  It has the opening overture, an intermission, and an end score.  Stylistically, this movie fits with movies like Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago.  This isn't mere popcorn fun, this is grandiose filmmaking.  Recommended.

From the Military to Commander in Chief

Many presidents have served in the military and their heroics certainly helped them in seeking the presidency.  Theodore Roosevelt was colonel of the Rough Riders in Cuba, JFK commanded a PT-Boat in the South Pacific during WWII, and George Bush was a naval aviator in WWII, but these were not key to their elections.  There are only a handful of presidents who moved from the military to the White House.

1. Lt. General George Washington was a soldier for most of his life.  Yes, he had a plantation that he maintained but, like Cincinnatus, he left his farm to fight for his country on numerous occasions.  He fought in the French & Indian War and became the leading general during the Revolutionary War.  Though he had served in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, it was his military record that earned him the unanimous vote of the electors to be the first president.

2. Major General Andrew Jackson rose to prominence during the various Indian Wars that erupted during the War of 1812 and most especially his successful defense of New Orleans.  He continued his fight against Indians, even if that meant making unsanctioned raids into Spanish Florida.  Though he was elected to the Senate before his first run at the presidency, Old Hickory was viewed as a general.

3. Major General William Henry Harrison was known for his military exploits from the War of 1812 and before.  His campaign slogan was "Tippacanoe and Tyler, Too" which referenced his famous battle from nearly 30 years before!  The Battle of Tippacanoe saw Harrison's thousand men defeat a smaller force of allied Indians on the Tippacanoe River.  Though he was elected as a war hero, he died only a month after his inauguration.

4. Major General Zachary Taylor had been a military man for most of his life, having joined during Jefferson's presidency.  During the Mexican-American War, he was the leading general for the early battles, which he won handily.  He was a national hero after two victories on the Rio Grande.  His capture of Monterrey led both Whigs and Democrats to consider him as a presidential candidate.  After his surprise victory at Buena Vista against a vastly larger force under command of Santa Anna himself, Taylor became a shoo-in for the presidency.  However, like Harrison, he died in office.

5. General Ulysses S. Grant graduated from West Point and served during the Mexican War under General Taylor, but left the military after the war.  He rejoined during the Civil War and rose to be the leading general.  He is the first on this list to outrank George Washington.

6. General of the Army Dwight D Eisenhower attended West Point and spent his career in the Army from 1915 to 1953.  He took part in the Pancho Villa Border Expedition, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.  He outranks Grant.

Clearly, it has been a long time since a military man has been elected president.  The last one who tried was General Wesley Clark (2004).  Before him, General Colin Powell flirted with a presidential run (2000); it would probably be better described as an effort to draft him into a run, which he declined.

Secretary to President

In the early years of the republic, it was common for cabinet secretaries to be candidates for the presidency.  This has become less common over the years.

1. Thomas Jefferson (1790-1793) was the first secretary of state under President George Washington.  However, he was preceded by John Jay, who was acting secretary.  Jefferson only served during Washington's first term.  He ran for the presidency on Washington's retirement and received the second most electoral votes, which made him John Adams' vice president.  That he and Adams were in rival parties made for an awkward combination.  Also, in future elections, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates ran together.  Of course, that created a new problem when Jefferson won the 1800 election.  Jefferson and his 'running mate' Aaron Burr both received the same number of electoral votes.  Who was president and who was vice president?

2. James Madison served as Thomas Jefferson's secretary of state (1801-1809).  From that post, he went directly into the presidency upon Jefferson's retirement.

3. James Monroe was tapped to be Madison's 2nd secretary of state (1811-1817).  In 1814, he was asked to also serve as the secretary of war, which he did (1814-1815) for the conclusion of the War of 1812.  When Madison retired to his Virginia plantation, Monroe became president.

4. John Quincy Adams was secretary of state (1817-1825) to James Monroe.  As with Madison and Monroe, he was promoted to the presidency, though not without controversy.  Though he had fewer electoral votes than Andrew Jackson, he was selected by the Congress in the contingent election (Jackson had failed to get a majority of the electoral votes).  Henry Clay, who had finished 4th in the 1824 Election, had thrown his support to Adams.  Adams then appointed Clay to be secretary of state.  Jackson cried 'corrupt bargain!' and would be back for a rematch in 1828.

