America 250

Where this should be a celebration that the United States has persevered through a quarter millennium, it is more often an excuse to attack President Trump.  The most noteworthy incident is the reflecting pool.  It has long been a problem that multiple presidents have address - including Obama, but it has never risen to the level of criticism as now.  There has been vandalism in order to foil President Trump's efforts to repair a leaking national landmark before today's historic anniversary.  How did monument repair become so controversial?

The issue is that too many Americans are no longer proud to be Americans, especially when there is a president of whom they disapprove.  Too often, America's failings and faults are taught while its goodness and virtues are ignored.  Prior to 1988, when high school students were asked to identify famous Americans from history who were not presidents, answers such as Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross, or Paul Revere were common.  However, that has switched.  Today's students are likely to answer Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, or Rosa Parks.  Of course, all of these people are famous Americans, but why the change in emphasis?  This was not by accident.  That second list shows that the emphasis is now about slavery and civil rights.  Yes, America has faults, a laundry list of them, which are rolled out on a regular basis to denigrate the country.  It used to be balanced by the greatness of America, but that has faded over the last 30 to 40 years.

People living in Western countries are most likely to learn the negatives about their country than the negatives of others.  Americans know the warts and all of America, but virtually none of the negatives of China, Cuba, Venezuela, or Iran.  Inevitably, knowing what is bad about your country but not the failings of others will diminish one's opinion of it in comparison to others.  Frequently, when asked what other country is better, a ludicrous answer like 'China' will be offered.  Look at the highspeed trains!  But the thing is, people vote with their feet.  If they can get to a Western country, they do.  People with direct knowledge of these other countries flee to the United States and don't leave.  They know the truth.

The United States is the greatest country in the world.  It is unfortunate that too many of its citizens do not know that.

Happy Independence Day!

Margin Call (2011)

In 2008, Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) was working on a report about serious financial issues at a New York investment bank when he was laid off.  On his way out the door, he offered a thumb drive to Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), a junior member of the risk management team and offered the warning to 'Be careful.'  Sullivan was a rocket scientist who found that the pay was much better in banking.  He spent the evening working on Dale's research and filling in gaps that required his technical skills.  The results were grim.  Though it was late at night, he called his supervisor, Will Emerson (Paul Bettany).  Emerson reviewed the data and called his supervisor back to the office.  Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey) called in Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore) and Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), who in turn summoned the CEO, John Tuld (Jeremy Irons), at 4 in the morning.  The mortgage-backed securities were a threat to the bank's solvency.  Could the bank divest itself of these worthless securities before the market discovered what Sullivan's research had determined?

The story takes place over a 24-hour period, giving a glimpse of how the 2008 Crash unfolded.   Where The Big Short gave a view of the overall crash, this looks at only one bank and its efforts to avert bankruptcy.  The characters don't get a lot of development as there are so many.  Quinto is playing Spock here, an analytical character who provides advanced knowledge with which his superiors will make decisions.  Yes, a role he had already perfected.  Bettany is a charming rogue and the top trader at the bank, something of a cynical nihilist.  Strangely, he is a rock upon whom both juniors and seniors rely.  Impressive.  Kevin Spacey plays the manager of the trade floor and the man who must sell worthless securities before the market realizes they are worthless.  Can he do that?  Is that ethical?  Jeremy Irons dominates when he arrives, offering insight on how an investment bank survives and what justifies dumping worthless product on customers.

Highly recommened.

Letters from Mexico

In March 1848, the Polk Administration provided a vast collection of correspondence related to the ongoing war in Mexico.  The letters included reports from the field, communications between the generals and the War Department, troop counts, financial reports, general orders, administration of martial law, and many other topics.  The letters provide details about the workings of the army, the jealousies among commanders, difficulties involved in fielding volunteer troops, and a close-up look at the personalities of the generals and officials.

Volunteer troops had a huge impact on the conduct of the war.  Initially, they were brought in for only 3- or 6-month tours.  Later, that was extended to 1-year and finally they were required to sign on until the end of the war.  As these troops were typically raw recruits, training was required.  The troops were sent to Camargo or Meir on the Rio Grande before finally being deployed.  By the time the volunteers were seasoned and competent, it was time to send them home and a new wave of neophytes replaced them.  As such, military victories were often not exploited.  General Scott crushed the Mexican Army at Cerro Gordo in April 1847 but then was unable to drive onto Mexico City until August because most of his volunteers left in May and June.

The squabbles among and between the generals and the Polk Administration are embarrassing.  Winfield Scott comes across particularly badly in his letters.  Though he certainly had cause to believe the administration didn't have his back, he proved to be paranoid, acting as if the administration was trying to make him fail.  On the other hand, Zachary Taylor came off well.  Though there is a clear current in his correspondence that he viewed himself as mistreated by having his army transferred to General Scott, he was not a whiner and comported himself professionally.  Of course, he had William W. S. Bliss as his adjutant, a man of tremendous ability who managed the general's paperwork.  The letters do not offer the homespun sound of Taylor.  Scott wrote or dictated his letters and it shows.

One humorous exchange was between Scott and General Gideon Pillow.  Initially, Scott wrote to Pillow and requested that he 'correct' his account of a recent battle.  Pillow had arrogated to himself credit for several aspects of the battle.  It comes as no surprise that Pillow was later arrested by Scott, who demanded a court martial.  With all this bickering among the generals, it's a wonder that the war was won.

Scott's most dramatic letter was in answer to his recall.  He composed a laundry list of mistreatments he had received from the Polk Administration.  Indeed, from his perspective, it looked as though the President wanted him to fail.  However, his claims sounded surprisingly convincing.  Was Polk trying to sink his lead general and thus lose the war?  The reply from War Secretary William Marcy was devastating, answering most - though not all - of Scott's claims, often disproving them with copies of Scott's reports.  Ouch!

Highly entertaining for those interested.

Freedom of Which Religion?

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

John Adams

When the First Amendment was drafted, the United States was almost exclusively Christian.  Many of the states had an established religion and religious tests to hold office.  New England was established by a persecuted religious group who fled England two centuries before: The Puritans.  Pennsylvania was founded by a Quaker.  Virginia was Anglican.  The Scotch-Irish of the Carolinas were Presbyterians.  The Founders were aware of the diversity - being themselves members of the various denominations of Christianity - and also knew of the catastrophic wars that had torn through Europe.  In fact, Europe still had state-established religions.  The First Amendment addressed that directly, offering a live and let live solution to the frequent hostility among the various flavors of Christianity.  However, they never considered Hinduism, Islam, Voodoo, Satanism, or various other faiths.  Why would they?  And that was an oversight.

Islam is not compatible with the US Constitution.  If a majority of the citizens of the United States were to become Muslim, the Constitution would necessarily be discarded as against the Koran and failing to adhere to Sharia.  Remember, when the First Amendment was adopted, Islam and Christianity had been at war for more than a thousand years.  Islam was anathema to Western Civilization.  Why would anyone think that Islam would be openly integrated into a Western nation via an 18th Century amendment written for the governing of a universally Christian country?

Obviously, the history here is irrelevant.  The Supreme Court will not limit what religions are covered by the Freedom of Religion clause.  Well, maybe Pastafarianism.  The Founding Fathers did not foresee a time when uncontrolled migration would change the religious landscape.  Case in point, the huge influx of Catholics in the 19th Century was tumultuous because the US was a Protestant country.  This saw the rise of Nativism, which was an anti-Catholic movement in the mid-19th Century, most notably against the Irish.  Why would a different version of Christianity be such a problem?  Because they held allegiance to a foreign prince: the Pope.  As late as JFK - the first Catholic president - there were concerns that the Pope would determine US policies from Rome.

Western Civilization is dependent upon Christianity.  It is one of the primary foundations.  If it goes, so goes Western Civilization.  The West needs to prevent incompatible belief systems from taking hold.  It may be too late for some Western nations.

Citizen Vigilante (2026)

Somewhere in Europe, a mother shopped with her son.  As they left the store and walked toward home, a black man with a knife stabbed the mother in the neck.  She bled out on the ground.  Michael Sanders (Armie Hammer) was an American who had come to Europe upon his father's death.  He found the situation intolerable and was only too happy to explain how things should be.  Though he owned rental property, he refused to let the government use any units to house immigrants.  He lectured a trio of rowdy youths about proper behavior, warning them to clean up their act; the next time he met them, there was no warning.  Judges who released criminals became his targets.  Then there were the criminals themselves; he was not forgiving.  Much of the populace celebrate his vigilantism and he is regularly discussed by the evening news.  Chief Henry (Costas Mandylor) was determined to end his reign of justice.

