Funding a Riot

The current riots in LA, which will soon spread nation-wide, are planned events.  Someone is funding them.  Pallets of bricks don't just happen to appear at the scene of a 'protest' where there isn't any construction.  Drivers don't arrive with supplies of high-end masks to protect from tear gas without someone footing the bill.  Both the governor and mayor are in league with the funders.  This 'protest' is designed to thwart the entirely lawful enforcement of immigration law.

During the Obama presidency, the state of Arizona was miffed that the government wasn't enforcing immigration law.  Arizona passed a law to allow it to enforce the border.  The Obama administration sued Arizona and won.  Border enforcement is a federal responsibility.  States don't get their own immigration laws.  California doesn't get to opt out of ICE enforcing the law.

The Trump-Musk Break-Up

From strong allies to mortal enemies in nothing flat.  Elon does not approve of the Big Beautiful Bill that continues to spend the country into bankruptcy and Donald isn't so keen on the sudden disloyalty from one of his top supporters through the campaign and early administration.  The spat quickly elevated and now has Musk claiming that Trump is on the Epstein List, thus explaining why it still hasn't been released.  Yes, this break-up has gone nuclear.

I am highly doubtful that Trump is on the list.  If he was, the Biden Administration would surely have released that snippet of the list along with any damning pictures and video.

Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981)

Lee Chan, Jr. (Richard Hatch) was an aspiring detective and a well-established klutz.  His ability to suffer cringe-inducing slapstick silliness knew no bounds.  Worse, he was engaged to marry Cordelia (Michelle Pfeiffer), who proved to be his equal in uncoordinated pratfalls.  Lee worships his grandfather, the great detective Charlie Chan (Peter Ustinov).  As a series of bizarre murders have plagued San Francisco, the police chief (Brian Keith) has summoned Charlie Chan to consult on the case.  The chief is an ill-tempered hypochondriac who spends most of his time yelling.  Lee's grandmother, Mrs. Lupowitz (Lee Grant), is desperate to spend time with her grandson and convince him that detective work is not for him.  Often, she fondles and caresses her husband's urn, explaining how she needs him.  His murder by the Dragon Queen (Angie Dickinson) was detailed in a black and white flashback.  Yes, Charlie Chan solved the case.

The mystery is hardly a mystery and the comedy is atrocious.  Charlie Chan spends most of his time making fortune cookie observations and marveling at the incompetence of his grandson.  When the climax arrives to reveal the killer, Charlie exposes most of the characters for this or that, all of which is meaningless.  Great, the chauffeur is an African prince.  So what?  This character is not really confined to a wheelchair.  Impressive deduction, but meaningless.  The big twist - such as it is - was revealed earlier to a casual viewer.

Despite an excellent cast, this movie is barely watchable.  Skip!

Mickey 17 (2025)

Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) was surprised to wake up.  He found himself at the bottom of a snow-covered crevasse on the planet Niflheim.  How could he get out?  Luckily, his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) arrived.  Timo was surprised that Mickey wasn't dead yet; he had only come looking for Mickey's weapon, which was on a ledge above.  Leaving Mickey to his fate, Timo left.  How did he come to this?

Mickey and Timo had borrowed money from a shady character to launch a business.  It had failed spectacularly, and the lender intended to recoup his losses by carving the pair of them into pieces with a chainsaw.  In order to escape this fate, Mickey and Timo signed onto a colony ship bound for a distant planet.  Where Timo had a skill that earned him a spot - the waiting list was long, Mickey did not.  He volunteered to be an expendable.  He was given all the dangerous work.  If he died, a newly printed clone would take his place.  So far, he had died 16 times, making his current incarnation Mickey 17.

Mickey has a girlfriend, Nasha (Naomi Ackie).  The colony ship is led by Ken Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a buffoonish congressman who lost his election so he paraphrased Davy Crockett: "You can go to hell -- I'm going to Niflheim."  His wife, Ylfa (Toni Collette), is no smarter that her dull-witted husband, but she encourages him in his stupidity.  Yes, this is supposed to be a dark comedy, but the idiocy of these villains is pathetic, not funny.

It was hard to like Mickey.  He comes across as a hapless victim.  The laughs are few and far between.  Mickey falling naked out of the printer because no one put the print tray in place proved to be a repeated joke.  Oh, so funny.  Ugh.  Some of the world building was cool, notably the explanation of how cloning was outlawed on Earth and how the only exception for cloning was if the previous incarnation was dead, thus Mickey's loophole for regular resurrection.  Of course, Mickey 17 surviving the fall into the crevasse and returning to the colony ship resulted in a multiples violation.  The Nasha and the Mickeys demonstrated stupidity in trying to resolve this issue before they could get caught.  Ugh.

Disappointing.  Skip.

Biden has Cancer

It has been reported that President Biden has an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones.  Was this only discovered since he left office or has this been kept under wraps for longer?  Back in 2022, President Biden claimed that he had cancer that had been caused by oil refinery pollution in Delaware.  Was this a case of the President going off script, but revealing something that was true?  Has he had cancer since 2022?  If the White House and the media were so busy keeping signs of senility out of the news, what are they odds that they also opted not to talk about a cancer diagnosis.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (season 2)

Season 1 concluded with Dirk (Samuel Barnett) and Ken (Mpho Koaho) captured by Black Wing, a government agency that sought to contain people who had supernatural powers.  Todd (Elijah Wood) and Farah (Jade Eshete) were on the run, trying to avoid being swept up by Black Wing while also seeking to locate Dirk.  Amanda (Hannah Marks) and Vogel (Osric Chau), the last member of the Rowdy 3, were likewise on the run and searching for the rest of the gang.  Somehow, most of them are drawn to a small Montana town where strange things are happening.

Farah meets her brother at a sailing ship in the middle of a field.  No one knows how the ship got there as there is no navigable waters for miles around.  Todd has a run-in with Sheriff Sherlock Hobbs, who is entirely too friendly.  Meanwhile, the local pariah, Suzie Boreton (Amanda Walsh), witnesses her boss's murder.  She was on the brink of being murdered when Bart (Fiona Dourif) arrived to kill all the thugs.  Though Bart thinks she maybe should kill Suzie, she desists on account of her time with Ken; Ken often counseled against killing.  Moments later, Bart regretted her decision to not kill Suzie.  Suzie blasted her with a wand!

In the land of Wendimoor, the Dengdamors and the Trosts are on the brink of war.  Panto Trost, the greatest swordsman of the land, sought the witch of the woods who would allow him to fulfill the prophecy by locating Dirk Gently!  In this fairy realm, strange creatures exit, pink is a natural hair color, and the wizard (John Hannah) is the bad guy.  Soon, Panto finds himself in Montana and teams with Bart.  Conversely, Amanda crosses into Wendimoor to become the wood witch's apprentice!

Though entertaining, this is not nearly as good as the first season.  Our titular hero is a whiner.  Oh, how he whines and cowers and quakes.  It is really hard to like Dirk.  Since there was a holistic detective and a holistic assassin, how about having a holistic actress?  Yes, there is Mona Wilder.  She has the ability to play any part, and she means any part.  She played a chair for 6 years.  Oh, she's a shapeshifter who claims to be able to transform herself into something as big as an aircraft carrier.  The entire dimension of Wendimoor was created by a holistic creator.

This story does not tie neatly together like the first season.  It does end with some interesting twists that change the dynamic between some characters.  The show was not renewed for a third season.

Just okay.

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

Civil War Veteran Hogan (Clint Eastwood) was riding through Mexico when he heard a commotion.  He dismounted and looked over a rise to see a trio of men pushing a mostly naked woman among them.  Well, that just wouldn't do.  He intervened by killing the trio.  He was quite shocked when, once she was dressed, she proved to be a nun!  Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) was also a Juarista out to raise money to fight the French.  As such, Hogan's plan of handing her off to a French patrol was nixed.  As it happens, Hogan was in Mexico to assist the Juarista cause, but he was less than keen on having a nun - especially a pretty nun - around.  The more time he spent around her, the less she seemed like a proper nun.  However, she always had a reasonable explanation for this aberrant behavior.

Clint plays his usual Western anti-hero, though he adds a dash of romance.  His interactions with Shirley are fun and funny.  Much of the fun is that Hogan doesn't know how to interact with her, nor can he get rid of her.  Though she plays her role well, Shirley is a hard sell for a Mexican.  She looks not at all Spanish and is entirely too pale for such a climate.  That said, Sara is a great character, and MacLaine imbues her with just the right combination of reverence and sass.

