Flying Car

Tonight, the Tesla Roadster was demonstrated in MacGregor, TX.  The flying car has arrived.  It doesn't have wings, just thrusters.  Among the tricks that the car performed was to drive upside down.  Yes, it drove up a ramp until it was clinging like Spider-Man.  Next, it raced up that same ramp and flew upside down off of it, but then spun 180 degrees to land gently on the ground.  Astonishing.  Then it jumped over several Teslas without a ramp.  Like Speed Racer's Mark V, it just leapt into the air and cleared 5 vehicles, doing a 360 degree spin as it did so.  Like the Batmobile, it has rockets on the back and those provided it so much acceleration that it could go from 0 to 60 in less than 1 second.  Elon tasked the engineers with achieving a top speed of Mach 0.5, half the speed of sound.  That's more than 380 mph.  He also suggested trying to jump the Snake River, like Evel Knievel tried to do in 1974.

The Roadster enters production in 2028.  As cool as it is, what is the practical use of such a car?  Flying over other cars downtown is likely to be frowned upon.  However, it will also be tough for the police to catch such a car.  I suspect this will be a Bond car when the Bond franchise restarts.  Impractical though it may be, such technological wonders inevitably lead to far reaching applications.

Check it out on YouTube.

Tesla

I had my first ride in a Tesla today.  First impression was that the interior was surprisingly spartan. Since the door windows don't have a frame, they automatically retract when the door is opened and then slide back into the body of the car for a clean seal.  Impressive.  There was a steering wheel and a large screen.  The top was non-opening sunroof.  The dash was almost a table, with no visible vents for AC.  The acceleration was alarming, like being shot out of a cannon.  Luckily, I had been warned to put my head against the headrest before the acceleration.  Then self-driving mode was demonstrated.  The Tesla managed stoplights, lane changes, and navigation with no input beyond the initial programming of our destination.  It was quite scrupulous about using its signal lights.  Impressive.  Throughout the ride, the screen showed the highway with the Tesla - in blue - in the middle and gray icons of all the other vehicles. Humorously, we encountered a Cybertruck which showed up as just a regular truck icon rather than a specialty one.  Upon arrival, the car pulled into an available spot.  The return journey was done without self-driving until we reached the parking lot.  Here, it was just a matter of selecting a parking space on the display.  The car then maneuvered so that it could back into the space.

Wow, this was quite amazing.  Who needs a salesman when you can just take a ride in one.  No wonder this is the most valuable car company.

Trial by Fire (2026)

Keira Frost (Andrea Pavlovic) walks through the woods amidst armed men.  Her wrists are bound.  She is forced to her knees and a gun is placed against her head.

Keira remembers her abusive stepfather.  She remembers running away from home, becoming a petty thief with Stevie (Michala Brasseur), and sitting at a briefing run by Ryan Drake (Derek Moran).  Drake did not have a high opinion of her, or so he intimated.  The mission was to recover some nuclear material at an abandoned Cold War site, but it went badly.  Keira was captured and suffered waterboarding.  And now she was to be shot.

The action is mediocre.  As most of the action is from Frost's point of view, it should have been shown only view the headset cams that she was watching from the van, but that would have really limited the screentime of the other actors.  As with the last outing, Drake and his team don't come off as professionals.

This half-hour short is an origin story for Frost.  She appeared in Rogue Elements (2024), so this is a prequel.  It is strange that we have an origin story for a support character before there is one for Drake himself.  As for her background, it was too run-of-the-mill.  Oh, she had a hard family life, dabbled in criminality, joined the Army where she was a problem soldier, and now she was on an elite black ops team.  Okay.  Typical girl.  Not the background I expected for her.  The conversations between her and Drake are bland and cliche.

There is a twist that makes the episode worthwhile.  Just okay.

Bird on a Wire (1990)

Marianne Graves (Goldie Hawn) is a successful New York lawyer on a business trip to Detroit.  While there, she stops at a gas station/garage and recognizes the gas attendant.  It's Rick Jarmin (Mel Gibson), her fiancé who went missing in Mexico fifteen years ago!  He denies it, claiming to be from Tennessee.  No sooner does she leave - not entirely convinced - than he called the FBI and demanded to be relocated.  Yes, he is in witness protection.  His regular contact unavailable, he is routed to Joe Weyburn (Stephen Tobolowsky), who agrees to move him in a couple of days.  That night, Marianne returned to the garage to take another look.  To her surprise, armed men attack the garage.  She recklessly drives at them and manages to get Rick in the car and race away.

The men were Eugene Sorenson (David Carradine) and Albert Diggs (Bill Duke), former DEA agents.  Sorenson is fresh out of prison, put there by Jarmin's testimony, and is eager for revenge.  Diggs has been on the lam for the last 15 years and would like to kill the only man who could put him in jail.

Rick knew that someone at the FBI had revealed his location.  Worse, the police were now looking to arrest him and Marianne for the shootout at the garage.  They were on the run!  Lou Baird (Jeff Corey) was the only man Rick trusted to sort things out.

The movie is one long chase with romantic comedy between the leads along the way.  The chase takes many forms.  There are car chases, motorcycle chases, a helicopter chase, and finally a showdown at a zoo.  During their cross-country escape, Rick visits several of his previous protection locations, which shows that he has had an interesting career path: carpenter, hairdresser, car mechanic, veterinary clinic pilot, and zoo employee.  Each came with a different name and even a change in personality.

Goldie Hawn was in amazing shape for her age.  There are multiple semi-nude shots or lose skirts that got caught in a breeze to demonstrate that.  The script was not great in explaining her continued presence on this adventure.  Does she view Rick as the one that got away?  Yeah, but she does seem rather annoyed with him for much of the movie.  Does running make sense because the police are after her?  Not really.  It's like the script forgot she was a successful lawyer; I suppose criminal law wasn't her thing.

Mel Gibson is Mel Gibson.  There is a little bit of variety with the change in accent based on what former life he is visiting, but otherwise it is a standard Mel Gibson character.

The villains are introduced grandly and then become cardboard cutouts who prove mostly incompetent.  Sure, it's a comedy - sort of - but the villains can't hit an easy target with superior weaponry and even fully automatic fire.  The finale was a comedy of errors by Rick and Marianne.  They both lost weapons before they could even use them, each either beaten or shot, and yet they survived.  Yeah, these are some really pathetic villains.

Just okay.