As a Uwe Boll film, it is badly made.  The same scene will be filmed from three angles and he will use the complete footage.  For example, the cop approached the door and set an explosive charge on the lock.  Different angle, the cop approached the door and set a charge on the lock.  Third angle, the cop approached the door and set a charge.  At another point, several police are mowed down in automatic gunfire.  It looked like 2 dozen men were killed but there were about 8 bodies on the floor when the action ended.  Yes, different angles again.  Then there is the non-linear filming.  At another scene, the police are carrying out bodies from an apartment building.  What is this about?  It is the site of Sander's massacre of a Muslim family, which proved to be the finale of the movie.  Boll must be trying to ape Pulp Fiction.

The news reports are astonishingly wooden, as if the female newscaster was reading the script for the first time.  Because much of the acting is wooden, Hammer comes across as an old pro.  Of course, it isn't a demanding role.  Sanders is intensely serious and takes no guff.  He explains to most of his victims why he is punishing them and how they deserve it.  He is Death Wish and the Punisher mixed together.  Mandylor proved to be bland, speaking with an unidentifiable 'European' accent.  The rest of the cast are unknowns and have tiny roles.

The point of this movie is the message.  Citizen Vigilante is an answer to the dramatic rise in crime across Europe and the various governments unwillingness to address it.  One of the storylines in the movie echoes a real incident: a 14-year-old girl was raped by 7 teens who were given suspended sentences.  Sanders claims that he will provide justice until the populace learns to provide it for themselves.

The movie is poorly made, poorly scripted, and full of holes, but the message is explosive.  Where most movies and TV shows will paint the white majority as a bunch of intolerant racists and the immigrants as entirely worthy, this movie flips that narrative.  The movie is a call to arms, a demand that the politicians reverse course, and perhaps a standard for the abused populace to gather behind.

Recommended.

Perry Mason

The day after Christmas in 1931, an infant, Charlie Dodson, was kidnapped for a ransom of $100,000.  Though the ransom was paid, the child was dead. The police suspected the child's father.  However, his alibi checked out and the child's mother was arrested and charged.  The kidnappers were discovered dead in a murder-suicide scenario.  Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin) had been having an affair with the lead kidnapper.  E. B. Jonathan (John Lithgow) had accepted the case when the father, Matthew Dodson, was accused.  However, Matthew's father, Herman Baggerly (Robert Patrick), was unwilling to foot the bill for an adulteress.

Sister Alice McKeegan (Tatiana Maslany) was a radio preacher with a nation-wide following.  Herman Baggerly was a supporter of her ministry, and the Dodsons were members of the church.  Alice involved herself in the case, much to the irritation of the church fathers and her own mother, Birdy McKeegan (Lili Taylor).  Curiously enough, the lead kidnapper and Emily's lover had been an accountant for the church.  It is noteworthy that Sister Alice is largely based on a real person, Sister Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944), a radio preacher based out of Los Angeles.

Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys) was a divorced father, a dishonorably discharged officer from the Great War, a failed dairy farmer, and a private eye living a hand to mouth existence.  He is a man with few friends and spends much of his time depressed or drunk, often both.  He has the emotional self-control of a toddler who wants his mother to buy a toy at the store.  He is only too happy to cheat, if that is what it takes to get his way.  "There's what is legal, and there's what is right."  Perry is E. B. Jonathan's investigator, who more often argues with his boss; it is a wonder that E. B. put up with him.  This Perry Mason is a foul-mouthed slob.  The number of F-bombs dropped might compete with a Tarantino film's use of the N-word.  This guy is an interesting character, but he isn't Perry Mason.

Della Street (Juliet Rylance) was E. B. Jonathan's secretary, though she spent most of her time arguing with her boss, quite similar to Perry.  She must be repeatedly reminded to answer the phone.  Della lived in a boarding house; one of the other boarders, Hazel (Molly Ephraim), is her lover.  Yes, Della is a lesbian; must get that representation in there.  Oh, Assistant DA Hamilton Burger is also homosexual; don't want to leave the fellas out.  It turned out that Della did most of the work for the law firm and expects to be a partner in a couple of years.  Really, E. B. proved to be an empty suit with an over-inflated ego.

As a Depression-Era show, one expects a downer soundtrack.  Such is delivered.  There is a repeated melody that signals sadness and depression.  There are no breaks in the gloomy setting, just one long tale of woe and dread.  It's a miracle that there were not more suicides among these characters.

The trial, which serves as Perry Mason's first as a lawyer, is ludicrous.  DA Maynard Barnes (Stephen Root) pinned his entire case on the fact that Emily was having an affair with the kidnapper.  He proved beyond any doubt that she was an adulteress, therefore you must find her guilty of murdering her child and sentence her to hang!  Not only is his case thin on evidence, he knows the detectives on the case were corrupt; heck, he demanded that the detectives eliminate anyone who knew too much.  Yes, the whole justice system is rotten to the core.  Half of the stuff that Perry and his fellow investigators, Pete Strickland (Shea Whigham) and Paul Drake (Chris Chalk), uncover proved to be inadmissible.  Sure, that's nice for the audience to see the full story but it helped the case not at all.  Then there was the imaginary cross-examination of the actual killer that harkened back to the Raymond Burr series.

Excellent cast, a terrific film noir setting, this had lots of potential.  However, it should have been some original character, not an origin story for Perry Mason that changes all the characters.  Watch Spider-Noir instead.

And Hormuz is Closed Again

Well, that didn't last long.  The US cannot prevent Israel and Hezbollah from fighting, but Iran won't keep the peace unless their proxy is safe.  There are too many moving parts in the Middle East to maintain the fragile peace.  If we aren't going to bomb Iran into the stone age, then it will just be another Afghanistan or Iraq.  Neither of those have turned out well.  Keep an eye on the nukes, bombing as needed, and protect US shipping.  Otherwise, let the region find a balance.  Beyond preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, this isn't our problem.

Juneteenth

Happy June 19th, the day that Democrats in Texas were finally forced to free their slaves.  Yes, the Republicans - the party begun to oppose slavery - accomplished the mission only a decade after the party's founding.  The Democrats spent the next century trying to prevent blacks from equality.  Not until LBJ did the Democrats change tactics and ''embrace" equality while simultaneously accusing Republicans of doing all the things they had done for a century.  Today, you will find many ill-educated people who think Jim Crow and segregation were Republican policies and Lincoln was a Democrat.  This miseducation is not accidental.

Juneteenth, brought to you by the Republican Party.

Controlling the Labels

Phobia: an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.

Merriam-Webster

A phobia is a persistent, excessive, unrealistic fear of an object, person, animal, activity, or situation. It is a type of anxiety disorder. A person with a phobia either tries to avoid the thing that triggers the fear, or endures it with great anxiety and distress.

Harvard Medical School

A phobia is an irrational fear of something, a mental illness to be treated.  It is no accident that the word Islamophobia was coined for the very purpose of undermining critics of Islam.  This is 1984 Newspeak in practice.  By the very term, it has been determined that any reasons cited are irrational.  By contrast, those oppose to Judaism are anti-Semites.  They may be bigots, but they aren't irrational.  Labeling your opposition is terrific, if you can make the label stick.

Is it irrational to be against Islam?  Look at the grooming gangs in Britain.  Look at the 9/11 attacks.  Look at the invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023.  The Quran itself calls for the subjugation of all non-Muslims.  It is entirely reasonable for non-Muslims to show concern.

In the case of abortion, each side has sought to pin the other with a negative name while describing themselves in a positive light.  Those opposed to abortion declare themselves to be Pro-Life and their opponents as Pro-Abortion.  By contrast, the other side claims to be Pro-Choice and accuse their opponents of being Anti-Choice.  Neither has succeeded in defining the other.  As all these labels are well-known, you can immediately determine the leanings of anyone writing on the subject based solely on the labels being used.  Handy.

Opposition to Islam should be anti-Islam, not Islamophobia.  Disagreeing with the precepts of a religion should not lead to a faux mental health diagnosis.  This is a term to shut people up.  Of course, when it doesn't work, violence is often the next step (e.g., Salman Rushdie, Theo Van Gogh, Charlie Hebdo, etc.) to silence critics.  Yeah, nothing irrational or illogical in fearing Islam.  It is mere pattern recognition and self-preservation.

I Stand Corrected

No sooner do I predict the Iran War to be an inescapable quagmire that will drag on than a peace deal is announced.  What are the details of this deal?  From what has been revealed so far, Iran will immediately open the Strait of Hormuz and the United States will end its blockade of Iranian ports.  Iran further agrees not to pursue nuclear weapons, which includes and agreed upon verification regime.  On paper, that sounds great.  Not to be a wet blanket, but this is just a temporary deal, like maybe until the end of Trump's Presidency.  Much as Obama's deal didn't survive Trump, Trump's deal won't survive the next Democrat, unless it is formalized in a treaty that the Senate approves.  Of course, there is also Iran, which is likewise going to test US resolve after a few months of 'peace.'  Remember, the Vietnam War ended with a South Vietnam and a North Vietnam, but two years after the peace, the north swept away the south and the US embassy was embarrassingly evacuated by helicopter.  There was no will in the US to save South Vietnam.