The scenery is terrific, but much of it is nowhere near the putative setting.  The story is set near Chihuahua, but a lot of filming was done south of Mexico City.  As for the French, they didn't look French.  According to IMDb, the director sought to save money and cast a bunch of no-names for all the roles other than Clint and Shirley.

After the US Civil War concluded, the United States took more robust measures against the French intervention in Mexico, selling tens of thousands of rifles to the Juaristas and threating US action against the French.  The movie Vera Cruz also took place during the French invasion of Mexico.

Good popcorn fun.

Still a Rookie?

Though I have never watched the show, I noted that The Rookie, with Nathan Fillion, is in its 7th season and apparently has been renewed for an 8th season.  Shouldn't the show be renamed?  Generally, you're only a rookie for your first year.  Was the naming of the show just a lack of confidence.  What are the odds this thing gets a second season?  Clearly, better than expected.  That was the danger of such a title.  There was a webcomic called The Noob, which is a common name for a new player.  However, it isn't very long before the character no longer qualified as a noob.  Now what?  Can't very well change the name now.

Looking at this, I strongly advise producers of a Western TV show to avoid the title of Greenhorn.  Don't title a show about college students, The Freshmen.  Donald Trump was able to get away with The Apprentice because it was a new group each year.  

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (season 1)

In Seattle, Todd Brotzman (Elijah Wood) is a hapless bellhop who awakens to find his landlord demanding the rent.  The landlord is so furious that he wrecks Todd's car with a hammer.  Having taken the bus to work, Todd asked his boss about getting paid early.  Instead, his boss dispatched him to address some issues.  On the way up to the penthouse, he saw the most alarming thing: himself.  Yes, it was him wearing a fur coat and with a black eye.  The other Todd looked at him, then dashed out of sight.  And then the day got weirder.  In the penthouse, he found three corpses that appeared to have been killed by a shark attack.  One of the three victims was Patrick Spring, a noted millionaire whose daughter happened to go missing recently.  After the police told him not to leave town, he returned to his apartment where a stranger was breaking in through the window!  The intruder introduced himself as Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) and said he was on a case; he's a holistic detective.  Todd threw him out, but like a bad penny, Dirk kept showing up and demanding that Todd was his assistant.

Elsewhere, Ken (Mpho Koaho) is an electrical engineer who does contract work.  On this particular day, he was working for a bald tattooed man.  Then Bart (Fiona Dourif) arrived with a machete and killed the bald man.  Ken fled for his life.  Bart stopped trying to kill Ken when he explained that he was not Dirk Gently.  Ken found himself as Bart's captive as she hunted for Dirk and killed seemingly random people along the way.  Bart claims to be a holistic assassin.

It turns out that everything is connected.  The universe has a flow to it that both Dirk and Bart can feel.  Pulled into the orbit of these holistic agents, Todd and Ken begin to sense this flow and get caught up in it.  There is no escaping the interconnectedness of everything.

A very different take on the source from the last Dirk Gently series (2010).  Where Stephen Mangan's Dirk was eccentric in a such a way that absolutely baffled his sidekick, Richard (Darren Boyd), Barnett's Dirk is more of a helpless oaf stuck in a river current that takes him where he needs to go regardless of his ideas on the subject.  He only shines when the plot requires some exposition, at which point he becomes a Sherlock Holmes of keen deduction.  His jumpy, cowardly, anxiety-ridden demeanor adds to his victim of fate rather than captain of it.  He does not have the aptitude for his chosen profession.

Overall, the series was a lot of fun and managed to tie together a vast number of storylines into a neat package.  It ends on a cliffhanger to prep for the second season.  Recommended.

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

After the events in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs have mostly become a part of nature again worldwide.  There are instances of illegal breeding and even giant locusts.  Wait, what?  Giant locusts?  What's this?  Yes, the big issue now is that giant locusts - the size of cats - are wiping out crops that aren't grown with a particular seed brand.  Wow, that's not suspicious.  Now to catch up with all our characters.  Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is still working as a dinosaur-rights activist.  Owen (Chris Pratt) is a cowboy - maybe a dinoboy - as he wrangles dinosaurs.  Together, Claire and Owen have adopted Maisie (Isabella Sermon), who they have kept sequestered in a forest cabin far from town.  Elsewhere in the world, Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) visits Alan Grant (Sam Neill) at a dig in Utah.  She has been in contact with Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who has invited her to the BioSyn compound in Europe.  Excellent, now our story can begin.

A band of mercenaries have found the remote cabin and absconded with Maisie and Blue's baby raptor.  Oh, yeah, Blue lives in the nearby forest and visits from time to time.  Claire and Owen contact Franklin Webb (Justice Smith) who now works for the CIA.  Of course, he does. He gives them the skinny on where Maisie might be headed and tells them not to get involved.  So, they are on the next flight to Malta.  Duh!  In Malta, programmable raptors chase after Owen as he rides a motorcycle through the streets.  Meanwhile, Claire browbeats Kayla Watts (DeWanda Wise), a freelance pilot who flies a hunk of junk, into helping recover Maisie.  As she happened to witness Maisie's arrival and departure from Malta, she agrees.  Convenient.  Off to the BioSyn Institute in Europe!

During all this, Ellie and Alan have arrived at the BioSyn Institute and meet Lewis Dodgson.  Dodgson was a very minor character in the original film as the guy who gave Nedry (Wayne Knight) the phony shaving cream can to store dinosaur DNA samples.  Wow, nice callback.  Next, they reconnect with Ian.  Ian suggests that Ellie and Alan go to a restricted level and get a sample of locust DNA.  Okay.  What was wrong with the DNA from the locusts caught earlier in the film?  I must have missed that.  Also, why hasn't Ian gotten it?  Of course, it turns into a fiasco.  Luckily, the number two man at BioSyn, Ramsay Cole, is on their side.  What?  Why didn't HE get the sample?  This is just one clumsy effort to bring back the original trio for a swan song in the series.  And why again are we having giant grasshoppers in a dinosaur movie?

Out of the blue, the movie introduces Maisie's mother, Dr. Charlotte Lockwood (Elva Trill).  Though she died more than a decade ago, it turns out that she was good friends with Ellie and made plenty of home movies that demonstrate how she was a genetic scientist who was deeply involved in the dinosaur project.  Also, she was born with a genetic defect that was going to cut her life short but she really wanted to be a mom so she impregnated herself with a clone of herself - that would be Maisie - but not before correcting the genetic defect.  Well, of course.

Dodgson proves to be a Bond-like villain who had a lair that conveniently self-destructs with alarming ease.  The astonishing incompetence is baffling.

The movie is really odd.  Why are dinosaurs running around in the snowy forests of the northwest?  Reptiles are not fond of the cold.  Are these warm-blooded dinosaurs?  Did I miss that?  More likely, the makers thought it would be cool to have dinosaurs trudging through the snow.  Sigh.  Along that same line, Europe seems like a terrible place to have a dinosaur sanctuary.  There just aren't any remote tropical islands anymore.

The movie hits all the standard tropes of a Jurassic Park/World film.  In many cases, it just repeats some old ones as an homage to the original.  Yeah, okay.  Whatever.  This is a long (2 and a half hours!) movie that has way too many characters and an extremely weak storyline.  Skip.

The Pride and the Passion (1957)

1810, Spain

Napoleon has defeated Spain and placed his brother, Joseph, on the throne. During their retreat, the shattered remnants of the Spanish Army abandon the largest cannon in their possession. Royal Navy Captain Anthony Trumbull (Cary Grant) lands in Spain with plans of retrieving the giant cannon, both to aid the British efforts against Napoleon and to keep it out of the hands of the French. With the Spanish Army in disarray, he finds himself bargaining with a shoemaker turned guerrilla leader, Miguel (Frank Sinatra). Miguel agrees to assist the captain in recovering the gun, but insists it is used to liberate Avila before it can be transported to the British. Trumbull reluctantly agrees. There follows a series of adventures as Miguel's band of guerrillas battle French patrols and recruit help along the way. More importantly, Miguel's girlfriend, Juana (Sophia Loren), falls in love with the dashing British officer. Will she stay with Miguel or leave with Anthony? This is the most important question of the film.