Recognizing a Dictator

During the 2016 election, Helen Andrews gave a lecture on How to Spot a Dictator.  The idea was to determine whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton bore the markers of a potential dictator.  Oddly enough, she listed Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the most dictatorial president the United States has yet produced.  FDR implemented two dictatorial strategies.

First, he established a cult of personality.  He was a master of public communication, had a gift for oratory, and convinced people to elect him again and again despite an ongoing Great Depression.  His fireside chats reassured the citizens even as the state of the economy and world didn't much improve.  He was an expert of spin.  In this regard, she said Trump was clearly along this path.  Trump is a salesman who wrote (dictated?) The Art of the Deal.  His entire schtick is to persuade voters to do what was unprecedented; elect a man with neither governmental nor military experience.  Amazingly, he carried that off in the primaries.  Yes, clearly a cult of personality figure.

Second, FDR established clientelism.  Prior to the Great Depression, the government was not in the habit of distributing money to the citizens, either through job programs or handouts.  To tackle the massive unemployment and poverty, FDR championed funds for relief to the states and later Social Security for the elderly.  There was also the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public works program.  Prior to the depression, the government-maintained pensions for veterans and career civil servants.  Afterwards, everyone who lived long enough would get a check from the government.  Once established, it ballooned: Medicare, WIC, SNAP, Drug Benefits, Obamacare, etc.  Now, if you vote wrong, your entitlements might be eliminated by the other party.  Yes, this is a common refrain in many election seasons and created a permanent threat by the government against the voters.  Andrews puts Clinton into this mode.

So, which is worse?  Do you go with the personality or the "gift" giver.  Which is less dangerous to your future?  Check out the video.

Outlawing Communism Again

In 1954, the Congress passed the Communist Control Act and President Eisenhower signed it.  The Communist Party explicitly stated its intention of overthrowing the United States government and instituting a new one.  This contradicts the oath upon taking office:

I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

The communist wants to overthrow the Constitution and is therefore committing perjury by taking the oath.

On the other hand, the US has the 1st Amendment that allows communists to believe communist ideas, Nazis to believe Nazi ideas, and so forth.  However, that is not permission to practice such beliefs.  You may think the South was right about slavery, but you will still get tossed in jail if you practice slavery.

Today, there is an effort by members of the House of Representatives to create a new Communist Control Act, this one aimed at the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).  As noted in a previous post, the DSA shares the ideals of the Communist Party.  The party platform calls for the effective repeal of the US Constitution and the dissolution of the United States.  There is no 'true faith or allegiance' to the Constitution.  It is either DSA or Constitution, but not both.

The law is questionable.  If the people vote for socialism or communism, does that qualify as sedition?  If the people want communism, shouldn't they get it?  Communism does not believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It is not keen on individual rights, free speech, or the 2nd Amendment.  Communism is anathema to the United States as it has existed so far.  It is a sad state of affairs that so many Americans are unaware of how awful socialism and communism are, which is the only reason that it has risen in esteem in recent years.

Though such a law clearly doesn't work in the long run (e.g., the Communist Control Act of 1954 isn't being used to stop DSA), it may provide a speed bump to delay socialism/communism while wiser people educate the populace against such terrible ideologies.

Tucker Off the Rails

Tucker Carlson had a recent interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former British MP and noteworthy pundit.  Where Tucker had his famously -infamously - friendly interview with Vladimir Putin in 2024, his conversation with Rees-Mogg was positively contentious bordering on hostile.  Fine, that makes for a more interesting interview, but Tucker comes across as a Putin apologist and maybe even a Hitler apologist.  Good grief!  The centerpoint of the discussion was that Rees-Mogg has argued that the UK should build up its military under the old truism that 'if you want peace, prepare for war.'  Tucker attacked this notion repeatedly.  Among his attacks was to say that England ruined itself by fighting in World War I and World War II, both of which he argued were entirely voluntary.  Indeed, the UK joined WWI because Germany attacked Belgium.

"Who cares?" Tucker argued.

"We had a treaty," Jacob replied.

Then there was World War II.  The UK went to war with Germany because Germany invaded... Poland!  Heck, Germany was merely reclaiming territory that had been 'stolen' in the Treaty of Versailles.  15% of Poland had been Germany/Prussia.

"Why not leave the Germans to it?"

"We had a treaty."

Tucker argued that the wars left the UK much worse than it was.  He pointed out that the UK now had a population that was 19% foreign-born.  If you can't even stop boats from landing on your shore, what makes you think you can face nuclear-armed Russia?  Really, if Putin so wished it, he could win tomorrow by nuking Ukraine or rolling out hypersonic missiles.  The UK stands no chance against Russia, which has a much bigger military.

The point that Tucker refused to understand was that strength deters aggression where weakness encourages it.  The UK was clearly unprepared in both 1914 and 1939.  Aggressors took that weakness as an invitation to attack.  By contrast, the US was strong post-WWII and remained so throughout the Cold War.  As such, the Soviets did not see weakness and no war resulted.

Repeatedly, Tucker spoke highly of Russia while dissing the UK and disapproving of US involvement in both Iran and Ukraine.  Heck, he condemned Hiroshima as unjustified.  'You can never kill innocents.'  Wow, there is a rule that, if followed, would lead to a loss every time.  Sheer stupidity.

Jacob Rees-Mogg had the patience of Job during this debate.  Somehow, he interjected some lighthearted moments despite Tucker's unrelenting series of attacks.  At the conclusion, Tucker thanked Jacob for putting up with his nasty questions.  Rees-Mogg brushed it off as a friendly discussion, showing he is unruffled by such.  Indeed, he came off rather well while Tucker sounded like a crackpot who sympathized with tyrants.

There was a time when I thought highly of Tucker, but it seems that his former employers - both CNN and later Fox - reined in his extremes.  Now free of editorial control, he has gone off the rails. 

Lanterns

In 2016, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) is the Green Lantern, but has been assigned a trainee, John Stewart (Aaron Pierce).  Hal is clearly not keen on this, and the training is mostly non-existent.  However, Hal does offer the ring to Aaron and then puts the trainee in a do or die situation, literally.  After surviving the challenge and on his way to rejoin Hal, Hal suddenly materialized.  Only he looked different.  As it happened, this is a backup Hal, a projection from the ring that was made in 2006.  This version of Hal is much friendlier and a bit concerned that he might be dead.  In the brief chat, Hal 2006 thinks that Hal 2016 isn't doing a good job of training.  Hal 2006 also said to tell Hal 2016 about Rushville.  Upon regaining the ring, Hal 2016 flies to Nebraska and tells John to meet him there.  Rushville, Nebraska, is where Hal received the ring and his predecessor died.  This cannot be coincidence.  There are strange things happening in the town, but Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) is not keen on having Hal and John poking around.  It turns out that exploding aliens have an interest in Rushville, so Hal is determined to find out why.