5. Martin Van Buren served as Andrew Jackson's first secretary of state (1829-1831).  He only stayed in the post for a couple of years before moving on to Minister to the United Kingdom (1831-1832) and then serving as the VP for Jackson's second term (1833-1837) before becoming president himself.

6. James Buchanan was secretary of state (1845-1849) for James Knox Polk, but did not become the presumptive nominee at the end of Polk's term.  Where the State Dept had been a clear steppingstone to the presidency in the early republic, it had faded by this time.  Like Van Buren, Buchanan served as Minister to UK (1853-1856) after being secretary of state and ran for the presidency in 1856.  Buchanan is the last secretary of state to be elected to the presidency.

7. Ulysses S. Grant served as secretary of war (1867-1868) for President Johnson.  He was only in the post for 4 months.  While serving, he was also the commanding general of the Army, a position he had held since 1864 and would not relinquish until he was inaugurated as president in March 1869.

8. William Howard Taft served as the secretary of war (1904-1908) for the majority of President Theodore Roosevelt's second term.  He was Roosevelt's handpicked successor and was elected to the presidency in 1908.

9. Herbert Hoover was the secretary of commerce (1921-1928) for President Warren G. Harding.  He stayed in the post after Harding's death and through Calvin Coolidge's presidency.  He is the first and only commerce secretary to win the presidency.  He is also the last cabinet secretary to reach the presidency.

Clearly, a cabinet post - especially as secretary of state - was an ideal launching pad for a presidential run in the first 40 to 50 years of the republic.  Today, it is better to make the leap from senator or governor.  Beware a cabinet post if you have pretentions to the presidency!

Zulu (1964)

The British Army has suffered a major defeat at Isandlwana and the Zulus are out to find more soldiers to attack.  Rorke's Drift, an outpost on the border of Zululand, is an obvious choice.  Lt. Chard (Stanley Baker) happens to be in the area to build a bridge across the Buffalo River.  Though he is an engineer officer, he has seniority over Lt. Bromhead (Michael Caine).  Though there are calls to retreat, the last orders were to hold the position; Chard intends to do just that.  He gets the men working on redoubts to protect the mostly open compound, stacking barriers and overturning wagons to create a curtain wall.  Even so, he doesn't have enough men to defend all the walls.  He has roughly 150 men standing against 3,000 to 4,000 Zulus.  The first wave of Zulus do little more than determine the defensive strength; it is practically a turkey shoot.  The next wave comes to the walls and bayonets are needed to defend Rorke's Drift.  With each succeeding attack, more and more Zulus get over the walls and the British retreat to inner redoubts.  Can they hold out until reinforced?

In his first high profile role, Michael Caine is shaky.  He plays the dilletante with a haughty attitude.  His early scenes are unlike what one expects of Caine.  Baker is good as Lt. Chard, providing a strong leader in a hopeless situation.  Nigel Green is the standout as Color Sergeant Borne.  He exudes command despite rarely raising his voice.  He is unflappable and always on the spot to get the men in action.  He is somehow gentle as a pillow but solid as a rock.  Strange.  Impressive.  Most of the support characters are quite good with the sole exception of Henry Hook (James Booth).  The character arc for him is much too cliche and rings hollow.  That it was unlike the real Henry Hook makes it all the worse.

Overall, great popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Zulu Dawn (1979)

King Cetshwayo has assembled a huge army in Zululand and the British are concerned.  Sir Henry Bartle Frere (John Mills) drafts a demand that Cetshwayo disperse his army or suffer consequences.  Lord Chelmsford (Peter O'Toole) approves the message.  Cetshwayo replies that he has no intention of crossing the border and the status of his army should be no concern of the British.  The British disagree.  Lord Chelmsford leads an army into Zululand to forcibly disperse the Zulus.  After crossing the Buffalo River into Zululand, Chelmsford camps his troops at Isandlwana.  Despite suggestions from the colonial militia to arrange his wagons in a defensive barrier, Chelmsford declines; he views this as merely a temporary camp.  The following day, he led a column to reconnoiter in the direction of Ulundi, leaving 1300 men camped at Isandlwana under the command of Colonel Pulleine (Denholm Elliot).  Colonel Durnford (Burt Lancaster) had arrived with a mix of native and colonial mounted troops.  Not one to sit on his thumbs, Durnford went looking for Zulus and found thousands en route to Isandlwana.  After a brief engagement with the Zulus, he retreated toward Isandlwana.  Despite having artillery, rockets, and rifles, the unsecured camp could not hold against the sheer number of Zulus that washed over it.  As the camp was overrun, Pulleine ordered Lt. Melvill (James Faulkner) to save the flag.  Melvill and Lt. Coghill raced toward safety but were killed crossing the Buffalo River.  The colors floated away in the current.