Though not optimistic about the longevity of this deal, it does give President Trump a win and wraps up the Iran War well-before the midterms.  Now the news can go back to complaining about the economy, ICE, and the Epstein Files.

Gandahar (1987)

On the bizarre world of Gandahar, automatons are sweeping the landscape and petrifying people.  They collect the statues and carry them away through a mysterious dimensional gate.  Ambisextra (Glenn Close), the leader of the Council of Women and mother of Sylvain (John Shea), dispatched her son to investigate the strange metal men.  During this odyssey, he met Airelle (Jennifer Grey), whom he rescued.  Then he encountered the deformed, a race of men who all have different deformities and often special powers; one of them spoke of a prophecy that would be fulfilled in a thousand years.  They show him the dimensional gate.  He sailed on the ocean and found what appeared to be a massive brain; this was Metamorphis (Christopher Plummer).  Like the deformed, Metamorphis claimed to be the result of Gandaharian scientists who unleashed powers they did not understand.  The brain freely told Sylvain that he would not be susceptible to the poison that Sylvain carried for a thousand years.  So, he put Sylvain into stasis.

A thousand years later, Sylvain awoke in a desolate Gandahar, but soon met one of the deformed.  Metamorphis was now decrepit and dying.  To stave off death, it had generated a gateway to the past through which it was importing Gandaharians to feed upon.  Sylvain administered the poison and fled with as many Gandaharians as he could back through the time portal, to his own time.  And the world is saved.  Huh?

The world of Gandahar doesn't make much sense.  Why does Ambisextra have wings on her head?  And what is with that name?  In a world where scientists are making giant brains and messing with DNA to create the deformed, why does Sylvain find himself traveling by pterodactyl?  The deformed are dressed like cavemen.  They do live in caves, but again, this world has scientists.  The time travel stuff works, but feels unnecessary.  So, the brain doesn't start attacking Sylvain's era for a thousand years, so Sylvain has to travel to the future to stop a threat attacking today.  Right.  So, for the rest of Sylvain's life, he could travel back out to sea and have conversations with Metamorphis.  The more interesting question is why weren't there Gandaharians for Metamorphis to devour in the future?  Not a question that was asked.

This is only the 3rd French animated film I have watched and it fits nicely into the weirdness.  Fantastic Planet (1973) was much stranger though it has a similar aesthetic.

Mediocre.  Skip.

A 'Short' War

The current war with Iran started on the last day of February.  After an intense bombing campaign of six weeks, the war entered a ceasefire, which was supposed to last one week and give Iran time to negotiate an end of the hostilities on terms acceptable to the United States.  Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz.  The US responded by also blockading the Strait of Hormuz.  Now, two months later, the ceasefire is still active, though it is interrupted by potshots in both directions.  President Trump has insisted that talks are ongoing and a deal is close.  Iran is mum on the subject.

Trump was hoping for a short war, a quick smackdown that brought Iran to heel and ended its quest for a nuclear bomb.  Not so long ago, George W Bush wanted a short war with Afghanistan, a quick smackdown that resulted in the extraction of Osama bin Laden and his brethren.  That didn't go so well.  The problem is that the opponent is not a rational actor.  A rational leader would act to preserve the nation.  The Mullah's are religious fanatics who believe that death will lead them to paradise while compromise with the infidel will lead them to hell.  Moreover, they know that Trump has a time limit.  This is a country that has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens and hardly care if the US would kill an equal number or more.  Just like Afghanistan, they only have to wait until the US loses will and retreats.  Without an army on the ground, the only option is to flatten the infrastructure.  Of course, that will hurt civilians, which is why it hasn't already been done.

What to do?  First, no ceasefires unless the other side requests it.  Furthermore, the time limit must be respected.  Either we do a deal in a week or the bombing resumes.  During the Mexican-American War, the United States repeatedly granted ceasefires after winning a big victory.  The result: Santa Anna spent the time rebuilding his army and fortifying his position to fight again.  What does one suppose Iran is doing at the moment?  Certainly not engaging in peace talks that will bear fruit.  No, this is just a delay.

Next, you can't bomb them into peace.  In the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong were willing to suffer massive casualties and knew, in the end, the US would tire of killing them before it could achieve victory; they were right.  Iran is likewise willing to suffer casualties.  They cannot be bombed into submission.  Try a different tact.

Regime change is required.  As mentioned, the mullahs are religious fanatics who are going to be very difficult to bring to peace talks.  Iran's next-door neighbor is Afghanistan, where the Taliban beat the United States by waiting 20 years.  You think Iran didn't learn a lesson from that?  And there was regime change in Afghanistan.  Can the Shah's son be installed in Iran?  Probably not.  Can a civil war be triggered?  Maybe.  During World War II, the US dropped single-shot pistols on France to arm the resistance.  Reportedly, efforts to arm Iranian resistance by way of the Kurds failed; the Kurds kept the guns for themselves.  Drop some care packages with grenades and pistols, weapons that would be superfluous to the IRGC but a godsend for rebellious Iranians.

It is time to capture and fortify Kharg Island.  Reportedly a major hub for Iranian oil exports, it would make a fine US base, our Guantanamo in the Persian Gulf.  The island would immediately become a bargaining chip if negotiations happen.  Additionally, an island can be defended by the navy, which can easily prevent Iranian troops from landing and retaking it.  Between capturing this oil depot and blockading oil shipments in general, Iran will starve for money.  However, Iran has foreign benefactors who will likely channel enough money to keep the country afloat until America surrenders.

Okay, last idea: the bust the place up strategy.  Years ago, during one of President Bush's nation building fiascos, R Emmett Tyrell suggested this tactic.  Since you can't build a nation, tear down the offending one.  He likened it to a barroom brawl where all the tables are busted the mirror over the bar shattered, the bottles broken, and so forth.  Afterwards, those who caused the destruction depart and the bar owner is left to clean up the mess.  It could be a long time before the bar reopens for business.  It might even go under.  Some call this the Bomb 'em to the Stone Age technique.  However, this one will result in huge waves of refugees and, knowing Europe, they will accept them all and hasten the formation of Eurostan.

Unless Trump has some aces up his sleeve, this looks like a stalemate.  Sure, on the one hand, the Iranian nuclear threat has been crippled and continued vigilance will keep it that way.  On the other, the US is once again stuck in an ongoing Middle East conflict with no clear path to exit.

Spider-Noir

It was 1933 in New York City and PI Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage) was hired to find a man.  The man, Addison, proved to have a superpower: he could burst into flames.  Strangely enough, more such super-powered individuals surfaced in NYC.  These 'monsters' were soon in the employ of Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson), the crime lord of New York.  In response to the growing crime, newsman Robbie Robertson (Lamorne Morris) called for the return of the Spider.  The Spider had been a superhero in the city, but he vanished five years ago.  Reluctantly, the Spider (Nicolas Cage) returned.

The Spider has allies.  Of course, Robbie has long known that Ben Reilly was the Spider and also why he stopped being the Spider.  Ben has a secretary, Janet Ruiz (Karen Rodriguez), who bemoans the dearth of clients and frequently threatens to quit.  However, she is a loyal friend and performs a lot of the legwork for Ben.  Then there is Frankie (Cary Christopher), a street urchin with sticky fingers.  Ben can count on the kid to watch his back, keep an eye on people, and do odd jobs.

Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), a lounge singer at Silvermane's bar, is the femme fatale.  Everyone has eyes for her.  Flint Marko (Jack Huston), one of Silvermane's enforcers and also a super-powered villain, is deeply in love with her and jealous of a growing connection she has with Ben.  Of course, she is Silvermane's kept woman, though there never appears to be anything physical between them.

The 8-episode Amazon series explores how Ben got his powers and why he stopped using them, his clashes with Silvermane, Silvermane's goons and super-powered thugs, his relationship with his allies, and his attraction to Cat.  The setting is well-realized, giving the look and feel of a movie from the era.  There is illicit drinking, Hoovervilles, down on their luck veterans of the Great War, and even a movie clip of James Cagney.  Cage is often manic, showing that Ben isn't comfortable in his skin.  His assumed characters are a bit hammy, not really carrying off the Mid-Atlantic accent and frantic speaking pace one associates with Depression Era movies.  Also, Cage is too old for the role.  He was great as the animated version of Spider-Noir, but the live action is more demanding and he's obviously 20 years older than he should be.  I was reminded of Marlowe, another noir film that cast actors too old for their roles.