The series is told in a non-linear fashion.  Though the story initially unfolds in 2016, it hops forward to 2026 and back as far as 1973.  Mostly, the story is split in two, with half the episodes concerning an event in 2016 and the other half taking place in 2026, plentiful flashbacks throughout.  John was chosen by the Guardians in infancy to be the next Green Lantern, whereas Hal received the ring by happenstance when the previous Lantern died unexpectedly.  But somehow it is Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) who is the current Green Lantern (Superman, Peacemaker) when the series jumps to 2026.

Where Ryan Reynolds would manifest his costume whenever he started using the ring, Chandler has an actual suit in the closet that he only wears a couple of times.  Usually, he's in jeans and a leather jacket. Hal is extremely reckless, to the point of infuriating the viewer. It is astonishing how often his ring is running low on power.  Even when he doesn't have his ring, he acts as if he is impervious.  Is he suicidal?  It often seemed like it.  Nonetheless, though he was often a jerk, he does possess charm that makes him likeable overall.

John has a big chip on his shoulder.  Because he has been groomed for life to be the next lantern, it is understandable that Hal is not particularly friendly.  That the writers chose to make his racial background a major factor in his life was irritating.  You would think he grew up in the 50's and 60's rather than the 90's and aughts.  John proves to be a stand-up guy who has more integrity than most give him credit.

The show doesn't feel like a superhero show.  It feels more like a noirish detective show that happens to have sci-fi elements.  This is True Detective meets X-Files with a superhero included.  It is a peculiar fusion that was made more difficult because no one got along with anyone else.  Every relationship is contentious.

Good popcorn fun.

Bet on a Winning Major

The Trump Administration has proposed a new rule for college loans and grants: if your proposed degree will not result in a higher income than no degree, the government will decline to fund your education.  That's a start.  In truth, the government shouldn't be funding education at all, especially college education.  However, this is a step in that direction.  There is no reason to get a degree in art history just to work as a barista at Starbucks.  Even before this new rule, many colleges have been pruning degrees that don't lead to high earnings.  The student debt crisis combined with the underemployment of recent grads is changing the education landscape.  The shrinking pool of students - a result of declining population - will lead to a reduction in the number of colleges.  Some have already closed.

The quickest way to resolve the student debt problem is to get the government out of it and then allow students to declare bankruptcy on their debt.  Watch the cost of college plummet, the number of worthless degrees vanish, banks demand that colleges provide proven value, and students take responsibility for the debt they incur rather than look to the government for a bail out.  As is, we have too many 'educated' people and not enough jobs that require that education.  Turns out that the blue-collar jobs like a welder or electrician are far more profitable than the white-collar jobs these days.

Starship's First Mission

Today, Flight 14 of the SpaceX Starship took place.  For the first time, it achieved orbit and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites.  This was no test flight, this was a successful deployment mission that saw both the booster and starship successfully maneuver back to earth and land relatively softly.  Yes, they could probably have caught them with the chopsticks if they had wanted to up the ante for the day.  However, enough success has been achieved.  Though there are still hurdles to overcome, the starship - as is - has become economically viable.

Uncharted (2022)

Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) returned to consciousness to find himself dangling out of an airplane far above the ocean.  A string of crates connected by cargo straps swing from the loading ramp of a plane.  As Nathan sought to climb back toward the plane, he found enemies among the crates who he must overcome.  Finally, he gets onto the loading ramp.  Ha!  Then a red car hit him!

Days earlier, Nathan Drake arrived at his job as a bartender in NYC.  In addition to mixing drinks, he had light fingers for a lady's jewelry.  However, Sully (Mark Wahlberg) spotted his pilfering and did some counter pilfering.  He also left a business card.  It turned out that Sully was something of a thief himself and suggested they team up on a heist of Ferdinand Magellan's hidden cache of gold.  Sully already has a map, but there is need for a key.  They go to an auction where Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) plans to purchase the key, unless Drake and Sully can steal it first.

Next, they go to Barcelona to find Chloe (Sophia Ali) who has the second key.  With the two keys, they must traverse through ruins that are both part of a church, the sewer system, a subterranean bar, and a fast food joint.  Wow, all this stayed intact for four centuries.  Yeah, not buying that.  Amazingly, they acquire yet another map, this one being an island in the Philippines.  Time to stowaway on Moncada's cargo plane and we've caught up to the opening act.

Drake, Sully, and Chloe are not likable people.  Tom Holland's natural charm is carrying the character.  Only the fact that Moncada and his goon squad are murderous villains justifies the unscrupulous actions of our 'heroes.'  Many of the action scenes are beyond ludicrous and even look like something out of a video game.  The duel between two 16th century sailing ships being carried by helicopters was just too much.

Mindless popcorn fun.  Entertaining in its parts but disappointing as far as story and characters.

Banned Media

Is it wrong for the president to eject certain media agencies from the White House press room?  CNN, MSNOW, and Politico certainly think so.  Many other news agencies agree.  However, there is only so much space in the press room.  Do certain agencies have a right to that limited space?  Do they have more right to the space than an obscure newspaper from Wyoming or Iowa?  Sure, it makes sense to have news agencies with the greatest reach to have access as that gives the easiest route to disseminate news.  Then again, that could be a detriment if those news agencies are consistently hostile.

In the early days of the republic, there were party papers.  Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet had a couple of friendly newspaper editors as members.  Jackson's message was printed as he wanted it printed.  Did the people only get government propaganda through such a system?  No, the Whigs controlled newspapers as well, blasting whatever message the Jacksonian papers delivered.

Supposing that there are 100 seats in the pressroom, why can't the administration choose which agencies get them?  If a thousand news agencies across the country and internationally apply, could the administration just pick the 100 least hostile?  Would that be censorious?