The story is ludicrous. The idea that these guerrillas can haul this titanic gun across the countryside while not being noticed by French cavalry patrols is silly. That the French did find them in a canyon at one point and proved unable to capture the gun was unbelievable. When the gun is finally emplaced before the walls of Avila, the French just look on in amazement but don't take any offensive action. Nope, we'll just wait here on the walls. When the wall is breached, do the French have cannon ready at the breach to mow down the Spanish guerrillas? Nope.

The love triangle is no more engaging. Miguel is hard to like and Anthony is Cary Grant! Despite some great headliners in the cast, none of them give a noteworthy performance. Sinatra is bland and boring, doing little more than reading his lines off cue cards. He is not helped by a script that has him moping about Juana's growing attachment to Anthony. Some alpha male you are, buddy. Grant is similarly hampered by a clunky script that sees him lovestruck and perhaps joining this silly campaign just to stay near Juana. Though Sophia Loren did not speak English at the time and had to deliver her lines phonetically, she gets the best role here. Of course, she is the object of everyone's affection. Exactly why this woman is following the guerrillas is unclear, but she often feels like the 3rd in command.

Mediocre. Skip.

Mr. Inbetween (Season 1)

Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan) is a criminal, a hitman, who otherwise has the regular problems of an average working Joe.  He's divorced but has visitation with his daughter.  He has a girlfriend who works as a medic.  He has a best friend - also a criminal - who he constantly bails out of troubles of his own making, often humorously.  He attends meetings for anger management because he 'bashed a bloke.'  Of course, he saw nothing wrong with bashing the fellow, who fully deserved it.  Such a view does not impress the counselor.  Though Ray comes across as an amiable, even friendly, guy, woe to those who provoke his ire.  He is a cool customer when conflict arises.  Not only does Ray face threats of death with equanimity, but he has more tricks up his sleeve than even professional rivals can counter.  He recognizes that he is a criminal, but he also knows the 'work' will get done with or without him.  He has a strong sense of honor, frequently protecting innocents, but having no compunction about punishing the guilty.

The show takes place in Australia, which apparently has a bigger criminal underground than one would expect.  In any case, Ray is never short of people who need killing.  One curious thing is that Damon Herriman plays his primary employer, Freddy.  He had done so well in the role here that he got an almost identical role in The Bondsman with Kevin Bacon.  Scott Ryan is spectacular as Ray.  He has a unique face, putting him in the category of Steve Buscemi or Willem Dafoe.  Not a typical leading man.

The first season is only 6 half-hour episodes.  It has a terrific conclusion that got me wanting more.  Good popcorn fun and recommended.

Defund NPR & PBS

There is no shortage of media in the United States today.  When I was a kid, there were 7 TV channels and PBS.  That was a lot.  I remember visiting my grandparents and they only had 4 channels.  In those days, you could argue that the government should subsidize some programming that would not be aired on the limited stations.  That is not true now.  We have a glut of programming on a vast array of topics.  Niche programming abounds.  If you can't find your thing on TV, the internet - YouTube, Hulu, Rumble, and so on will have it.  Government-funded media was always questionable and is now just wasteful.  Any programming that has a sufficient audience will find private media to air it.  There is no reason for the American taxpayer to subsidize programming for anyone.

Taking Chance (2009)

It is April 2004 when the story opens with an ambush in Iraq.  It is only the audio over a black screen.  Back in the US, Marine Lt. Col. Mike Strobl (Kevin Bacon) is a number cruncher at Quantico.  His job is to review troop allocations and make recommendations.  Casualties are high in Iraq, but Lt. Col. returns to his wife and kids every night.  He's safe while other Marines were giving their lives.  While reviewing casualty reports, he notes that one Marine was from Colorado, near the town where he himself had grown up.  The Marine was PFC Chance Phelps.  Strobl volunteered to escort Chance home.

The process of returning the deceased to their relatives is very particular.  Honor is due the deceased at every stop on the journey home.  Strobl stood at attention and saluted as Chance was loaded into the plane and when he was removed from the plane.  He had to retain Chance's personal effects (a watch, a medallion, dog tags) on his person at all times, not even allowing them to pass through the X-ray at the airport.  He was moved that others joined in his respect for Chance along the way, offering thanks to him as an escort and condolences to Chance's family.  Strangely, the hero of the film is Chance and Strobl comes to know him by taking Chance home.

The movie is a powerful tearjerker, a somber reflection on the sacrifices made by a young man still in his teens.  Kevin Bacon is outstanding in the role, showing deep feelings despite maintaining a mostly stoic expression.

Highly recommended.

The Bondsman

Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon) arrived at an abandoned motel to catch one of the Earl brothers.  It turned out that the brothers knew he was coming and set a trap.  They killed him!  To his great surprise, he awoke with a slit throat.  Why wasn't he dead?  Then the phone calls started from Pot O' Gold.  He was back from the dead for a purpose: he was now a bounty hunter in the employ of the devil.  His Pot O' Gold supervisor, Midge (Jolene Purdy), explained that Hell is basically a prison and sometimes there are escapes.  Escapees possess humans.  The only way to send them back is to kill the human they have possessed.

Hub isn't a lone wolf in his efforts.  His mother (Beth Grant) is his boss and she finds out about his new job when he does.  Of course, his mom is more interested in why he went to Hell rather than his new job of demonslaying.  Hub is coy on that subject, declaring it a mistake.  Hub's ex-wife, Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles), stumbles upon him in action against a demon and joins his efforts.  He roped his teenaged son, Cade (Maxwell Jenkins), into serving as a lookout on another instance.  Ex-con and Maryanne's boyfriend, Lucky (Damon Herriman), knows something dark is happening and wants to protect Maryanne and Cade, whatever measures that might require.

Though Hub accepts his new role, he thinks there must be a loophole, a way to get out from under his misdeeds.  He spends a lot of time plotting against Lucky rather than hunting demons that are clearly working as part of a greater plan.  His mother tells him that pride is what led him to Hell and he still hasn't mended that.

The series is available on Amazon.  It is only 8 episodes long and each episode is only 30 minutes.  Yeah, this is easy to binge in a single sitting.  The gruesome deaths of demons and their victims is often over the top, reminding me of Death of a Unicorn.  Good popcorn fun!

The Woman in the Yard (2025)

Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) lives on a farm with her two children, Taylor and Annie. The family is recovering from a tragedy; David (Russell Hornsby), Ramona's husband, died in a car crash. Ramona is still wearing a brace on her leg and uses crutches to navigate the house and yard. On this particular day, Taylor reported that the power was out. Worse, her phone is dead. To add to their troubles, there is a strange woman (Okwui Okpokwasili) in the yard. She is veiled and dressed entirely in black. She even had a chair to sit on. Curious, Ramona confronts the woman.

"Today's the day," the woman stated. She even said that Ramona had called her and she had now come.

Rattled, Ramona returned to the house and locked all the doors. However, as the day wore on, the woman came closer to the house despite never seeming to move. Her shadow cast farther than it should and in directions it shouldn't. The explanations for the woman and the background of the family are revealed as the story unfolds.

The initial reaction to the strange woman in the yard was inexplicable. Taylor is a teenager who is both taller than and more mobile than his mother, but she sequesters him in the house like he was a toddler even before a threat is revealed. The family has 2 cars, one that was wrecked and the other won't start. How have the kids been going to school since the accident? Do they go to school? Is it a weekend? Is it summer break? The powers of the woman are related to her shadow. Somehow, Ramona knows this. How? Ramona is an artist, though she hasn't been doing much painting since moving from the city.

Though it has several jump scares and a few hair-raising instances of terror, the movie proved to be merely so-so. Skip this one.

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

In 2010, Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife, Felicia (Kate Hudson), drove together to the heliport.  He was leaving for a 3-week stint on the Deepwater Horizon.  At the heliport, he met James "Mr. Jimmy" Harrell (Kurt Russell) and Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez), who were also going to the Deepwater Horizon.  A pair of BP executives were included as well.  As the helicopter hove into view, Mr. Jimmy was surprised to see a ship near the platform.  That generally indicated that the well was ready and the platform would travel to a new site shortly.  When the helicopter landed, he briefly conferred with a test team who did not give satisfactory answers to Mr. Jimmy.  What was the situation?