The inevitable defeat of Silvermane was disappointing.  Gleeson makes for a good villain and has plenty of presence to show he is the alpha in the room.  Indeed, his final scene undercut everything that preceded it.  That's all it took?  Really?  Maybe there was a message in that; villains are never as hard to overcome as you might imagine.

In Casablanca, The Third Man, Chinatown, and the like, our hero doesn't get the girl.  No, she leaves with another man, abandons him, or dies.  Such is the case here.  However, their final meeting is unusual; it subverted expectations, but was also unnecessary.  In any case, Li Jun Li fills out her sleek dresses nicely and strikes the femme fatale poses well.

Great popcorn fun and recommended.

The Entirely Predictable LA Vote Count

After the primary election for mayor in Los Angeles, Spencer Pratt held a strong position in 2nd place.  Should that hold, he would face incumbent Mayor Bass in the general election.  Of course, only 63% of the ballots had been counted.  Here were the preliminary results:

Today, June 7, with 83% of the ballots counted, Nithya Raman has overtaken Pratt and is now the likely challenger in the general election. Here is where it stands:

That 20% batch of votes skewed alarmingly toward Raman.  Between the two charts, the three candidates accumulated an additional 205,437 votes.  How did each candidate do within this recent batch?

That's quite a swing.  Raman had been running at 64% of the votes that Mayor Bass was receiving.  However, over these last 200,000 votes, she has outpaced Bass by 9%.  How peculiar.

That Pratt's portion of the mail-in ballots dropped to 20% was unsurprising, but that the division between the two Democrats would shift so drastically is curious.  What would it look like if the split between Bass and Raman had continued?  Leaving Pratt with his 42K new votes and just splitting the remaining 163K between Bass and Raman by the same split as the first chart, we get the following:

Raman would have closed the gap by 22K, but not have surpassed Pratt.  She would still be in third place.  It would have been something like this:

When one considers how California outlawed voter ID (Senate Bill 1174) in 2024, let's say I am not confident in the results of this count.  That, in the wake of the Palisades Fire, the citizens of Los Angeles think that it is best to stay the course is hard to swallow.

Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.

Joseph Stalin

Oh, Now I Understand

Any regular reader of this blog will realize that I have read a great deal about the Mexican-American War.  One thing that has repeatedly puzzled me was the treatment of Nicholas Trist, the man who negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo.  Here was a man who had been a personal secretary for Thomas Jefferson, a private secretary for Andrew Jackson, and the number two man at the State Department.  Nonetheless, President Polk excoriated the man.  Why?  Trist comes across as such a reasonable fellow and yet so many figures of the time hated him.  What gives?

Recently, I started reading some primary documents, notably the correspondence between General Winfield Scott and Nicholas Trist.  When Trist arrived in Vera Cruz, General Scott was already in Jalapa in the wake of his victory at Cerro Gordo, so Trist was forced to correspond with general until he could tag along with a supply train to the Mexican interior.  It is hard to describe just how full of himself Trist is when reading his letters.  In one particular letter, his average sentence was 57 words long.  The average sentence.  The longest proved to be 224 words.  One sentence.  Here it is:

Now, sir, in reply to this, all I have to do is to deliver to you— as I hereby do in writing—(and this for the second time, unless my first letter was far more enigmatical than I believe it could seem to any honest men, who, upon their conscience and honor, should be called to respond to the questions, whether you had or had not, in this instance, been guilty of a wanton contempt of orders; and whether this offence had or had not been aggravated by the character of the pretenses under which the contempt was indulged in, and the contumacy sought to be covered up)—I have, I say, sir, to deliver you this message from your commander-in-chief, the President to of the United States, to wit: “When the communication, bearing the seal of the Department of State, and addressed ‘to his excellency the minister of foreign relations of the Mexican republic,’ shall be placed in the hands of the general-in-chief of the United States army in Mexico, it is the will, order, and command of the President of the United States, that the said communication shall forthwith be transmitted to its destination under flag of truce; which flag of truce is to proceed from the head-quarters of the army, and is to be a flag of truce from the general-in-chief.  

This one sentence is more than a fifth of the entire letter.  The tone is consistent throughout.  Trist berates General Scott like one might a willful child.  This is the sort of letter that could convince the recipient to challenge the writer to a duel.  After reading the letter, I had a strong dislike for Trist.  Trist's correspondence with Secretary of State James Buchanan contains similarly overlong sentences, though not the insults.  Ah, now I see.

A Force of One (1979)

In a coastal California city, a pair of vice cops were found dead.  The injuries are such that the police concluded that an expert martial artist killed them.  As such, Detective Mandy Rust (Jennifer O'Neill) went to a local dojo to interview Matt Logan (Chuck Norris), the current Karate champion who happens to live in the community and was training to defend his title in an upcoming competition.  Furthermore, the chief wanted the vice cops to take martial arts training, which Matt provided.  Soon, more vice cops were found dead as the drug problems worsen.  Even Matt was attacked by a masked martial artist, but he was able to defend himself until the assailant fled.

Chuck Norris essentially played himself.  Matt Logan is a Karate champion who runs a martial arts studio.  Interestingly, one of the trainers at the dojo is Anderson, who is played by Chuck's real-life brother, Aaron Norris.  Matt has an adoptive son, Charlie (Eric Laneuville).  Notably, his real-life son, Mike Norris, had a cameo as a pizza delivery kid on a skateboard. The dojo secretary, Harriett (Lisa James), clearly wants to date Matt, but he and Detective Rust are seeing a lot of each other, not all of it professional.

Jennifer O'Neill was a strange choice for the lead.  She had cut her hair quite short for a previous movie and it is basically a buzz cut here.  She doesn't give the vibe of a hardened cop.  Nonetheless, she got top billing.

There is plenty of martial arts action.  The villain's muscle, Sparks (Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, a Karate champion), trounced the 4 vice cops, ambushed Matt, later fought Matt in the championship match during the competition, and had a epic showdown with Matt in the finale.  Indeed, he did more onscreen fighting than Norris.

Though there is a lot of promise in the story, the script is mediocre.  The story drags along and the characters don't develop.  The romance between Matt and Mandy gradually goes nowhere.  There is an effort to explore both the martial arts competition and the drug world, blending the two into a single narrative; does not work well.

Just okay.

Ballerina (2025)

Young Eve (Victoria Comte) sat in the hospital with a glass-encased ballerina in her lap; there was blood on her and the glass.  Earlier, she had been with her father when armed men attacked.  They were led by The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne).  Her father fought until he was mortally wounded but succeeded in getting her away from the men.  Now she was alone.  Then Winston (Ian McShane) arrived and offered her a future.  He delivered her to the Director (Anjelica Huston) of the Ruska Roma.  Now she would train.

Twelve years later, Eve (Ana de Armas) had learned to dance, to shoot, and to fight.  She felt she was ready.  The Director agreed and dispatched her on a mission.  Success.  A tattoo was etched to her back to mark her success.  Two months later, she stood before a broken mirror and pulled a shard of mirror from her shoulder.  Then, she took a picture of the dead man and made her way out of the bathroom, stepping over multiple bodies on the way.  Oh, she's lethal.  As she left, she was attacked, but she kills her assailants.  One of them had the same mark as the men who killed her father.  The Director told her to forget it.  She could not forget it.

From here, the movie becomes one long series of gunfights and brawls.  Story, dialogue, and character development are unnecessary.  The plot of Electra avenging her murdered father is as old as literature; it needs no development, just execution.  The problem is the suspension of disbelief.  That she is an expert with a gun, knife, or sword is not a problem.  However, once she gets into an unarmed brawl, it's just silly.  During her training, the movie tried to inoculate against that, explaining that she had to set the terms of engagement to her advantage; that is, don't try to beat a wrestler by wrestling him.  Good advice.  Then she gets into physical brawls.  Sigh.  The amount of punishment she suffers during her extended fights are beyond what John Wick suffered, and it was a stretch for him.

Though the fights are well-choreographed and exciting, Eve's fight skills vary widely depending on what has been choreographed.  For instance, during a lull in combat, she came across the barista who server her coffee.  She's not a threat, right?  Wrong.  A battle commenced and was quite a challenge for Eve despite having a gun and a knife.  Later, Eve was faced with six men with assault rifles; no problem, she had a katana and sliced and diced the bunch of them.  Wow.  Lucky that she didn't have to face 6 unarmed baristas there instead.