The media is overwhelmingly left leaning, which means it is reliably hostile to Republicans and cheerleaders to Democrats.  A quick request from ChatGPT came up with these numbers:

With such an obvious tilt in the coverage, why wouldn't the administration take some action to mitigate it?  Where the Trump Administration seeks to limit access to proven hostile news agencies - which he claims produce 'fake news' - the Obama DOJ was aggressive in law enforcement regarding reporters and their sources.  He was getting net positive coverage and still sought to muzzle the media.

The entire press corps apparatus in the White House is a convenience first extended by President Theodore Roosevelt, which means it did not exist for the first half of the country's history.  There is no requirement for it.  Besides, Trump is constantly out speaking.  In his first term, he had 88 press conferences, which averages to around 2 a month.  By contrast, Biden had 37, less than 1 per month.  Trump was interviewed 326 times, or nearly 7 times a month; Biden 125, or 2.6 times per month.  There is no dearth of Trump in the media.

Supergirl (2026)

Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is on a planetary pub crawl to celebrate her 23rd birthday when Ruthye (Eve Ridley) entered the bar.  The bar is one of those hives of wretched scum and villainy that abound in space settings and Ruthye is a teenaged girl who clearly does not belong.  Ruthye offers a bounty of a well-made sword for anyone who helps her avenge the murder of her family by Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts).  One rather large and thuggish monster that looks like an evil version of a teenaged mutant ninja turtle simply confiscated the sword.  With a resigned sigh, Kara intervened to recover the sword, demonstrating that she was a skilled combatant despite the vast size difference.

Though Ruthye followed Kara back to her starship, Kara declined to help on her quest for revenge.  However, by a miracle of bad luck, Krem appeared, poisoned Krypto - Kara's dog, and stole her starship.  Krypto had three days to live unless Kara could retrieve the antidote from Krem.  Now Kara was committed to finding Krem though she still wasn't keen on the revenge quest.

In order to even begin to chase Krem, Kara had to take public transport.  She waited at a galactic bus stop in the middle of a field until a rocket bus arrived.  Interesting.  Oh, yeah, this planet had a red sun so she didn't have powers.  Sounds awfully reckless.  On the other hand, she was incapable of getting drunk in systems with a yellow sun.  Though she had left Ruthye behind, Ruthye appeared on the space bus!  In fact, Ruthye proves to have a talent of stowing away on ships.  There follows fights with Sklarian Raiders, investigations, interrogations, false friends, rescues of slave girls, and more battles with brigands.

There are multiple flashbacks to detail Kara's past.  Her father, Zor-El, was the brother of Superman's father.  Zor-El had created a shield generator that allowed a city to escape the doomed planet of Krypton.  Kara was born and raised on this floating chunk of Krypton.  However, like Superman, she was sent to Earth.  Superman (David Corenswet) makes several appearances, both in flashback, on facetime calls, and a homecoming scene at the end of the movie.

Based on the graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which itself was a retelling of True Grit, the movie is a hodgepodge of action scenes that are poorly stitched together.  Kara tends to be a slovenly drunk, a woman who seems to be drinking away her sorrows rather than celebrating her birthday.  At one point, she plops onto the toilet while leaving the door open.  Um, okay.  On the other hand, Ruthye is sober and clearheaded but naive beyond belief.  Does this planet have no law enforcement to deal with the likes of Krem?  Does she expect noble behavior among the patrons of the bar?  But for the presence of Kara, Ruthye had walked into her likely enslavement by entering the bar.  Did she not know that?  Does not matter because Kara and Ruthye need to meet somehow.  About halfway through, the pair encountered Lobo (Jason Momoa), a bounty hunter who happened to be tracking one of Krem's associates.  He looks like some space Hells Angel with evil clown makeup.  Yeah, this movie needed a dark edge and this character doesn't really fit.  His inclusion comes off as nothing but fan service.  Krem is a lazy villain.  He's just competent enough to be a nuisance but not competent enough to be a threat.  Whenever he and Kara fight, one or the other pull up short from securing victory.  Kara could have snatched the poison cure in an early encounter, but doesn't.  No, let's have something distract her.  Krem has just poisoned Kara with Kryptonite, but pauses for a monologue.  Sigh.

Kara is not a likable character.  A woman doing a solo pub crawl is a big red flag.  That she would go to a planet with a red sun to do such makes her seem suicidal.  She certainly has cause to be depressed, but is drunkeness the cure?  Much of the time, she looks hungover and unkempt.  Even in the midst of the adventure, she is still somehow always less than 100% on account of this poison, that green sun, or those Kryptonite arrows.  And what is with all the primitive melee weapons?  Why are the villians running around with swords, axes, crossbows, and spiked chains?

Mediocre.  Skip.

Oikophobia

Oikophobia (noun)

1. Ecophobia; fear of a home environment.
2. Dislike of one's own culture or compatriots

This is the going thing.  For some decades now, the West has become oikophobic; there is no civilization worse than Western Civilization.  Indeed, the West has oppressed - and often enslaved - all other civilizations in the world.  Thus, the current reversal of fortune with hostile immigrants flooding into Western countries is an appropriate comeuppance.  Though the West is entirely capable of preventing this destructive influx, enough of the citizens have embraced oikophobia to not only tollerate it, but to encourage it.

In a video on YouTube, Joomi Kim discussed how this was not the first time that this has happened.  In fact, it appears to be a normal feature of powerful civilizations.  She starts off with the Ancient Greeks, who had risen to prominence.  Alexander the Great had conquered vast territory and left Hellenic dominance behind.  However, there arose among the Greeks those who attacked their culture.  She mentioned Diogenes in particular.  By the time the Romans arrived on the scene, the Greeks had already self-sabotaged.  The Romans followed a similar though slower pattern.  France ripped itself apart during the French Revolution, handing global dominance to England.  Modern England appears to hate its history and seeks to erase the English through mass migration.

After World War II, the United States stepped into England's shoes to become the dominant civilization.  The self-hatred soon followed.  US History is more often described as one long crime spree rather than the rise of a great and laudable nation.  Joomi suggests that the US has, since 1976, elected presidents who were either committed oikophobes (Carter & Obama) or sympathetic to oikophobia.  Only Reagan and Trump have been enthusiastic Americanophiles, which may explain their popularity outside the usual Republican demographics.

Excellent, though somewhat depressing, video.  Highly recommended.

My Latest Book

The next installment of Downland Tales.  There are the birthday stories that have been written since the last volume, a series of random character sketches, and a couple of other random stories.  The fifth book that takes place in Downland.  Available at Amazon.