Mike and Mr. Jimmy found Don Vidrine (John Malkovich), a BP Executive, in a good mood.  This particular site had been running over cost and beyond schedule, but he was now certain that the well was ready to hand off to an oil extraction platform.  They could move to a new site.  Mr. Jimmy was doubtful and wanted a test.  The test was inconclusive, but Vidrine was confident.  Though the Deepwater Horizon was owned by Transocean, it was currently leased to BP.  Jimmy deferred to BP's decision.

As it turns out, the well was not hunky dory.  In fact, it was a timebomb that exploded, sending pressure and oil into the platform with destructive force.  The oil soon caught fire and more explosions wracked the doomed platform.  Could they cap the well?  Could they even escape the platform?

The movie opens and closes with the testimony of the actual crew, including Mike and Mr. Jimmy, neither of whom look much like Wahlberg or Russell.  As with the investigation that followed the explosions, the movie pins the blame on BP.

Though true, this is a disaster movie right out of the 1970s.  I was reminded of The Towering Inferno as everything exploded and everyone fled the spreading fire.  Mike proves to be the central character who ties the story into a clean narrative.  Wahlberg does a great job.  Russell is excellent as Mr. Jimmy and Malkovich is terrific as the supercilious executive who is humbled when his claims are proved wrong.

Mostly good popcorn fun, but the conclusion is mostly a downer.  Is this a movie for entertainment or is it a documentary?

Signalgate

The Atlantic journalist Jeffery Goldberg somehow found himself included in a Signal chat among high-ranking officials of the Trump Administration.  As such, he gleaned information about an attack on Houthi rebels that would take place shortly thereafter.  Clearly, this is a serious data breach, a security failure, a clear case of 'loose lips sink ships.'  So, how did the attack go?  Without a hitch.  Whew.  Dodged that bullet.  Now, let's make sure we don't invite reporters to the next chat.  That is not how the press is playing it.

No, Trump needs to fire Secretary Hegseth for using Signal to communication.  He needs to fire Mike Waltz for adding Goldberg to the chat.  Someone needs to be fired for this incident that resulted in no negative consequences other than embarrassment to the 2-month-old administration.  By contrast, when 13 Americans were killed during the Afghan withdrawal, billions in military equipment abandoned, and allied Afghans fell to their deaths from departing aircraft, these same folks didn't call for Secretary Lloyd Austin or Joint Chief Chairman Milley to be fired.  Interesting.

By and large, the press is a wing of the Democratic Party and will spin any story to best favor the Democrats.  That such a big deal is being made of Signalgate shows how effective the Trump Administration is so far.

Due Process for Illegal Immigrants

In response to Trump's wholesale expulsion and deportation of illegal immigrants, the democrats are crying out for due process.  Apparently, these illegal entrants should be allowed to stay - at our expense - until we can give them a court date.  And what is going to happen at that court date?

Judge: Are you a US Citizen?

Immigrant: No

Judge: Do you have a green card or visa?

Immigrant: No

Judge: Clearly, you do not have a legal right or permission to be in the US.  Deportation order is hereby upheld.

What a waste of time and money to go through this.  Once someone crosses the border, the US is now obligated to pay for a public defender and a court date to shove them back to the other side?  Imagine if someone moved into your backyard and you couldn't just kick them out.  Nope, you need to wait on a court date and let a judge permit you to kick them out.  Ludicrous.  Asinine.  Of course, even in the above example, there will be demands for appeal.  Craziness.  This is a strategy that will lead to bankruptcy just trying to get the trespassers out of the country, and that is the point.  The other side wants to make it as expensive as possible to return illegal aliens to their home countries.  Why are they so keen on keeping illegals in the US at the expense of the American taxpayer?

Death of a Unicorn (2025)

Ridley (Jenna Ortega) and her father, Elliot (Paul Rudd), drove through pristine mountains en route to a lodge.  They were to spend the weekend with the Leopolds.  During the drive, Elliot was distracted and struck an animal on the road.  To their shock and amazement, the animal proved to be a unicorn!  It was not dead.  When the horn began to glow, Ridley touched it.  She had a vision of creation.  Oh, the wonders!  She snapped out of it when blood hit her face and her father beat the unicorn to death with a tire iron.  "You were having a seizure," he explained.  Though Elliot sought to hide the incident from the Leopolds - his employers, it was soon revealed.  Moreover, the unicorn blood appeared to have healing properties.  Odell Leopold (Richard E Grant) owned a pharmaceutical company; the unicorn is a godsend.  His wife, Belinda (Tea Leoni), and son, Shepard (Will Poulter), are likewise ecstatic.  Researchers arrived within the hour.  Ridley had seen tapestries at the Cloisters in New York which told the story of unicorns.  By the very discovery of a unicorn, that story took on new meaning.  She interpreted it very darkly.

This is a campy horror film.  Despite their equine figure, they have teeth like a wolf.  These are carnivores, not herbivores.  Though traditionally white, these unicorns change color depending on mood; their hide is very dark when hunting for humans but quite bright when dashing along in the sunlight.  Rather than work with horses, the unicorns are mostly - possibly entirely - CGI creations.  As their blood has magical healing properties, they are understandably hard to kill.

Ridley had a mark against her with that nose ring and made things worse when she broke out the vape.  Though the heroine of the movie, she comes across more as a scold than the voice of reason.  Paul Rudd is stuck with a bland and barely likeable character.  He's a coward through most of the movie and generally a pushover.  Richard E. Grant plays Richard E. Grant, which is quite fun.  If he was drawn as a cartoon character, Odell would have dollar signs for pupils.  Tea Leoni matches Grant's greedy nature, but is generally uninspiring in her role.  Will Poulter is over the top as the rich son with a history of drug use; his experimentation with unicorn parts is hilarious. Grind down horn to snort like cocaine, smoke like tobacco, or use as an additive to whatever he is drinking.

Not a great horror film, but still entertaining.

Baffled (1972)

Racecar driver Tom Kovack (Leonard Nimoy) was well in the lead when he suddenly had a vision.  He saw a manor house in England and a screaming woman.  The vision ruins his concentration on the racetrack.  He spun out and crashed.  Luckily, he was not injured.  Later, during an interview, he detailed the vision to the reporter.  Michelle Brent (Susan Hampshire) was watching and she quickly realized that Tom had psychic powers.  She asked him to travel to England and save the screaming woman.  He viewed that as ludicrous.  However, when he had another vision which saw him falling from a cliff into the sea, he reconsidered, especially since he awoke on the floor covered in sea water.

Actress Andrea Glenn (Vera Miles) traveled to England with her daughter, Jennifer.  They planned to meet her long estranged husband at a manor house owned by Mrs. Farraday (Rachel Roberts).  Much to Jennifer's disappointment, he was not there.  Or is he?  Jennifer begins to act strangely and Andrea becomes deathly ill.  Worse still, efforts were made to kill both Tom and Michelle.  As Tom and Michelle investigate - often with Tom's clairvoyant talents, they discovered that occultism and psychic powers are being wielded against Andrea, her daughter, and themselves.  Can they counter this hidden villain before one of them is killed?

This was made as a pilot for a potential series and even ended with Tom having a vision that required them to travel to Paris next.  Much as I like Leonard Nimoy, he was not the best choice for the role.  Perhaps that is because I've typecast him as Spock.  Susan Hampshire plays both love interest and sage of psychic powers.  If this had launched into a series, how long would her schtick of explaining clairvoyance and the occult have been valuable?  The series would doom Tom to being an eternal noob with regards to powers that he had and she did not.  The villain (Mike Murray) had a small role but managed to be both slimy, creepy, and scary.  He looked like an evil version of Michael Palin.

Just okay.

The Monkey (2025)

Airline pilot Pete Shelborn (Adam Scott) walked into a pawn shop with a toy monkey.  The monkey had a drum in its lap and drumsticks in each hand.  The pawn shop owner gives it a quick look and declares it broken.  He's not interested.  Shelborn is desperate to sell.  Then the monkey strikes the drum.  Through a ridiculous Rube Goldberg series of events, the pawn shop owner is killed.  This does not surprise Shelborn in the least.  He grabs a flamethrower from among the pawn shop's inventory and screams maniacally as he roasts the toy monkey.

In the late 90s, Hal and Bill Shelborn (Christian Convery) are twins who dislike one another.  Hal is the butt of jokes at school, having a very difficult time.  One night, they go through their father's things; mom (Tatiana Maslany) had said their father left without explanation.  Among his things, they find the monkey.  They soon discover that someone dies whenever the monkey beats the drum.  Efforts to destroy the monkey fail.  After several deaths, they agree to toss the monkey into a well.