The villains are stupid.  Despite having communication, the villains never converge.  They just wander the streets like video game NPCs who wait for Eve to show up and kill them.  She is on their turf, a town where she has never been and doesn't have a map, but she is always surprising them.  Where John Wick was on the run and being chased, these guys know exactly where she is headed: to kill the Chancellor.  How about we put the Chancellor in a non-bulletproof car to extract him but drive through the part of town where she was last reported?  Sound like a good plan?

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) makes a couple of appearances.  First, his dealings with the Director (John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum) are partly replayed and Eve briefly interacts with him.  Later, he arrived in the town where she was running rampant with instructions to neutralize her lest a war between Ruska Roma and the Chancellor was triggered.  When one considers how easily he subdued her, repeatedly, it is a wonder that she was such a threat to this town.  Nonetheless, it was cool to see John Wick in action again.

The movie ends with Eve receiving word that she has a $5 million bounty on her head.  Here is an opportunity for a sequel in which Eve must fight wave after wave of assassins, repeating the career of John Wick.

Eve is entirely too good after a couple of months in the field.  She, like Rey (Daisy Ridley) from Star Wars, is just naturally better than everyone because reasons.  Her backstory is too bland, especially compared to John Wick.  He had his dog killed and his car stolen.  That's original.  He left the life for a woman who soon died of cancer.  Yeah, that sucks.  He had years of experience where he earned his reputation as the top killer.  By contrast, Eve wants to avenge her dad.

"Hello.  My name is Eve Macarro.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die!"

Old hat.  Then there are the interesting twists that are wasted.  Oh, look, this assassin that we've been seeing around since Prague is actually her sister.  Whoa.  Maybe they will team up and...  she's dead.  Sigh.  Well, good thing we included that in the movie.  I never got invested in Eve's journey and was kind of indifferent whether she succeeded or not.

Worth watching to see the old gang from the John Wick movies, but otherwise a skip.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

During WWII, the British were having a hard time in the war thanks to the submarine warfare of Germany.  They discovered a weakness in the U-boat fleet; air filters.  If they could destroy enough air filters, it would hamstring the German U-boats' operations.  The Germans were sailing out of Fernando Po, a Spanish-held island off the coast of Africa.  Spain was neutral, so attacking German ships in port was an act of war.  Brigadier Gubbins (Cary Elwes), codename M, knew just the man for the job: Augustus 'Gus' March-Phillips (Henry Cavill).  Gus agreed to the mission but only if he could pick his team.  One of his choices was unavailable, as he was in a German camp.  No problem, we'll rescue him on the way.

The team is split in two parts: Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) and Marjorie Stewart (Eiza Gonzalez) traveled to Fernando Po openly, while Gus and his crew of commandos travel by sailboat.  Heron owned a bar on Fernando Po and collaborates with the British.  Marjorie was an entertainer and tasked with seducing the sadistic Nazi commander, Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger).  They were to scout the area and provide intel to the sailboat team.  Gus and crew had run-ins with both a German ship and a Royal Navy ship, both of whom wanted to stop them.

The movie is jam-packed with action.  Explosions, stabbings, shootings, hacking with axes, extreme archery, and even some fisticuffs and wrestling.  There is no shortage of blood and death.  What there is a shortage of is danger.  Even in the most dire circumstances, it never feels like the characters are threatened.  The crack team of commandos kill vast swathes of Nazis and rarely suffer a bruise.  In the final battle, one character took a bullet to the shoulder.  Ooh, that must sting.

Though based on a true story, it comes off as an over-the-top action extravaganza.  First, Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson) is like a force of nature that just rips through Nazis like a hot knife through butter.  He kills multiple Nazis with a single arrow, clears the lower decks of a ship with an axe, slices, dices, and stabs Nazi sailors without suffering any injury other than a shirt stained with blood.  Is he some sort of superhero?  Marjorie is supposed to be the femme fatale who uses her wiles and sexuality to distract and seduce.  Of course, she's also the best shot, embarrassing the locals that Heron has recruited.  Luhr, who had been hyped as this nasty and formidable boss, was dispatched with ease.  Sigh.

There are some fun bits.  Ian Flemming (Freddie Fox) is M's adjutant.  When he said, "Fleming, Ian Fleming," I chuckled.  For those not in the know, Ian Flemming wrote the James Bond books and served in British Intelligence during World War II.  According to the IMDb Trivia, Gus March-Phillips was an inspiration for Bond.  Cavill, Ritchson, and Henry Golding have great chemistry, making a fine team.

As far as spy movies go, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was better.  Still, this was good popcorn fun, as most Guy Ritchie films are.

Thelma & Louise (1991)

35 years after it was released, I finally got around to seeing this film.  Meh.  Let's expand.

Thelma (Geena Davis) was unhappily married, and Louise (Susan Sarandon) was an overworked waitress.  As luck would have it, Louise's boss was in the midst of a divorce and would have to sell his cabin in the woods.  In the meantime, he was allowing all his staff a turn.  The two women set out, though Thelma has wildly overpacked for a weekend getaway.  Against Louise's wishes, they stop for drinks at a roadhouse.  Inevitably, a man hit on Thelma.  Harlan (Timothy Carhart) made a concerted effort to get Thelma drunk and, while dancing with her, spun her until she was about to be sick.  Oh, let's get some air outside.  BTW, Harlan's a rapist.  Of course, by the time she is bent over a car in the parking lot, one can't help but think Thelma is the dumbest woman on the planet.  How naive can you be?  Luckily, Louise arrived with a gun and saved Thelma.  Then she shot Harlan to death.  Well, he deserved it.  So, let's get in the car and race away!  Oh, Louise isn't much brighter than Thelma.  Great.  Thelma wanted to go to the police.  Nope.  New plan: let's flee to Mexico!  They are in Arkansas and want to flee to Mexico, but Louise absolutely, positively will not drive in Texas.  Sigh.  Okay, we'll drive through Oklahoma to New Mexico and somehow overshoot to Arizona.  However, they didn't bring enough money.  Louise calls her boyfriend, Jimmy (Michael Madsen), and convinced him to wire her money to Oklahoma City.  On the way, they meet the charming and handsome J.D. (Brad Pitt), who Thelma wants to bring along.  Seriously!  Did you learn nothing from Harlan?  Though J.D. claimed to be a college student looking for a ride home, he later admitted to being a robber on parole.  Well, in that case, come into my room and let's get it on.  OMG!  Thelma, you can't be this dumb?  Louise had entrusted the money from Jimmy to Thelma's care and, surprise, surprise, J.D. absconded with it.  No problem at all.  Thelma took the gun and held up a local convenience store, repeating the spiel that J.D. told her.

Hal (Harvey Keitel) had been investigating Harlan's death and wanted to talk to Thelma and Louise.  When he saw video footage of Thelma's robbery, he reassessed from witnesses to suspects.  As they had crossed into Oklahoma, it was now a matter for the FBI.  The manhunt - womanhunt - was on!

The two are finally cornered near the Grand Canyon.  Unwilling to surrender, they drive the car off the cliff to plunge into the canyon.

Of course, I knew the ending, so that was no surprise at all.  The surprising thing was how every man they encountered along the way proved to be a lech, a thief, or a rapist.  At every turn, they made the worst decision that led them to their inevitable doom.  Now that I've seen it, I don't understand why it was so popular.  But I am not the intended audience.

Skip.

The Octagon (1980)

In France, a diplomat exits an embassy and gets in his car.  He has hardly departed through the gate when a pair of assassins kill him and most of his entourage.  One of the assassins was killed.

In the USA, Scott James (Chuck Norris), his pal AJ (Art Hindle), and AJ's girlfriend attended a dance performance.  Both Scott and AJ looked admiringly on the lead dancer, Nancy (Kim Langford).  Scott asked her out.  At dinner, Scott talked about Nancy's dance style, which incorporated martial arts; Scott is a martial arts champion who has retired from fighting.  Nancy explained that her brother was into martial arts.  Oddly, she asked about the assassination in France.  Scott took Nancy to her house and stepped into a ninja assault.  Ninjas had killed Nancy's family and killed her almost as soon as she entered the house.  Scott fought and defeated them.  Afterwards, he thought it was impossible.  The ninja were gone.  There were only two people who could train ninja: him and his brother!

Flashback: Scott (played by Mike Norris - Chuck's son) and Seikura were raised by Isawa (John Fujioka) and trained as ninjas.  Though one was Japanese and the other American, they were raised as brothers.

McCarn (Lee Van Cleef) called upon Scott and brought up the ninja issue.  McCarn was something of a private contractor in the field of killing terrorists.  Could Scott lend a hand?  Scott declined.

Despite his insistence that his brother could not be training ninja terrorists, the evidence repeatedly indicated otherwise.  Would he have to fight his brother?  First, he would have to locate the secret training camp rumored to be somewhere in Central America.