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict 101

The podcast provides some background of the conflict from 4000 years ago until the modern day.  It is broken into 3 parts, each about 45 to 50 minutes in length.  The narrator does an excellent job of being neutral in the conflict.  She announced from the start that it was meant to inform those who know next to nothing of the conflict and is merely a primer.

Part 1: 4,000 years ago to 1917.  Our story begins with Abraham, whose sons are the putative ancestors of the conflicting parties.  Jews trace their ancestry to Isaac while Muslims trace theirs to Ishmael.  The Jews lived in the region that is now Israel for hundreds of years, interrupted by the all too frequent conquest by a more powerful state.  However, the Romans grew tired of Jewish rebellions and deported many Jews from the area; this was the Jewish Diaspora.  Moreover, the Romans renamed the region to Palestine.  Though there were still Jews in the region, they were a minority.  Time passed and the Romans were replaced by the Byzantines who were replaced by a series of Muslim caliphates.  Then the Crusades conquered the area, briefly, before Egyptian Sultanate took over.  In turn, the Ottoman Empire ruled from the 16th century.  Meanwhile, Jews in Europe were suffering pogroms and needed somewhere to go.  In the 19th century, many migrated to Palestine.  During World War I, the British proposed a homeland for the Jews in the Balfour Declaration (1917).  That was not popular among the resident Muslim population.

Part 2: 1917 to 1967.  In the wake of World War I, the Ottoman Empire - which was on the losing side - had its territory divided among the victors.  The British acquired what is now Israel along with the growing tensions between the Jewish and Muslim residents.  There was a lot of unpleasantness between the wars.  Then World War II came.  Jews in Europe sought to escape to Palestine but were largely foiled.  After the war, they flooded in and Britain decided to split the territory in two and bug out.  Immediately, there was war between the Jews and the Muslims.  The Jews fared far better, claiming the majority of the territory.  Many Palestinians who had fled during the conflict demanded the right to return to their homes now that the fighting was ended.  Denied.  Instead, those homes were provided to the incoming flood of Holocaust survivors.  In the 1960s, Egyptian President Nasser threatened to destroy Israel, stating it had no right to exist.  He put troops in the Sinai Peninsula and prepared to attack.

Part 3: 1967 to 2023.  Taking Nasser at his word, the Israeli Airforce attacked Egypt, disabling its airforce and making its ground-based force in the empty desert an easy target.  The Israeli Airforce likewise bombed Jordan and Syria.  This was the Six-Day War and saw Israel capture the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.   Egypt and Syria took another crack at Israel in 1973's Yom Kippur War.  In 1978, President Carter hosted a peace conference between Egypt and Israel which resulted in Egypt recognizing Israel, a first for an Arab country.  At this point, the Palestinians, who had been in the wilderness for 4 decades now, gave up hope of being restored by neighboring co-religionists and took matters into their hands.  The PLO and similar groups emerged to fight by other means: terrorism.  In the 1990s, the Oslo Accords were negotiated but never fully implemented; it was another effort at a two-state solution going back to dividing the region like the British tried during the Mandate period.  Since then, there have been a series of Intafadas (uprisings) as well as Israel trading land for peace (evacuation of Gaza, some of the West Bank).

The podcast was released in August and September of 2023.  On October 7, 2023, the latest and most dramatic Intafada took place.

As mentioned, the narrator sought to be neutral regarding the conflict, offering the reasons each side views their position as superior.  She points out that atrocities have been committed by each side and each has been dispossessed of homes in the area.  She does not delve into the religions, giving each equal merit.  She does not delve into the governmental systems, again offering equal merit.  By ignoring the differing character of the competing peoples, it is easier to stay neutral on who should prevail.

Recommended.

Used Cars (1980)

Rudy "Trust Me" Russo (Kurt Russell) is a used car salesman with dreams of political office.  In order to secure his nomination, he must provide a cash donation; he's $10,000 short.  His boss, Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden), offered to give him the money.  Rudy is so grateful that he offers a 50-50 split on all the graft once he's in office.  However, Luke's brother, Roy (Jack Warden), owns a used car dealership across the street and has eyes on securing a monopoly.  If something happened to Luke, he would inherit the lot.  Well, as long as Luke's daughter didn't show up.  Barbara Fuchs (Deborah Harmon) came looking for her father and found herself as the owner of a failing car dealership.  Could she and Rudy keep it solvent long enough to benefit from a new highway exit?

The movie is a series of zany gags and crazy humor.  In order to drum up business, Rudy contacted Freddie (David Lander) and Eddie (Michael McKean) to hijack the local TV signal and air a commercial for the dealership.  That Lenny and Squiggy appear was itself hilarious.  The commercial goes horribly wrong with the female model (Cheryl Rixon) somehow made topless; the lot was packed the following day.  Further such antics saw the pair hijack a presidential address!

Jack Warden makes for a terrific villain as Roy Fuchs.  There is no underhanded tactic that is beneath him, including an effort to put his niece in jail.  Kurt Russell inhabits his role as a sleazy car salesman, only too happy to do whatever it took to sell a car.  Despite his dishonesty, manipulativeness, and general lack of morals, he was somehow likable.  Gerrit Graham was a great wingman to Russell.  His faith in superstitions from rabbit's feet to saltshakers to fear of red cars made him a constant source of laughs.  By contrast, Deborah Harmon is left as the straight man in most of the gags.  To add yet another classic guest appearance, Al Lewis (best known as grandpa from The Munsters) played Judge Harrison.

At the time this was released, it was quite the raunchy comedy.  Today, it feels tame.  Nonetheless, it is a lot of fun.  Recommended.

9/11 + 25

It has been 25 years since planes crashed into the twin towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. In the wake of this attack, President Bush declared Islam to be a religion of peace. Nonetheless, we went to war with a couple of Islamic countries: Afghanistan and Iraq.  Moreover, a new department was created to keep the country safe: Homeland Security.  Where the hijackers had come into the country to execute their terrorist attack, such an agency would surely curb future intruders.  Clearly, those who would scream Allahu Akbar must get the hairy eyeball before entering.  As such, the number of Muslims in the United States has been careful monitored so as to rise from 2.5 million to 5.5 million.  Likewise, where there were approximately 1200 mosques in 2000, there are now only 2,800 or thereabouts.  Of course, New York City has been particularly active in preventing future incursions.  Where there were 120 mosques in 2000, there are now only 300.  Additionally, where NYC was in the process of electing a Jewish mayor - Michael Bloomberg - during the 2001 attack, it now has its first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

To look at where things stand, the Muslims are winning.  They have changed tactics - for the moment - and just begun to migrate into the West.  The situation is dire in England, but the West has chosen to just idly watch as the invasion progresses.  Eventually, the numbers will favor the Muslims and, like Lebanon, they will take over and oppress the infidels.