In the modern day, Hal works at a pharmacy.  He has scheduled a week off to spend with his son, Petey (Colin O'Brien).  No sooner does he arrive at his ex-wife's house to get Petey than he learns his aunt has died a horrible death.  The monkey is back!

The movie plays as a comedy-horror.  The deaths are so graphic that it jumps into comedy.  Hal finds himself splashed by buckets of blood, dodging flying limbs, and even witnessing Death riding a pale horse through town.  "Over the top" does not begin to explain some of the events.

Good popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Blowing Wild (1953)

Jeff Dawson (Gary Cooper) and Dutch Peterson (Ward Bond) are wildcatters in South America.  They have sunk all their funds into a patch of land where they hope to discover oil.  However, bandits arrive.  The bandits - led by El Gavilan (Juan Garcia) - demand money for 'protection.'  Jeff and Dutch have no money, so the bandits blow up the well and steal their only horse.  The pair hike back to town with plans of getting a job.  Hungry, Dutch attempts to steal just enough money from a random man to pay for a meal.  The man proves to be Paco (Anthony Quinn), an old friend of Jeff and Dutch.  He gladly pays for them to have dinner and arranges for rooms.  In fact, he offers them a job.

Jeff, Dutch, and Paco had been in business previously, but Jeff left suddenly and Dutch left with him.  It soon becomes apparent that Jeff left on account of Paco's wife, Marina (Barbara Stanwyck).  Her relationship with Paco is difficult, all the more so now that Jeff is back in the picture.  Clearly, she has a thing for Jeff.  If Jeff wasn't in such a financial pickle, he would hightail it immediately.  To make matters worse, Paco is also having difficulties with the banditos.

Gary Cooper plays his usual stalwart, do-right fellow despite his poverty.  Jeff Dawson proves to be a highly skilled oilman who should have been turning down job offers rather than desperate for the first one to come along.  He is a paragon of virtue whose only flaw is repeated bad luck.

Barbara Stanwyck plays the bad girl.  She has a husband who loves her and provides well, but she doesn't reciprocate.  She could tolerate him well enough when it was just the two of them, but Jeff's return has rekindled her desire to find another man.  Her efforts in that direction grow in intensity as the story unfolds.

Anthony Quinn is more talk than action.  He's constantly boasting and is often oblivious to the feelings of those around him.  He repeatedly forces himself on his wife while Jeff is in the room, he presses to give Jeff money while ignoring Jeff's pride against handouts.  Constantly with the big talk, but when it comes to saving one of his wells, it is Jeff who risks himself rather than Paco.  Was it Jeff who set Paco's operation on the path to great success before he fled from Marina?  It looks that way.

Ward Bond plays his usual sidekick character.  Dutch is amiable but lacks Jeff's rectitude.  He reads the room well and makes an excellent friend.  There are none of the rough edges that are typically a feature of his characters.  He figures prominently in the first act but is sidelined after an encounter with the banditos.

Ruth Roman plays Sal Donnelly, an American woman stranded in South America.  She initially approached Jeff with hopes he might pay her way back to the States.  When it turned out he was flat broke, she practically sneered.  However, despite that, he offered to pay her way once he came into money.  His repeated concern for her welfare sparked interest.  Plus, she looks quite good in an evening gown.  Marina is openly hostile to Sal.

The movie is not clear on what it wants to be.  There is the love triangle of Jeff-Marina-Paco.  There is another love triangle of Marina-Jeff-Sal.  Then there is the repeated bandito trouble that always leads to gun fights and explosions.  In the opening, it felt very like Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Ward Bond begging a fellow American to front him a meal.  Then, Jeff and Dutch get a job where they get stiffed on pay.  Happily, it diverges from there.

Just okay.

President Autopen

In recent days, it has been discovered that many of President Biden's signatures are identical.  Previous presidents have used an autopen.  For example, President Obama used an autopen to sign a law extension before a deadline while he was in France.  Generally, the autopen is used to sign correspondence, photographs, or other non-official documents.  Where most presidents issue only 50 or so executive orders a year, the use of an autopen would be unexpected.  Surely, the president can sign a document a week, especially an executive order that he crafted or a pardon he authorized.  Well, it turns out that President Biden couldn't be bothered.  Or maybe he wasn't even consulted.  The combination of President Biden's mental decline and that the autopen provided his signature on both executive orders and pardons is troubling.

Joe Biden was not calling the shots during his presidency.  He was a front man, a figurehead.  Much as it was eventually revealed that Joe McCarthy was right about communist infiltration of the government and President Wilson was an invalid during the last 18 months of his presidency, it will someday be exposed who was the guiding the executive branch during the last 4 years.  Until then, we can refer to that person as President Autopen.

Meet the Tiger

Simon Templar, a man who has been dubbed the saint on account of his initials (ST), arrived in the ocean-side city of Baycombe in England.  He was on the trail of a mysterious bank robber known as the Tiger.  The Saint was a gentleman adventurer, a man willing to skirt the law in order to bring the 'godless' to justice and perhaps get rich in the process.  Though Baycombe was a sleepy town with only a couple of automobiles (the story takes place in the 1920s), the Tiger and his cohorts - playfully called 'tiger cubs' by the Saint - have laid up here until the time is right to split the spoils.  The question becomes, who is in league with the Tiger and who is just an ordinary citizen.

Much of the tale involves the Saint having snarky conversations with the various suspects to see if something slips out.  Surprisingly, a good chunk of this is outsourced to the lovely and gracious Patricia Holm.  Patricia was orphaned and has lived either at schools or at her Aunt Agatha's house in Baycombe.  Every description of her aunt paints her as a man in drag, which later proves to be the case.  Yeah, that was a pretty weak part of the book.  Back to Patricia, she has such a large part in the book that she is the co-main character with Simon.

The Saint doesn't care for guns.  He is armed with a knife named Anna that is perfectly balanced for throwing.  The Saint has buckets of confidence, an unshakeable certainty in his inevitable success, and a generous portion of charm.  He also has a sidekick named Orace, a military man with a heavy accent, an imposing physique, and a limp.

Though it might have been unprecedented when published in the 1920s, the story feels very cliche.  The mystery of who was the tiger proved less difficult than hoped.  I had my suspect early and it proved to be the correct guess.  When revealed by the Saint in the climax, the Tiger was a disappointment.  What looked like it might have been clever maneuvering on his part was instead nothing but happenstance and, as it turned out, incompetence.

This Simon Templar is very different from the one played by Roger Moore on the long-running TV series.  Here, the Saint is out for a reward - the finder's fee for recovering the gold that the Tiger stole - rather than random do-gooderism.  Where Roger Moore disdained weapons in general and weekly resorted to fisticuffs, the literary Simon likes his knives.  I have no idea how Val Kilmer's Saint became a master of disguise.

The Saint is dangerously reckless throughout the book and only survives because the villains don't shoot him when they have the chance.  He pins his life on the timely arrival of allies or the intervention of fate on his behalf.  Oh, so reckless.  Sure, it dials the suspense and tension way up, but it also paints the Saint as foolhardy rather than courageous.  Just okay.  It has not aged as well as Ian Flemings Bond novels; read those instead.

The French Connection (1971)

Marseilles, France

A detective surveilles a meeting and trails one of them.  Afterward, he buys himself some bread and heads back to his apartment.  He has hardly opened the door when an assassin guns him down.

New York City

Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) takes down a drug dealer while dressed as Santa Claus.  His partner, Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) suffered a knife-wounded during the arrest.  Rather than go home, Popeye convinced Cloudy to get a drink.  This soon turns into a stakeout of Sal Boca, a convenience store owner with a criminal record.  Popeye has a hunch that something big is coming and Sal is part of it.  However, the mastermind of the drug dealers, Alain Charnier (Fernado Rey) is quite clever himself.  He quickly spots Popeye following him and takes measures to lose him.

It is a gritty movie that spends the majority of its time in the dark underbelly of New York's drug culture.  It's cops, drug dealers, and innocent bystanders.  As the Charnier and his sidekick are French, they only speak French to each other; the Amazon version of the film has no subtitles, making their conversations a mystery.  