In the third act, Scott entered the octagon, a building that served as the training center for the ninjas.  Of course, Scott proved adept in overcoming it.  One of his best fights on film took place, where he fought Kyo (Richard Norton - a Karate black belt and friend of Norris) the ninja enforcer.

This movie began the ninja craze of the 1980s.  The following year, Sho Kosugi began his string of ninja movies: Enter the Ninja (1981), Revenge of the Ninja (1983), Ninja III: The Domination (1984), and the hilariously campy Nine Deaths of the Ninja (1985).  He also starred as the villain in the TV series, The Master (1984), which starred none other than Lee Van Cleef as the titular master.  In 1985, Michael Dudikoff took up the ninja mantle in American Ninja (1985).  Amazingly, he was raised by a Japanese ninja played by John Fujioka!  How many young Americans did he train in Ninjutsu?  Dudikoff returned in American Ninja 2 (1987).

There is more story than required.  There is also a vast array of characters for an action film.  As far as ninja, these are not the best.  These guys just wear black clothes, not the particular gear that would become a staple of later movies.  Then again, a lot of these 'ninja' are just terrorists from around the world who attended a training camp for a month.  Hardly ninjas.

The weakest part of the movie is Scott thinking.  While Chuck Norris has a pensive look, his voice echoes his thoughts.  The movie would improve greatly without the echoing voice over.

Good popcorn fun and recommended.

The Covenant (2023)

Master Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) was in charge of a squad of men who scoured Afghanistan for weapons caches.  They might be operating as a checkpoint on a road, patrolling through towns, or even going to remote sites to investigate.  Of course, they needed an interpreter.  The last one having died, Kinley hired a new one, Ahmed (Dar Salim).  Their working relationship was soon strained as Ahmed frequently made decisions contrary to Kinley's instructions.  However, that this tended to achieve the stated goal kept Ahmed on the payroll.  That he saved the team from an ambush also added to his value.  During one interaction with a local source, the team learned of a weapons cache in the hinterlands.  They set out.  Though the operation went well initially, wave after wave of reinforcements attacked while the team awaited support.  Kinley and Ahmed found themselves separated alone in the Afghan wilderness and unable to call for support.  Could they get back to base before the Taliban found them?

The movie is told in three parts.  It starts with Kinley and his team operating in Afghanistan.  After the fight at the remote weapons store, it becomes a survival story with Kinley and Ahmed fleeing Taliban pursuit.  The final part sees Kinley trying to get a visa for Ahmed so he can be extracted from an increasingly hostile Afghanistan

The movie has some good action scenes and certainly has some tense moments, but it is mostly dull.  That the two main characters don't get along is important as far as the overall story but makes the pair less fun to watch.  Their conflict isn't the buddy cop humor arguments, but just oil and water not mixing.  Toward the end they have mutual respect and some light moments, but it's a long slog to get there.

Just okay.  Obviously, Guy Ritchie or Gyllenhaal fans should see it, but otherwise this is skip.

An Artillery Officer in Mexico

Robert Anderson, best remembered as the commander of Fort Sumter at the beginning of the Civil War, was a captain in the 3rd Artillery Regiment.  He was stationed in Tampa Bay when he received orders to go to Mexico.  Where others kept journals, Anderson was a prolific writer of letters.  Those to his wife were collected and printed in 1911.

The letters begin in November on the very day that his wife departed by carriage from Tampa Bay bound for her father's estate in Georgia.  Anderson spent the next month or so packing, selling, or donating all their belongings.  Though he had moved aboard the John Potter - a brig that would transport him and his company to Tampico - in December, it did not leave port until January.  The trip to Tampico was uncomfortable.  He arrived in Tampico in the last week of January and spent several days aboard ship until it could enter the harbor and lodgings ashore were settled.  The entire month of February was spent in Tampico and Anderson relates the adventures of Col. De Russy.  By the end of the month, he feared that Colonel Gates - commander of the 3rd Artillery - would retain his company to garrison Tampico.  He dodged that fate and sailed to Veracruz.  Here he was in his element, commanding one of the batteries during the siege.  After the city was taken, he was stationed at the famous fort, San Juan de Ulua.  It was a flee-infested mess.  Happily, his division set off for the interior a week later.  His company was not engaged at the battle of Cerro Gordo.  Over the following months, he was stationed in Perote Castle, Tepeyahualco, and Puebla.  In August, the army moved on Mexico City.  He was seriously wounded during the battle of El Molino del Rey.  Just over a month later, he was sent back to the United States to recover.

Anderson spends most of his time telling his wife about his daily life in the various places he stayed, the accommodations, the men he socialized with, the food he ate, the cost of food, the oddities of Mexico, and most especially his desire to rejoin his wife.  The letters are more of a travelogue than a military campaign record.  This is a very devout man who closes most letters by praising God.  He refers to his letters as 'chats' with his wife and is always eager for mail to arrive or to have an opportunity to send mail.  He numbers his letters so that she can know if she missed one.  Once deep into Mexico, he warns her that the mails are often intercepted.  The letters were generally sent as a packet, with many days detailed before being sent.

Anderson is a man who does not seek praise or favor but often feels he has been overlooked.  He is occasionally miffed to see comparative novices getting high rank in newly formed regiments while established officers are not considered.  He is no fan of President Polk, viewing him as a politician of the worst sort.  On the other hand, he has the highest of regard for General Winfield Scott.  The clash of personalities within the military is often on display in the letters.  Anderson was more partial to Ethan Allen Hitchcock than William Jenkins Worth.

Anderson was 41 when he set foot in Mexico.  His wife, Eliza, was 19.  She was the daughter of General Duncan Clinch.  Anderson died in 1871 and his wife died in 1905.  His daughter discovered the cache of letters and, after redacting purely personal details, had them published.

Interesting but not for everyone.

An Immigrant Soldier in the Mexican War

Frederick Zeh (Tsay) was an educated immigrant from Germany who found himself working as a farm laborer in Pennsylvania. He had been a book seller in Europe.  Discouraged by his status, he tried to join a volunteer regiment that was headed to Mexico.  One regiment had already been filled, and it had many Germans.  The 2nd regiment had few, if any, Germans and Zeh was refused.  However, he discovered that the regular army was recruiting for a special unit, the Mountain Howitzer and Rocket Company.  The mountain howitzer could be disassembled and loaded on three mules, which allowed it to be placed in locations too difficult for regular guns.  Then there were the Hale's rockets, an improvement on the Congreve rocket from the War of 1812.  The company recruited a hundred soldiers, half of whom were German or Irish, and three officers.

Zeh sailed from Philadelphia to Virginia, where he received military training.  Then, they set out for Mexico.  The company landed on the beaches near Veracruz and setup their battery.  The howitzers were underpowered for siege warfare but were kept busy.  Zeh's job was to keep the battery supplied with ammunition.  After the surrender of Veracruz, the company marched inland and fought at Cerro Gordo.  In fact, the portability of the mountain howitzers resulted in them being emplaced on a nearby hill to engage the Mexican defenses.  Captain Robert E Lee had blazed the trail to place the howitzers.  From there, the company continued to Jalapa and then Puebla, mostly to while away the summer.  In August, the army marched on Mexico City and the company was engaged in the battle of Contreras & Churubusco.  Mostly unsupported, the howitzers drew a lot of fire and many of the men were killed or wounded, including Zeh.

Zeh found himself in the hospital and worried he might die.  He willed his worldy goods, such as they were, to a fellow German in the company.  He survived.  The doctors arranged for him to stay on at the hospital since he could speak fluent English and German, very useful skill when many of the German soldiers couldn't speak English.  Thus, he missed out on the final battles of the war.

The account was written decades after the events but many of his details lined up with history.  It was interesting that the Germans didn't much like the Irish and the two groups often clashed.  Zeh mentioned that the officers were not keen on foreigner soldiers, but this was most especially the case in volunteer units.  Regular units were more tolerant.

The Mountain Howitzer and Rocket Company was an oddball unit.  Though fielding artillery, it was not part of an artillery regiment; it was an Ordnance company.  Like the Voltigeurs, it was an experimental unit that, despite its contributions during the war, was disbanded upon returning to New Orleans in 1848.

At just over a hundred pages, this is a quick read and a different account of Winfield Scott's campaign into Mexico.  Recommended.

Bill Kristol, Conservative Turncoat

I'm pro-freedom, pro-law and order, pro-limited government, and pro-the Declaration and Constitution.

And so today I'm a Democrat.