Good Intentions

In Good Intentions, Walter Williams, a noteworthy economics professor, discussed the unintended consequences of those good intentions.  He detailed his own youth, education, and job history compared to what was possible today (early 1980s).  Education had degraded since his time, seeing a dramatic rise in administrators at the cost of resources to the classroom.  Furthermore, efforts to give control of education to parents was foiled by teachers' unions and government.  Where he had a job as a teen for a $1/hour, a modern teen could not be hired for less than $3.35/hour.  That minimum wage, intended to protect the youth from an employer who would take advantage, limited the number of teens who could be hired.  Rather than get job experience - even for a pittance, the teen was instead unemployed.  Then there was the licensing scam.  Many governments required a license to participate in an industry.  He gave the example of driving a cab.  In Philadelphia, it cost $20,000 to get a license and thus be an independent cab driver.  By contrast, Washington D.C. only required $50.  Unsurprisingly, vastly more cabs were available in DC and there were more independent cabbies.  All too often, government efforts to assist the citizenry results in exactly the opposite.

Highly recommended.

Mr. Baseball (1992)

Jack Elliot (Tom Selleck) was a New York Yankee, an MVP from the World Series.  He viewed himself as untouchable.  Then a new player arrived and the Yankees traded Jack.  "Not Canada!" Jack insisted.  No, not Canada.  "Cleveland?"  Nope.  He was being traded to Japan.  Jack arrived in Japan to find himself assigned an interpreter, Yoji (Toshi Shioya), who often changed Jack's replies to completely change the meaning.  His coach, Uchiyama (Ken Takakura), was a serious and sober man who did not appreciate Jack's disrespectful antics.  Hiroko (Aya Takanashi) was his assigned agent and arranged for his mandatory endorsement deals and TV commercials in Japan.  She soon became his love interest.  Jack was not the only American on the team; Max 'Hammer' Dubois (Dennis Haysbert) had been in Japan for 5 years and offered pointers on assimilation, most of which Jack didn't take.

The movie doesn't know what it wants to be.  The comedy elements are purely situational and fish out of water variety humor.  There are no laugh out loud gags or jokes.  The romance between Jack and Hiroko is bland.  She's the only woman he knows in Japan who speaks English; she's the only fish in the pond.  Later revelations about her parents paint this in an even weirder light.  Because much of the dialogue is in Japanese, the other players - except Max - don't get much development.  It is unclear why this movie was even greenlit.

Of course, this was the year that ended Tom Selleck's movie career.  Also in 1992, he had a cameo in the critically panned Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, and stared in Folks!, a movie where Don Ameche played his senile father who moved in with him; it was a comedy.  All three were box office bombs.

Skip

Lake America

 

He's done it again! So long to Lake Ontario and hello Lake America.

I would prefer a bit more creativity in Trump's naming.  Gulf of America vs. Gulf of Mexico made sense.  Lake America?  We weren't calling it Lake Canada.  Ontario is a province.  May Lake New York?  If he does manage to acquire Greenland, will it get renamed to Americaland?

To Vax or Not to Vax?

On X, someone noted that 127 children had died from the measles vaccine while only 2 have died from contracting measles.  Proof that the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease!  No, sorry, it does not prove any such thing.

The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963.  Prior to vaccination, the annual death toll was 300 to 400 per year.  The population was considerably lower then, but let's stick with that number and just compare.  With the vaccine, we can have 2 measles deaths and 127 vaccine deaths, but without the vaccine with can have 300 to 400 measles deaths and no vaccine deaths.  I'll let you choose.

As Thomas Sowell explained, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.  By only examining one side of the equation, it can appear that the status quo is obviously wrong.  However, once you look at both sides, the tradeoff is apparent and the cost/benefit can be answered.

AI Scouring the Web

Though I have been writing this blog for 15 years, it is not a popular or widely read blog.  However, there have been the occasional bursts of activity.   In October 2018, I had over 5,000 views!  Prior to that, I only saw a few hundred in a month.  It flattened out to the regular few hundred until June 2019 when I broke 3,000.  Cool.  It then dipped to the usual few hundred for the next several years.  In December 2023, I had over 4,000.  In May 2024, there were more than 6,000.  Wow!  That was the high-water mark until July 2025 when I broke 42,000.  What?  How is that possible?  It was so out of the blue.  In the last few months, the real craziness occurred.

The last 4 months have seen 273,000 views, which constitutes more than 60% of all the views I've had since starting this blog.  What could possible account for such skyrocketing views?  Artificial Intelligence.  Yes, the AI bots must be grabbing everything that can be found.  I suspect all bloggers have seen a huge increase in views.  How long will this last?  In a few months, will I look back on this as the slow times?

For the rare human reader, thanks for stopping by.

DSA: Working-Class Democracy

In addition to changing both domestic and foreign policy, the DSA has idea on reforming how the government governs.  Let's go back to the DSA website.

Working-Class Democracy

Democracy for All: Extend full voting rights to all permanent U.S. residents and restore the right to vote for incarcerated people and people with criminal convictions. Establish statehood for Washington D.C. and recognize the right to self-determination for all U.S. territories and colonies. Expand and protect voting rights and end voter suppression.

Death row inmates get to vote.  Criminals are a reliable voting block for Democrats because Democrats are the soft-on-crime party.  Of course, the DSA would seek to benefit its voters.  Beyond criminals, what sort of expansion of voting rights are being considered?  Recognizing a right to self-determination is just an invitation for secession and disintegration of the country.  When combined with the instant amnesty proposed in the abolition of ICE, a lot of newly-minted permanent residents will join the voter rolls and they will mostly vote for the party offering the most freebies (psst, that would be the DSA).

A Real Democracy: For the working class to govern, we need a new political system. End political corruption and legalized bribery: get rid of lobbyists, dark money, and Citizens United, and publicly finance all elections. Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.