The movie has too many characters.  We open with Sir Bartle Frere, who figures only in the first act.  Then we have the commanding general, Lord Chelmsford, who is the central character.  Then there is Colour Sergeant Williams (Bob Hoskins), who provides a view from the ranks.  Colonel Durnford is the second lead and the loose cannon character.  Quartermaster Bloomfield (Peter Vaughan) cares more about accounting for every bullet than expediting ammunition distribution during the attack, placing some of the blame for the catastrophe on his attention to details.  Norris "Noggs" Newman (Ronald Lacey) is a newspaper reporter who has a contentious relationship with Chelmsford, viewing the whole Anglo-Zulu War as a manufactured one for political ends.  Lt. Vereker (Simon Ward) is a newly minted officer who floats between commands, presumably meant as a binding agent between the various figures; he should have been eliminated since he is a fictional addition.

Entertaining and educational.  Good popcorn fun.

Population Bust

A hundred years ago, the main way of planning for your retirement was to have children.  Often, this was a case where the parents' farm would be handed off to one of the children and the parents would live there.  With the population moving to cities, this scheme no longer worked.  Elderly in poverty became a clear issue and Social Security was suggested as a solution.  The idea was that the government would force everyone to save for retirement, setting aside a portion of each paycheck to be returned after age 65.

Ida May Fuller had worked as a school teacher and legal secretary.  She began paying into Social Security in 1937.  In 1939, at age 65, she retired.  Though she didn't expect much from this new-fangled system, she did apply for her retirement benefit.  Her first check - which also happened to be the first one issued by the Social Security Administration - was for $22.54 ($471 in 2022 dollars).  It should be noted that her total contributions were $24.75.  Her first check paid 91% of the funds she had paid.  Ida lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975.  During her retirement, she collected $22,888.92 in benefits ($478,000 in 2022 dollars), or 925 times the amount she had paid.  Here is one of the greatest investments ever.  Of course, as with all Ponzi schemes, early investors always get the best returns.  It should also be noted that Ida May Fuller was never married and had no children.  So who paid her benefits?

Again, one of the reasons to have children was to provide for one's dotage.  But with Social Security, the government would - like in the case of Ida Fuller - force other people's kids to pay for the retirement of those who didn't have kids.  Ida barely contributed to her retirement account and did not provide workers for the next generation.  During her life, she didn't have to spend time or money on raising those who would pay for her retirement.  It was the best of both worlds!  Enough people have figured out that their retirement will be paid by someone else's kids that we are now in a population bust.  Europe, having adopted these policies earlier, started down the path of bringing immigrants to fill in the missing generation.  That the immigrants haven't assimilated and don't seem interested in assimilating is a different problem.  The US has also gone down the immigration path to boost the population and keep those Social Security benefits flowing.  It too has found that the immigrants aren't so keen to assimilate.  Rather than the melting pot of old, it is now the tossed salad of Balkanization.  Japan, also suffering a population collapse, has not resorted to immigration but rather is investing heavily in robotics.

The government-run retirement system contributed to a drop in fertility which then led to a call for immigration which has brought Balkanization and cultural collapse.  The West is committing suicide through these good intentioned cradle-to-grave programs.  What to do?

Sadly, this is insolvable.  Social Security cannot be repealed.  The most reliable voting demographic won't allow it.  It must collapse of its own insolvency, which is unlikely to come before the tipping point of cultural collapse.  A cohort of young immigrant workers will rise up against the oppressive taxation that supports the retired elite.  If this happens to several European countries before it happens in the US, there may be the political will to reform the system.

In some distant future, a James Madison-like figure will talk about the failures of a government-run safety net and explain why it is explicitly forbidden in the founding documents of the next great republic.  Then again, Jefferson had already argued that the government that governs least, governs best.