Bill Kristol, X

As a news junkie, I saw a lot of Bill Kristol on various news shows in the 90s and 2000s.  He talked the talk and even co-founded a magazine - The Weekly Standard - to which I subscribed.  He wasn't my favorite conservative talking head, but he was a sober and reliable voice for the conservative view.  Then, Trump was elected.  Like so many sober and reliable conservatives, he lost his mind.  Suddenly, only the Democrats could save the country from destruction, the deep state was the last bastion to prevent America from becoming a fascist state.

Like George Will, Kristol has some irrational dislike of Trump.  So many former conservative stalwarts have become Chicken Little with cries of 'fascism is coming!' but never noticing the fascist tactics on the left.  Biden sent Steve Bannon to jail.  Which of Biden's advisers has Trump jailed?  Democrats piled on Trump with indictments in several states.  How many indictments have been leveled against Biden?  How was the border (law & order, don't you know) during the Biden Administration?  There are 300,000 fewer government employees since Trump returned to the presidency; gee, that sounds a lot like limiting government, but you wouldn't know it to hear Kristol.

Trump has plenty of faults but he has delivered more items on the conservative wish list than any president since Reagan, but the conservative cognoscenti from the pre-Trump era hate him nonetheless.  Either they have lost their minds or they were spouting principles they never really held.  The two-party system is Kabuki Theater.  I like neither possibility.  Perhaps there is another.

Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959)

Four men painted black paddle to the shore of an African outpost.  While two break into a shed, the other two keep an eye on the house with the radio and the outpost director.  A crying baby awakens the administrator and clumsiness at the shed alert the radioman.  The painted men kill the radioman and the administrator before retreating to their boat with several boxes of explosives.  Before dying, the radioman transmitted a name: "Slade."

In the morning, the beat of drums tells Tarzan (Gordon Scott) of the attack.  He arrived at the outpost to get the details.  He also met Angie Loring (Sara Shane), a pilot who heard the radioman's last transmission.  She is quite taken with the brawny Tarzan, but he brushes her off and starts upriver.  Probably won't see her again.

Meanwhile, Shane (Anthony Quayle) and his band of villains are bound for a secret diamond mine that will make them all rich.  O'Bannion (Sean Connery) is a lout with a high opinion of his abilities.  He thinks they should wait for Tarzan and kill him.  Kruger (Niall MacGinnis) is a German who can identify valuable diamonds vs. worthless ones.  He views himself as indispensable and isn't afraid to say so.  Dino (Al Mulock) maintains the boat.  He's a private fellow and easily riled, something that O'Bannion gleeful does.  That won't end badly.  Lastly there is Toni (Scilla Gabel), Slade's woman.  Of course, all the men drool over her.  I'm sure that won't cause trouble.

Though entertaining, I would hardly call this the greatest adventure.  It's a pretty good adventure, what with Tarzan hunting a band of murders while also looking after a damsel in distress; yeah, somehow Angie found herself stranded in the jungle and needing to be rescued.

Gordon Scott stared as Tarzan in 6 movies from 1955 to 1960.  I am astonished that I had never seen him.  Surely, these played on TV when I was a kid, but I mostly remember Ron Ely from the Tarzan television show (1966-68) that was a staple on KTLA.  As for Sean Connery, this is several years before his big break as Bond in Doctor No (1962).  Interestingly, he did black face for the role, beating Roger Moore to that faux pas by 16 years (Roger Moore did black face in Shout at the Devil).  Where Connery shined with a small role in Hell Drivers, he was unremarkable as O'Bannion.

Good popcorn fun.  I'm now interested in seeing some of Gordon Scott's other outings as Tarzan.

Surfboats and Horse Marines

U.S Naval Operations in the Mexican War, 1846-48

K Jack Bauer, who wrote an overview of the Mexican War, focuses on the US Navy in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Pacific coast.  The first half of the book details the actions of the Gulf Squadron while the second covers the operations along the California coast, Baja California, and the west coast of Mexico.  In each theater, Bauer discusses and critiques the commanding commodore.

Commodore David Conner was commanding the Home Squadron at the outbreak of the war.  Conner directed operation in the gulf from the start of the war - May 1846 - until the Siege of Veracruz - March 1847.  With his limited fleet, Conner maintained a blockade of the major ports along the gulf coast of Mexico.  As Mexico didn't have a navy, ship to ship action was limited to capturing trade vessels.  He successfully captured and occupied the port of Tampico (Nov 1846) and made a couple of abortive attempts on Alvarado.  When General Winfield Scott arrived, Conner worked hand in glove with him on the landings at Veracruz and provided naval support for the siege of that city.  Conner was replaced in command during the siege.

Commodore Matthew Perry, younger brother of the famous Oliver Hazzard Perry, arrived in the gulf as second in command and eventual successor to Commodore Conner.  Perry was much more energetic than Conner, leading the smaller vessels in the fleet upriver to capture lesser ports.  Though Perry proved to be more active, he suffered the same limits that had hamstrung Conner: not enough ships and men.  When illness swept his fleet and Winfield Scott borrowed 500 Marines for his attack on Mexico City, Perry's operations ground to a halt.  Plans for a joint operation with the army to cross the Tehuantepec Isthmus to the Pacific were canceled.  With the capture of Mexico City, Perry's operations in the gulf shifted to maintaining the blockade until the war concluded.

Commodore John Sloat commanded the Pacific Squadron when the war began.  However, he was uncertain that it had actually begun and feared repeating the error of Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones.  In 1842, Jones mistakenly believed a war had been declared with Mexico and thus captured Monterey, California.  The overcautious Sloat waited until July 1846.  Before the month was out, Sloat's replacement arrived on the scene and took over.

Commodore Robert "Fighting Bob" Stockton was a man of action.  Stockton intended to control the coast from San Francisco to Acapulco.  He teamed with Captain John C Fremont to capture California, which was accomplished in short order.  Leaving entirely inadequate forces to hold California, Stockton prepared to repeat his success in Baja California and the west coast of Mexico.  Then the Californios rebelled and he was forced to reconquer California with the help of a newly arrived General Stephen Watts Kearney.  In January of 1847, California was once again conquered and Stockton's replacement arrived.

Commodore William Shubrick gladly handed California to General Kearney to manage and turned his attention to blockading Mexico's Pacific coast.  Like Conner in the gulf, he was a competent commander who lacked the resources for extensive actions.  Additionally, only a month after he had taken command, Commodore James Biddle sailed into the theater; he was senior to Shubrick and thus took command.  However, when Biddle sailed away in July, Shubrick once again controlled the Pacific Squadron and made active use of the fleet, in actions throughout the Gulf of California and seizing Mazatlan.

Commodore Thomas ap Catsby Jones assumed command of the Pacific Squadron in May of 1848.  The war was over though the withdrawal was still underway.  The Treaty was ratified at the end of May and US troops withdrew both on the gulf coast and along the west coast.  Jones merely maintained Shubrick's accomplishments and oversaw the evacuation of American forces.  The last troops left La Paz, Baja California, on September 6, 1848.

This is a terrific book with extensive appendices.  Bauer changed my opinion of some of these officers, most especially Stockton.  I'd always liked Stockton as a man of action after Sloat, who seemed afraid of his own shadow.  However, Stockton was reckless and something of a jerk.  Likewise, Perry was clearly competent and aggressive, but he too proved to be a jerk.  Shubrick and Conner were the best of the bunch.

Highly recommended.

Le Samourai (1967)

Wearing a trench coat and a hat, Jef Costello (Alain Delon) left his apartment and stole a car.  He took the car to a remote garage where the proprietor changed the license plates and provided Jef with a pistol.  Jef gave him a wad of cash before driving away.  He stopped at a girlfriend's apartment to set up an alibi.  Next, he stopped at a card game where he arranged to have a spot available after he would leave his girlfriend's apartment.  From there, he went to a night club.  On stage was a pretty black pianist (Cathy Rosier).  Jef navigated through the club and into the private offices in back.  There, he killed the manager.  On his way out, he bumped into the pianist.  He got to his girlfriend's just in time to leave at the prearranged time while being spotted by another man.  He then dumped the gun and gloves in the river, and abandoned the stolen car.  He arrived at the card game.

The police rounded up scores of suspects.  Jef was brought in from the card game.  Standing in a line up, many of the people from the club were on hand to ID the perp.  Jef was chosen for closer scrutiny.  The Police Commissioner (Francois Perier) quickly decided, based mostly on a gut feeling, that Jef was the killer.  Even after the pianist denied that he was the killer, the commissioner had Jef tailed.

Disappointed that Jef had been arrested, his employer tried to kill him.  Jef found himself under police surveillance and also a target for death.  Worse still, the commissioner was trying to get his girlfriend (Nathalie Delon) to recant the well-crafted alibi.  Could Jef keep ahead of the police and take revenge on his treacherous employer before he was arrested or killed?