Gene Hackman won the Academy Award for his role as Doyle.  Doyle is a loose cannon cop with anger management issues and poor taste in hats.  To the positive, he is a workaholic with a nose for finding the bad guys.  Overall, he is not a particularly likeable person.  He's abrasive and abusive.  On the other hand, he has an endless supply of persistence.  Hackman's range as an actor was truly impressive.  He could be hard-as-nails dangerous (this movie or Unforgiven), funny and devious (Lex Luthor from the Superman series), or goofy and harmless (Young Frankenstein).  RIP

The Border

Throughout the Biden Presidency, we heard that there was nothing he could do about the border.  He needed new laws to stop the flood of immigrants across the border.  Congress must pass new laws to stem the tide.  The president's hands are tied without additional legislation.  Really?

President Trump has been back in office for just over 6 weeks and border crossings have plummeted by 85% or more.  Amazingly, Congress has passed no new laws.  Nope.  Trump is just enforcing the laws that are already on the books.  It is illegal to enter the United States without permission.  The border crisis that Biden claimed to have no power to reverse somehow turned on a dime when a new president was inaugurated.  It is exactly events like this that destroy faith in media.  For the last four years, the media uncritically echoed the Biden Administrations claims of helplessness in the face of illegal immigration.  How does one trust what the media reports now when current events demolish previous reporting?  There is a reason that some have referred to the mainstream media as Democratic stenographers.

Europe, NATO, and Ukraine

Much is being made of the recent Oval Office tiff between President Trump and President Zelensky.  Critics claim that Trump's failure to support Ukraine in its continuing battle against Russia is no different from taking Putin's side in the conflict.  Always, criticism of Ukraine is labeled as apologist behavior on behalf of Russia.  However, I want to know what is our interest in Ukraine?  What national interest are we serving?  Why can't the Europeans tackle this one?  Let's consider some numbers:

Russia is the 11th largest economy in the world with a $2 trillion GDP.  It has a population of 145 million people.

The United States is the largest economy with a $27 trillion GDP.  We have population of 343 million.

If not for nuclear warheads, Russia is a gnat compared to the USA.  But what about Europe?

The European Union consists of 27 countries with a combined GDP of $18.6 trillion and a combined population of 450 million.  Germany alone has a GDP of $4.5 trillion (more than double Russia, you will note) and a population of 84 million.  France and Italy also have larger GDPs than Russia.  Why can't the European Union deal with the Ukraine problem?  After all, it is their backyard, not ours.

Let's consider NATO.  Not including the USA, there are 31 NATO countries with a combined GDP of $24.7 trillion and a combined population of 640 million.  That is 12 times the GDP and 4 times the population of Russia.  Moreover, several of these countries are nuclear powers.

After World War II, it made sense for the United States to guarantee the defense of Europe while it rebuilt from the ruins.  The Soviets had shown a clear desire to annex territory and impose communism.  NATO was needed to defend the remnants of the West.  Today, that clearly isn't the case.  The Soviet Union collapsed 30 years ago and we are pretending it is still a threat.  Either the European Union or the Non-USA members of NATO could easily defeat Russia if they put any resources into it.  The US should have spent the last 30 years weening Europe off of the USA paying for its defense.  They're all grown up now and can defend themselves.

NATO has outlived its purpose.  We should stop funding Ukraine and stop subsidizing European defense.

Google Maps Update!

 
He did it!  He actually pulled it off!

Unforgiven (1992)

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

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

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

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

Recommended.

The Tick (season 2)

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

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

Good popcorn fun!

The Tariff Negotiator

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

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

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

The Tick (season 1)

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

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

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

Lots of fun and highly recommended.

On Threat of Tariff

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

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

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

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

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

Secret Level

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

Great popcorn fun and highly recommended.

The Paper Chase (1973)

James Hart (Timothy Bottoms) is a first-year law student on his first day at Harvard University.  He arrives in Professor Kingsfield's (John Houseman) class to learn about contract law and, to his utter surprise, is called upon to relate the details of a case.  He had expected a first-day introduction, not a leap into the material.  Utterly humiliated, he soon joins a study club with 5 other students to get up to speed.  Though he quickly discovers that law school is more work than a fulltime job, he also finds a girlfriend, Susan (Lindsay Wagner).  Where Hart is trying to organize, categorize, and otherwise dissect the world and its interactions into legalese, Susan is a free spirit who dislikes Hart's efforts to classify their relationship and apply contract law to it.  Of course, his studies suffer thanks to his involvement with Susan.  Choices must be made.  Grades are key to his future.

Though Hart is clearly taking many classes, the only one that is ever shown is that of Professor Kingsfield.  With the study club, Hart volunteered to produce a study outline for contract law - Kingsfield - while the others took property, criminal, etc.  By the end of the semester, half the study group had either abandoned the group or dropped out of Harvard entirely.  The stress is intense.

John Houseman is terrific as Kingsfield.  It is no wonder he won an academy award for this performance.  He is the best part of this movie, far outshining all the other actors.  Despite the fact that Hart was a standout student in his class, he appears to not know him at the end of the semester, asking his name.  In fact, this happened several times.  "What is your name?" was one of Kingsfield's most repeated lines.  Is this a tactic to keep students humble?  A way to maintain neutrality toward students?  An indication that he views the students as so many "skulls full of mush" that are not currently worth remembering?  Whatever the reason, it was great.

After the class is done and tests have been taken, Hart has a chance encounter with Kingsfield.  He gushes over how much he got out of the class.  Kingsfield replies by asking his name.  LOL!  "Thank you, Mr. Hart."

As for the rest of the cast, they are fine.  They get the job done but nothing special.  An entertaining movie and worth watching.  Recommended.

Birthright Citizenship

Nigel Piddlewhite arrives in the US as an exchange student from York, England, to attend the University of Nebraska.  To his great delight, he meets Fiona Feversham who happens to be from Leeds, England.  Both are freshman and quickly hit it off.  By their sophomore year, they have married and have a son, Algernon Piddlewhite.  Upon graduation, Nigel and Fiona return to England with young Algernon to begin careers and have another child.  Life is great and Algernon soon has a younger brother and sister.  On his 18th birthday, an official-looking letter arrives from America!  It is a request for him to enroll in Selective Services.  Is he legally obligated to do so?  Might an effort to extradite him be made if he failed to enroll?  Is Algernon an American citizen?  Certainly, neither of his parents are American citizens.  Nor are his siblings.

Maria Cortes is 6 months pregnant when she pays a coyote to get her across the US border into Arizona.  She has cousins in Tucson who support her until she has the baby.  Little Ximena is a healthy baby girl.  However, ICE has grabbed Maria and want to deport her.  Immigration lawyers declared that Ximena is an American citizen and the US must let her mother stay to raise her.  Is Ximena an American citizen or is she the same nationality as her mother who just happened to be born in another country?

The 14th Amendment states that:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside

Was it the intent of the authors of this amendment to provide such a path to citizenship?  It must be remembered that this amendment was passed in the wake of the Civil War and with the intent of countering the Dred Scott Decision.  The 13th abolished slavery and the 15th provided the vote regardless of race.  The 14th granted citizenship to former slaves.  What was meant to be a one-and-done granting of citizenship has somehow morphed into birthright citizenship for the children of whomever can get across the border and give birth.

President Trump has signed an executive order that will see this issue hashed out in the courts in the near future.

The Final Pardons

With his presidency coming to a close, President Biden slipped in a few more pardons.  There is retired General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, all the members of Congress who served on the J6 Committee, various DC and US Capitol police, and, of course, three of his siblings and their spouses.  No, nothing to see here, move along.  Unlike his son, who was convicted of crimes and indicted for crimes, these people are not.  What is being pardoned?  The claim will be to prevent Trump from taking revenge on his enemies.  You know, we wouldn't want the president to target political rivals with the power of government, like when President Biden's DOJ went after Trump, Giuliani, Steve Bannon, etc.  This tells us more about the thinking of Biden than the thinking of Trump, because Biden already did what he thinks Trump might do.