Repeal the Constitution.  This requires a constitutional convention or several new amendments to the Constitution.  By eliminating the president, the Congress would become more like the British Parliament where the Prime Minister is just one of the members of parliament who happens to exercise the executive.  If we have eliminated the presidency, the Electoral College is irrelevant.  However, if the Electoral College was eliminated before the presidency was folded into the Congress, it would greatly diminish the representation of smaller states.  This is a call for the destruction of the US Republic.

A Democratic Congress: Replace the two-party system with a multi-party democracy. Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate.

By abolishing the Senate, the DSA would abolish the states.  Wyoming would have one representative in the new unicameral legislature and would be pillaged by neighboring states with more say.  Proportional representation means that parties have slates of candidates who are elected based on the proportion of the vote that the party gets.  You aren't voting for your congressman but merely a party who will get so many seats in government.  Furthermore, a multiparty system can lead to empowering minority parties, such as the DSA.  A coalition party is likely to be both less stable and more extreme, allowing for wide swings in governing.  Again, this is a repeal of the Constitution and a destruction of the Republic.

Economic Democracy: Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. Enact aggressive wealth taxes on the richest individuals and corporations to spend on public goods and infrastructure.

Communism.  Yeah, we finally got there.  There is public ownership of the means of production.  There is from each according to his means (i.e., the rich) to each according to his needs (i.e., the public).  The DSA has adopted communist policies, but made them sound like democracy and fairness.  How long will the rich remain rich under such a system?  This will lead to an equality of poverty though the governing elites will be a bit more equal than everyone else.  Sounds familiar.

Democracy at Work: Empower workers to come together and fight the boss. Protect, expand, and enforce the rights of all workers to form, join, and strike with their unions, regardless of industry. Support union members who organize reform caucuses, democratize their unions, and take political action.

For those industries that have not been nationalized, the workers are to view the boss as an adversary.  Rather than being unified in providing a good or service to the public, the boss-employee dynamic should be one of constant contention where the workers chip away at the boss and inevitably make the business less productive and profitable.  This is sure to encourage more entrepreneurship and expand the economy, right?  No, quite the opposite.  There is a reason that Detroit has fallen so far as car manufacturing fled to less hostile locations.

It should be noted that the DSA does not need to achieve all of its policies to crash the US.  Just defunding the military could end the US.  Opening the borders like the Biden Administration for a more extended period with the amnesty policy could destroy the US.  The only reason Europe has been able to enact so many of these policies is because the US has footed the bill for defense.  The US has no one to cover that bill.

Vote against the communists in November!

DSA: Foreign Policy

Where Thriving Communities concerned itself with domestic policy, the DSA also has plans on how to handle international relations.  Let's return to the DSA website.

Working-Class Foreign Policy

End the U.S. War Machine: Defund the Department of War. End all foreign wars and close overseas military bases. Support and fully employ veterans. End immunity for U.S. war criminals and support the International Criminal Court's mandate to prosecute war crimes.

This is a prescription for national suicide.  How does the US defend itself without a military?  Who will fill the vacuum left by a US withdrawal from all overseas bases and a dismantling of the US Navy?  Who will determine which Americans are war criminals that need to be prosecuted in the ICC?  A call for unilateral disarmament is an invitation for hostile nations to invade.

Free Palestine: Recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return, the right to resist military occupation, and the right to self determination in a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. End all military and economic aid to Israel. Prosecute U.S. and Israeli leaders responsible for the genocide in Gaza.

Why doesn't anyone call for Free Tibet?  Or how about Free Kurdistan?  Free East Oregon?  No, it is always about the Palestinians.  Where Tibet is under the thumb of China, Kurdistan is dominated by Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, and East Oregon is oppressed by Salem, it is the Jews who are blamed for Palestine.  Yes, those rascally Israelis are uniquely evil and require a statement in DSA foreign policy.  Nevermind that the Palestinians always start the wars which result in the Israelis implementing defensive measures that further restrict the Palestinians.  Basically, until Israel is eliminated, Palestine is not free.  Understand that and you understand the whole Israel-Palestine conflict.  DSA wants the destruction of Israel.

End Blockades, Embargoes, and Sanctions: People around the world deserve to live their lives without U.S. interference. End economic warfare against countries whose governments act independently of the United States, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.

Stop making life difficult for those who hate us and wish our destruction.  Yes, what an obvious plan.  Let's make nice with communist Cuba (clearly, DSA is sympathetic to communists), ease up on narco-state Venezuela, and let the Mullahs of Iran resume their title of leading state sponsor of terrorism.  We've gotten rid of the military, so let's also get rid of our economic tools for fighting hostile powers.  Can't wait for those Iranian missiles to get installed in Cuba.  This time, there will be no missile crisis because we have ended blockading and defunded the navy that would implement the blockade.  I'm sure it will be fine.

Abolish ICE: End ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents' brutality. Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.

Throw open the borders!  Let everyone in and grant them amnesty.  A country without borders soon ceases to be a country.  Combined with the policies outlined in Thriving Communities, the US - which is already under heavy financial strain - will be bankrupt in months.  If it survives that long.  With the borders open and the military defunded, what is to stop a flood of hostiles from sweeping into the country?

Are there people who are stupid enough to believe this?  Apparently there are.  This proposed DSA Utopia would quickly devolve into a hellscape.  It must be remembered that Lenin spoke of useful idiots, people who believed the Utopian pap he spouted and supported his overthrow of Russia.  After their usefulness was at an end, firing squads can eliminate them.  The DSA playbook is an old one.

DSA: Thriving Communities

In much the same way that the Republican Party has suffered a hostile takeover by the MAGA crowd, the Democratic Party has been invaded by the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA).  President Trump and others have accused the DSA of being communists.  Is that the case?  Let's check out the party's proposed policies on the DSA website.

Thriving Work Class Communities

Freedom to Flourish: Expand public resources to support recreation, learning, and social spaces accessible to all. Establish paid family leave for all workers, a 32 hour work week with full pay and benefits, and a living minimum wage. Provide free, quality public education from pre-K to college and cancel all student debt.

Here the DSA proposes increasing social service costs, diminishing work hours while increasing pay and benefits, and eliminating all educations costs.  Where will they get the money to pay for this?  Clearly, the pay and benefits will be assessed to the employer, who will have to make do with 20% less productivity (i.e., 32 hours instead of 40).  Education and social services are funded by the state via taxation; the necessary tax increase is not mentioned here.