This French neo noir crime thriller is highly rated and quite influential among many directors who followed.  Though it is cool and stylish, it is based on a weak story.  After the murder, the police collect suspects and Jef has no criminal record.  If he had just gone back to his apartment rather than a 2 AM poker game, he would never have been swept up.  Then, what the heck is he doing wearing that same trench coat and hat?  Reckless.  Regarding the police, they just drag everyone downtown.  Looks like France doesn't have an equivalent of the 4th Amendment.  The pursuit through the city starts to drag and Jef's ability to spot tails and ditch them does tend to indicate he is a shady character.

As the inspiration for many films that followed, this is definitely recommended.  Good popcorn fun.

Mixed Blessing: Texas Rangers in the Mexican War

As part of his Masters in Military Science degree, Major Ian Lyles discussed the Texas Rangers as part of Compound Warfare in the Mexican-American War.  Texians - as they were called at the time - had spent a decade fighting both Mexicans and Comanche.  During that time, they developed a mode of fighting that was particularly suited to those opponents.  This made the Rangers an ideal addition to the US Army.  Long exposure to Mexican armies taught them that surrender likely meant execution (e.g., Alamo, Goliad, Mier) and white flags were more likely to be a ruse than an honest request to surrender or parley.  Rangers had long operated far from support and thus came heavily armed, typically with a rifle, one or two revolvers, and a Bowie knife.  They proved to be outstanding scouts, excellent skirmishers, effective cavalry, and even competent infantry when needed.

On the other hand, they brought some grudges with them.  Their scouting missions might make detours to capture or kill Mexican bandits.  The Rangers had learned from the Comanche not to take prisoners.  When not actively in the field, they often caused trouble while in the various Mexican cities and towns.  They had rarely been given quarter and were thus inclined not to give it.  Both General Taylor and General Scott learned to keep the Rangers active to avoid the troubles that were stirred up among the Mexican civilians.  However, neither wanted to send the Rangers home; they were extremely effective at countering the guerrilla activity in both the northern theater and on the road from Vera Cruz to Mexico City.

The quality of Texian troops was often equal to the quality of their leader.  When John Hayes, Ben McColloch, or Samuel Walker was in charge, the Rangers caused few problems while resolving many.  When lesser men were in charge, the Rangers could wreak havoc on the locals and incite the local populace.  However, more often than not, it was volunteer troops who caused trouble and Texas Rangers who got the blame.

Lyles returns to the idea of Compound Warfare frequently.  Though Texas Rangers were newly-minted American citizens (and virtually all of them had migrated from the US anyway), they did not operate as either state volunteer units or regular army units.  This irregular force thus became a unique unit that brought skills and abilities unavailable in other forces.  Lyles mentioned the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan as compound warfare.

The paper is available online.  Recommended.

Radicalized by Higher Education

 

Is college radicalizing Americans?  This chart demonstrates that those most in favor of violence are the most educated.  That strikes me as backwards.  Shouldn't more education lead to less support of violence?

When Good Will Hunting was all the rage in the theaters, I recall being unimpressed.  Sure, Robin Williams was great, but this Will Hunting guy didn't make sense to me.  He is a genius and a prolific reader with an encyclopedic knowledge of many subjects who is nonetheless prone to violence.  He's both the smartest person in the room but dumb as a box of rocks.  Smart people avoid violence whenever possible, but not this guy.

The chart shows a clear correlation between the amount of education and the acceptability of violence to get one's way.  It is interesting how it goes down with 2 years of college but rises afterwards.  Odd.  Maybe Good Will Hunting understood something that I didn't.

Cole Allen, the would-be assassin, has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, a master's in computer science, and clearly falls into the 40% of graduates who believe violence is necessary.

You Were Never Really Here (2017)

Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a former soldier and FBI agent who has transitioned into private work.  He recovers missing girls, frequently leaving their kidnappers dead.  Joe has seen a lot of dark stuff in his life, from his abusive father, to murdered kids in the Middle East, to dead children piled in a van.  He suffers dark thoughts and regularly ponders suicide.  Perhaps the only reason he does not commit suicide is that he is caring for his elderly mother (Judith Robert).

Hired to recover a NY State Senator's daughter, Joe buys a hammer and duct tape.  He beats several men to death with the hammer before carrying Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov) to safety.  However, it is not the father who comes to collect her.  Joe has been betrayed and finds himself on the run.  Can he unravel what has happened before he gets captured or killed?

After seeing Phoenix as an emaciated Joker, it was strange to see him as a stout fighter.  He is quite good in the role, which is important since he is the movie.  This is the story of Joe at a particular time in a difficult life.  He's in virtually every scene.  Despite his generally polite demeanor, Joe is a brutal killing machine that moves as quietly as a cat.

The movie doesn't spell out points.  Early on, there are indications that Joe might actually be invisible.  He is extremely good at sneaking up on people so as to beat them over the head with his hammer.  In the novel, Joe is obviously expert at crime scenes (i.e., FBI Agent) and knows exactly how to leave no trace that he was ever there, thus the title.  That didn't come over well in the film.  The senator proves to be the villain, which is not a spoiler.  However, it doesn't make sense in the film.  He sold his daughter to pedophiles and then sent Joe to get her and then betrayed Joe?  Why?  Pedophiles kidnapped his daughter and he knows the address but doesn't send in the police?  The senator is a pedophile and his daughter escaped to another bunch of pedophiles?  Yeah, I don't see how it fits together and the movie doesn't explain.

Just okay.

Southern Poverty Law Center Exposed

In Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), Senator Palpatine used the Federation's blockade of Naboo to create a crisis in the Galactic Senate.  The government of Chancellor Valorum collapsed and Palpatine became the new Chancellor.  In Attack of the Clones, Count Dooku led many planets to secede from the Galactic Republic, which led to Chancellor Palpatine creating the clone army to fight a galactic civil war, the Clone Wars.  Finally, in Revenge of the Sith, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine used his clone army to wipe out the Jedi, the only force left to oppose his rise to Emperor.  The Galactic Empire was born.

In each movie, Palpatine is the instigator of the crisis that he then must fight.  In Phantom, his disciple, Darth Maul, was advising the Federation, creating the very crisis that led to Palpatine's chancellorship.  In Attack, his next disciple, Dooku, stoked the civil war that required an army of clones - answerable to the Chancellor - to put down.  In the final film, he used the gaslit and brainwashed Anakin Skywalker to kill the Jedi-in-training while his clone army killed the rest that were in the field.  Darth Sidious was a brilliant manipulator who engineered his rise by creating crises to expand his influence and power.

That brings us to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).  The SPLC has spent years funding the very things they claim to fight, exactly like Palpatine.  The SPLC funded Charlottesville's Unite the Right rally that became a huge source of anti-Trump talking points.  They have funded hate groups and then called upon donors to help fight the rise of those very hate groups.  If the SPLC wasn't funding these hate groups, would there be enough hate to fund the SPLC?  Apparently not, or they wouldn't do it.

Worse, the FBI had to know about this long before now.  This is willful blindness on their part.  But why?  The FBI is a part of big government and, by its very nature, it is going to support that which leads to bigger government.  That is the problem with the Deep State.  The SPLC is pro-big government and therefore has been given a pass by Deep Staters.  The Deep State is the Empire and it will eagerly destroy those who oppose them, while also overlooking the crimes of their allies.

Yet Another Assassin

Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old teacher from California, sprinted into the Correspondents' Dinner last night with guns and knives.  He shot one Secret Service agent before being subdued.  President Trump, the First Lady, VP, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and many others were quickly evacuated.

Yet again, a crackpot has sought to kill Donald Trump.  Leftist pundits like Hassan Piker have floated the idea that it would be great if someone would assassinate Trump.  In response to the assassination attempt last night, a Wisconsin brewery announced that it would distribute free beer the day after Trump's murder.  Accusing Trump of being a fascist or a new iteration of Hitler is so common as to be unremarkable now.  And what is one of the most common bits of time travel stories: kill Hitler to prevent the Holocaust.  The assassin in such sci-fi is lauded.  Ergo, if Trump is Hitler and it would have been commendable to kill Hitler before he could carry out his policies, then it follows that killing Trump is not only logical, but worthy of praise.

If one person out of a hundred thousand is dumb enough to swallow the fallacy that Trump is the next coming of Hitler, that would create more than 3,000 potential assassins in the US.  People who disagreed with Charlie Kirk, who had no ability to implement any policies, called him a fascist.  A crackpot came out of the woodwork and killed him.  Leftists not only approved of his murder, they posted themselves celebrating online.

This is why Tim Pool thinks we may already be in a Civil War.  We're certainly in a time that echoes the 1850s.