Generally, accepting a pardon is equated with admitting guilt.  What exactly would each of these folks be admitting?  For what crimes could Trump's DOJ pursue them?  Milley should have been fired for the Afghanistan debacle, but that isn't criminal.  His backdoor chats with the Chinese during the interregnum were a sore spot with Trump, who called it treason, but is that worthy of pursuing now that tempers have calmed?  Rand Paul has been particularly active against Dr. Fauci, indicating that he lied to Congress and participated in illegal gain-of-function research.  Is he someone Trump would pursue or is Fauci being protected from Senator Paul now that the control has shifted to Republicans?  Now the J6 Committee is an interesting one.  Once the tapes were released in 2023, a different picture of the 'insurrection' was painted.  The Q-Anon Shaman was escorted to the Senate chambers by the Capitol Police!  Was the committee impartial or did it cherry pick the evidence to reveal while hiding mitigating facts?  Did it do anything criminal?  Biden must think there could be something there or why the pardons?  As far as the pardons for his family, that is doubtless for the same shenanigans that surrounded Hunter.

These create a bad precedent.  Pardons should be for specific crimes, not a shield against any future prosecution.  When Jimmy Carter issued a pardon for all the draft dodgers, it was for evading the draft.  It did not pardon them for assault, murder, fraud, etc.  A specific crime was pardoned.  The Constitution states:

 

...he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Providing a pardon without the crime is a case of putting the cart before the horse.

Trump Returns

Trump is back.  He is now the 2nd president to have non-consecutive terms, repeating the feat of Grover Cleveland: 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897.  Trump's inaugural address was a long list of Biden policies that he will reverse or his own former policies that he will restore.  He spent a good portion of his speech decrying the damage done over the last 4 years and his intent to repair it.  Not one to shy away from hyperbole, he declared that the Golden Age of America was beginning now, and that the best four year of American history would follow.  Some of the highlights:

1. We're taking back the Panama Canal
2. Stay in Mexico policy restored
3. Gulf of Mexico is now Gulf of America
4. There are only two genders
5. Military ejected for failure to take COVID vaccine will be reinstated with back pay
6. No more wars.  He will be a peacemaker
7. Weaponization of DOJ will end
8. Denali in Alaska will once again be called Mount McKinley
9. Speaking of McKinley, he liked tariffs.  Let's do that again
10. External Revenue Service - collect taxes from other countries
11. Drill, baby, drill.  Let's get that liquid gold
12. End the electric car mandate
13. DOGE: the Department of Government Efficiency
14. Let's go to Mars!

America is the greatest country and every other country envies us.  They will envy us more now.

It was a practical speech that set out goals and expectations.  Here is the initial blueprint for America's future.  It was a call to arms against the powers that be.  It was missing the line: "There's a new sheriff in town," but it communicated that message loud and clear.  It lacked the soaring rhetoric of Reagan or Obama.  It had the subtly of a cudgel.

Black Moon Rising (1986)

In the salt flats of Utah, Earl Windom (Richard Jaeckel) tests his revolutionary hydrogen-powered car.  Not only does it run on hydrogen, but the sleek car - the Black Moon - has a rocket engine (like the Batmobile!) that gives it an extra boost of speed.  With the test successful, he sets out for Los Angeles to get additional funding.

In Las Vegas, Quint (Tommy Lee Jones) is a professional thief on a mission.  He has been contracted by the Department of Justice to recover incriminating tapes from a corporation.  No sooner has he acquired the tape than the alarm sounds, and he is on the run.  Worse, an old foe, Marvin Ringer (Lee Ving), is the chief of security who has no compuction about killing Quint to recover the tape.  Quint's vehicle is poked full of bullet holes during his flight.  As luck would have it, he encounters Earl and his crew at a gas station on the road to LA.  Seeing as they are both headed to the same spot, Quint hid the tape in the Black Moon.  Moments later, Ringer arrives and Quint is on the run again.

In Los Angeles, Nina (Linda Hamilton) sits at the bar of a high-end restaurant.  Of course, she shuts down a guy who hits on her.  However, she has a brief exchange with Quint, who is also at the bar.  Nina leaves and locks the restaurant door behind her.  A van full of men arrives in the parking lot and she instructs them which cars to steal.  She allocates the Black Moon to herself.  Despite Nina's impressive driving skills and the speed of the Black Moon, Quint follows her to Ryland Towers.  He quickly determines that it is a high-security facility.

Ed Ryland (Robert Vaughn) sells high-end stolen cars internationally.  To demonstrate just how dangerous he is, he orders the death of a foreign buyer for breach of payment while watching the killing on a closed-circuit TV.  He is unimpressed that Nina has stolen the Black Moon, which is unique and basically unsellable.  Clearly, the relationship between Ryland and Nina is on the rocks.

The pieces are now in place.  Can Quint recover the tape from the Black Moon and get it to the DOJ before it is needed in court?  Will he be able to convince Earl and his crew to help by promising to recover the Black Moon?  Can he dodge Marvin long enough to complete his plan?  Will Nina become a love interest?  Well, that one's a given.  But will she help him steal the Black Moon or remain loyal to Ryland?

For a movie that required a bunch of coincidences to tell its story, it takes that to the extreme.  At one point, Quint arrives at a location that no one could have predicted he would be and yet Marvin is waiting for him there.  Impossible!  Not only Marvin, but the DOJ is also there!  What?!  Oh, and Bubba Smith - 6'7" former NFL defensive lineman - plays the most-intimidating DOJ agent you ever saw.

There are lasers, building infiltrations, car chases, gun fights, fisticuffs, sex scenes, explosions, and even a crazy flying car stunt.  It covers all the bases.  Though evil and almost omniscient, the villain isn't all that bright.  The movie is a little uneven in pacing.  Even so, this is a fun, action-packed, heist film.

Good popcorn fun.

Almost Heroes (1998)

It is 1804 and the Corps of Discovery has started its historic trip up the Missouri River and trek to the Pacific Ocean.  Meanwhile, Leslie Edwards (Matthew Perry) has grand plans of beating Lewis and Clark to the Pacific.  However, he needs a guide.  Bartholomew Hunt (Chris Farley) is just the man, if only Edwards can arrive in time to save him from execution.  The pair assemble their own corps of adventurers.  Of course, Edwards is a slave owner and brought Jonah (Bokeem Woodbine) along.  One cannot venture into the vast wilderness without a French guide: Guy Fontenot (Eugene Levy) fills that roll.  Inevitably, Frenchmen have Indian wives; Shaquinna (Lisa Barbuscia) is Guy's drop-dead gorgeous wife and Sacagawea knock off.  Though starting two weeks after Lewis and Clark, Edwards presses to overtake them.  There are many challenges to overcome: troop morale, a grizzly bear, Guy Fontenot's violent jealousy regarding his wife, river rapids, Indian tribes, acquiring eagle eggs, and most importantly, Hidalgo (Kevin Dunn) and his band of conquistadors.

The movie is mostly lowbrow slapstick silliness.  Edwards is an effete gentleman with delusions of competence while Hunt is Chris Farley, which is to say he lacks volume control and gesticulates wildly.  Guy spends most of his time verbally or physically attacking anyone who gazes upon his wife.  Bidwell (David Packer) is the designated slapstick victim, loosing body parts as the journey continues westward.  Then there is the story about the sheep shit pudding.  Sigh.  For a comedy, it is seldom funny.

As far as the historical setting, the most glaring anachronism was the presence of conquistadors.  Did these guys get lost in the 16th century and stumble into early 19th century America?  Obviously, as this is a silly comedy, it isn't meant to make sense and a goofball villain who styles himself as a conquistador is just the sort of silly nonsense one should expect.  That would be easier to accept if it had been funny.

Skip.

Jesse Stone

Jesse Stone is a former LAPD detective who moved across the country to Paradise, Massachusetts to be a small-town police chief.  Jesse is a divorcee and alcoholic.  These problems led him to leave California.

Stone Cold (2005): Police Chief Jesse Stone (Tom Selleck) is called to the beach.  Officer Simpson had been patrolling and spotted a dog sitting among the rocks.  When he went to check on the dog, he saw a dead man, presumably the dog's owner.  The man had two bullet holes in his chest.  He was not a citizen of Paradise.  The investigation has hardly begun than another person is found dead with two bullet holes.  Is this one shooter or possibly two?  Jesse collects license plates and interviews the vehicle owners.  One couple, a husband and wife, strike Jesse as peculiar and worthy of further investigation.  Meanwhile, a rape case has also landed in his lap.  The victim is a high schooler.  Jesse arrests one of the boys and soon finds himself accosted by attorney Rita Fiore (Mimi Rogers) who threatens legal consequences.  After that, she throws herself at Jesse but he declines the offer.  He already has a bedmate, Abby Taylor (Polly Shannon).  Lastly, there is the question of the dog.  Initially, Jesse adopts the dog while he looks for a better home.  Inevitably, the serial murder, the rape case, and the dog adoption converge in the climax.

Night Passage (2006): Jesse Stone stared out at the ocean with his dog at his side.  A police officer stopped to check on him and observed that he smelled alcohol.  Jesse admitted to being drunk but said he'd sober up before he drives.  Moreover, he revealed that he's a former cop.  Despite being the second movie, this predates Stone Cold.  Here we see Jesse drive cross country with his dog to interview for the job of chief in Paradise.  He is a bit surprise when he gets the job.  "I wouldn't have hired me," he confides to one of the police officers.  He has hardly begun the job than his predecessor - Chief Carson - is found murdered.  While getting to know the town, he starts up an affair with Abby Taylor the city attorney.  He is also propositioned by Cissy Hathaway, wife of one of the city councilmen, Hasty Hathaway (Saul Rubinek).  Of course, Cissy has had many affairs.  Among the issues that he must tackle are a spousal abuse case, the murder of Chief Carson, and establishing a rapport with his 3 police officers.  Interestingly, because this is a prequel, a character who died in Stone Cold is brought back.  Unexpected.

For some reason, Jesse finds women throwing themselves at him.  Sure, he's played by Tom Selleck, but some random drunkard in his 50s shouldn't be getting this much action.  His ex-wife calls him regularly though we never see her.  One gets the impression that he still loves her but is exasperated and exhausted by her.  But he doesn't want her to stop calling.  In general, Jesse is a sad fellow who rarely smiles and might be suffering depression.  This is not Magnum P. I.

I watched these on Amazon.  Just okay.  Selleck fans might enjoy it.  However, Bosch is better.

Lt. Charles Hunter: Court Martial!

General Quitman had marched his brigade through unpleasant terrain to achieve a joint capture of Alvarado with the Navy under Commodore Perry.  However, upon arriving at the outskirts of Alvarado, he was startled to find the stars and stripes flying over the fortress.  In fact, the city was already captured and Quitman's march had been for naught.

With the fall of Vera Cruz, the troops at Alvarado had foreseen an inevitable loss to an American assault.  If Vera Cruz had fallen, Alvarado was doomed.  The garrison had marched away as soon as an American ship was spotted off the coast, evacuating with whatever war material it could.

For having captured 4 Mexican ships and captured two Mexican towns, Lt. Charles Hunter was court martialed.  He had arrived in the theater less than a week prior.  The charges pressed against him were 1) Treating with contempt his superior, and 2) disobedience of orders.  On the first, he had captured Alvarado without the authority to do so, he had captured Tlacotalpan without authority, and finally he had captured and burned a ship without authority.  On the second, he had been ordered to report to Captain Breese and assist in the blockade, not enter the harbor to capture the town.  Lastly, he failed to report in person to Commodore Perry at 10 AM.

Hunter's defense to the charges was that he had little choice.  When the enemy offers a white flag, what was he supposed to do?  Decline to accept the surrender?  When news of escaping ships came his way and he was not in immediate contact with his superior, what should he do?  Let them go?  Regarding the grounded ship, should he have left the cargo for the enemy to salvage?  When he arrived at Tlacolplan, should he have left the enemy ships at the port and declined the surrender of this town?  As for being late, he admitted to forgetting the appointment.

The findings were that he was guilty on both counts though not all the specifics.  He was therefore reprimanded and dismissed from the theater.  For an ambitious officer, this was a heavy blow.  Promotion and advancement, glory and distinction were won during conflicts.  He was sent back to the US to find out what would become of his career.

Though his immediate commanders did not appreciate his energy and flouting of command, the American public was more forgiving.  He was greeted as the hero of the hour in New York and presented a sword.  He gained the name of "Alvarado" Hunter.  In August 1847, he was given command of the schooner Taney and sent to the Mediterranean.

Lt. Charles Hunter: Scourge of Alvarado

As the Mexican-American War was underway, the US Navy needed more ships.  It purchased the USS Bangor and rechristened it as the USS Scourge, a gunboat.  Lt. Charles Hunter, then 37 years-old, was given command and sent to join the fleet in the Gulf of Mexico.  He arrived on station on the day that Veracruz had surrendered.  He reported to Commadore Matthew Perry, who had recently taken over from Commadore Conner.

Commadore Perry had been serving as second in command for several months.  Now that Veracruz was secured, he had plans to capture less important ports, most notably Alvarado.  The US Navy had already made two efforts to capture the well-fortified port but had to retreat each time.  He had consulted with General Winfield Scott about a joint operation to capture Alvarado.  It was only a 30-mile march from Veracruz.  Scott agreed and allocated General Quitman's brigade to help capture Alvarado.  With this in mind, Perry ordered Lt. Hunter to Alvarado where he was to report to Captain Breese of the Albany.  There, he would maintain the blockade of that port.  Lt. Hunter eagerly set out.

The Scourge was a steamer with only 3 guns and 50 men.  Arriving at Alvarado, Hunter saw no sign of the Albany.  The Albany was a sloop-of-war, having only sails for propulsion.  The wind along the gulf coast had presented difficulties for staying on station.  Certain that the Albany would appear in a day or two, the Scourge took up a position off the coast and fired at the fort.  The following day, he resumed his bombardment only to have the fort surrender!  Both pleased and astonished, he navigated into the port and demanded that Alvarado surrender.  The city complied immediately.  One of Hunter's crew was fluent in Spanish and learned that the garrison had fled after the bombardment, departing with several ships as well as military equipment.  Hunter left a midshipman and several sailors to hold the fort at Alvarado and immediately steamed upriver.

Shortly, he caught one of the ships.  It had run aground.  Viewing it as not worthy of salvage but also not wanting it left to the enemy, he set it ablaze.  Continuing his cruise, he captured 3 ships and secured the surrender of Tlacotalpan, a town on the Papaloapan River.  He put prize crews on the captured ships and returned to Alvarado.

When Commadore Perry received word of Lt. Hunter's exploits, he decided how to proceed in a snap.  Here was a man who had accomplished with one small ship what the whole fleet had failed to do on two previous occasions.  Clearly, this called for a court-martial!

Mohawk (2017)

It is the War of 1812 in upstate New York.  Joshua Pinsmail, a British agent, tries to enlist the Mohawk to the British cause.  Most of them refuse.  However, Calvin Two Rivers thinks they should fight the Americans.  Viewing his mission as a failure, Joshua ponders his departure; he will miss Okwaho, his Mohawk lover.  Joshua, Okwaho - nicknamed "Oak" - and Calvin travel together.  One night, Calvin left their camp and killed 20 American soldiers in their sleep!  Unsurprisingly, a band of Americans are soon on their trail for vengeance.  The Americans catch up to the trio just as the trio are conversing with other Mohawk.  The tense situation inevitably results in conflict where arrows fly and muskets bark.  The trio make good their escape, but the remaining Americans continue the pursuit.

The story transforms into a horror movie as Oak - who has had visions of a skull-faced apparition from the start - dons such a costume and hunts down the Americans.  Somehow, despite having suffered grievous wounds, she is able to outrun them, setup traps, and fight in toe-to-toe combat, and displays superhuman strength.  Has she been possessed by some Mohawk spirit of vengeance?  No.  She's just that cool.

Oak is the main character.  She wears a mini skirt and short-sleeved tunic.  She looks entirely unlike a Mohawk squaw.  Everyone else has a reasonably accurate period costume or uniform, so this proves to be a significant anachronism.  Worse, it all fits rather loosely so she isn't the gratuitously sexy Mohawk.

The Americans are led by Colonel Holt.  He has two soldiers, a tracker, and an interpreter.  Despite being deep in the woods and far from any backup, he acts as though he is leading a full regiment of men.  Whenever one of his men dies, he views it as a reason to continue rather than a warning that he is beyond his depth.  Worse, he expands his mission from simply capturing Calvin to capturing all three.  Why?  Basically, the Americans are doomed to self-destruct thanks to Holt's recklessness.

One of the Americans, Private Lachlan Allsopp, is a giant.  Played by Jon Huber, a real life wrestler, he towers over everyone at 6'5" tall.  Interestingly, Allsopp claims to be a veteran of the Battle of Tippecanoe, which took place in Indiana in 1811.  How is he still a private?

Mediocre.  Skip.