Healthcare for All: Guarantee universal healthcare at no cost to individuals, including complete access to reproductive and gender-affirming care. Expand healthcare access and quality by investing in new public hospitals and clinics. Make all medical education and training public and free.

Quality healthcare access to everyone, with a special note that both abortion and transgender care are included.  Moreover, medical education will also be free.  Last I checked, healthcare costs accounted for a sixth of the US economy.  If it is free, the government will assume control of that part of the economy.  There are models for how this works (e.g., Canada, the United Kingdom, etc.), which does not bode well for a government takeover here.  Like the expanded services in Freedom to Flourish, this will expand government costs and thus require increased taxation.

Housing for All: Housing is a human right. Build new, publicly-owned social housing, strictly regulate investment properties, establish universal rent control, and guarantee right to counsel for all tenants.

Everyone gets free housing?  Not exactly.  There is talk of rent control and regulating investment properties, so some housing will still cost money.  However, there will be an increase in publicly-owned housing.  In any case, landlords are going to find it even less profitable to provide housing under these new rules.  That is likely to drive many property owners out of the housing business and thus reduce the supply.  Moreover, with housing as a right, the government will have to step in to cover costs or provide shelter.  The UK is currently trying this and is paying a fortune to house immigrants in hotels.

Finish Reconstruction: End the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Reinforce anti-discrimination laws. Honor all treaties and tribal sovereignty. Enact reparations and massively invest in good jobs, quality housing and infrastructure in neglected minority communities.

Though it has been 60 years since the civil rights movement and more than 160 years since slavery was abolished, there is still more to do?  Yes, the government needs to invest in good jobs (what are good jobs?) and enact reparations (what does that mean?).  What is meant by tribal sovereignty?  Do the various reservations become independent countries within the US?  These actions will serve to further divide the country, which is the point.

End Mass Incarceration and Police Immunity: Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system which protects the rich and jails the poor. Treat drug addiction and mental illness as health issues, not crimes. End qualified immunity and empower civilian oversight bodies with real authority over the police.

How much incarceration are we allowed to have?  What do you mean by 'fully abolishing the police and prison system?'  The catch & release system is already being tested in many jurisdictions and has proved to be detrimental to the public.  Repeat violent offenders have been released and offended again.  These policies will lead to increased violence, which we've seen again and again through the decades.  The infamous Willie Horton ad touched on this back in the 1988 presidential campaign.  Irina Zarutska would be alive today if only a violent offender had been kept in prison.  This is a recipe for chaos, which is likewise not accidental.

Feminism for All: Socialist feminism fights for queer liberation and the freedoms of all working class women. Stop gender violence and end policies that oppress bodily autonomy and intimate life, including patriarchal restrictions on abortion, childbirth and childraising, gender expression and transition, marriage, and divorce. Ban sex discrimination and ensure fair compensation and support for all forms of labor, including care work.

Just in case the message wasn't received under Healthcare for All, let's reiterate that DSA is pro-abortion.  What is meant by 'including care work?'  Is the government going to cut a check for stay at home moms?  Why is marriage and divorce listed under Feminism for All?  Don't men participate in these as well?  Do the courts not favor women enough in these areas?  Let's further divide the sexes.

Green New Deal: Workers must lead our democratic transition to a green future. Pass a federal jobs guarantee. Implement massive investment in sustainable, publicly owned energy and transit infrastructure. Phase out the use of fossil fuels. Reclaim and repair our earth's resources for all.

Bankrupt the country.  As if all the other policies that will dramatically increase the federal budget were not enough, here is a plan to crush the economy.  Unless the DSA plans to transition to nuclear power, phasing out fossil fuels will result in manufacturing fleeing the country, probably to China.  What is a federal jobs guarantee?  I would suppose that the government would employ the unemployed, which is going to be costly.

The policy prescriptions that propose to create thriving working class communities will not work.  Anyone with a basic understanding of economics or human nature will see that the incentives are counter-productive and harmful.  This is a way to destroy the country, not make it thrive.  However, once it is destroyed, there will be an opportunity for new management, which is the actual end goal.

Deporting Milo

Milo Yiannopoulos, the British subject who once dominated right-wing punditry, has been arrested by ICE and is now in detention until he can be deported.  The man who adoringly called Donald Trump "Daddy" overstayed his visa.  It is amazing that Milo allowed his visa to lapse.  It is even more amazing that he didn't immediately self-deport.  However, this is a good object lesson.  Trump supporter deported by the policies of Trump.  Does he still support Trump?  I haven't heard from Milo in years and things may have changed.  Nope.  I should have looked that up before I started.  Turns out that Milo worked on Kanye West's presidential campaign as he felt Trump betrayed his loyal supporters.

In any case, deport him.  Let's have no exceptions.  Keep deporting until everyone still in the country is a citizen or has a valid visa.  That's how the system is supposed to work.

The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002)

In a church in Whitechapel, a monk knelt before the statue of a saint and prayed.  Suddenly, a dark figure appeared and attacked him.  When others arrived, the monk was dead with two holes in his neck, like a vampire's bite!  In the wake of this death, Brother Marstoke (Shawn Lawrence) called upon Sherlock Holmes (Matt Frewer) at 221 Baker St.  Between the concerned clerisy and the panicked parishioners, something needed to be done.  Holmes accepted the case.  He and Dr. Watson (Kenneth Welsh) soon arrived at the church to investigate.  Immediately, there are suspects.  Brother Caulder held Marstoke responsible, largely because of his collection of pagan artefacts from their time in Guyana.  Indeed, many of the brothers and sisters had spent time in Guyana where a deadly disease had been spread by vampire bats.  Holmes learned that two servants - natives of Guyana - had been brought to London: Signora de la Rosa and her son, Hector.  Most interesting of all was Dr. Chagas (Neville Edwards), an expert on bats who had quarreled with Marstoke about exterminating bats in Guyana to stem the disease.  After Holmes began his investigation, yet another brother was slain by the vampire.

This was the fourth and final Hallmark Channel production of Sherlock Holmes with Matt Frewer.  It does not give high hopes for its predecessors.  Frewer is a flat Holmes, almost Vulcan-like in his delivery.  He is entirely pleasant and gets along well with others.  Inspector Jones - an intentionally contentious stand-in for Inspector Lestrade - treats Holmes as the enemy from the moment they meet.  Then, at the height of his fury and the climax of the mystery, he suddenly changed his tune.  What?  Why?  Well, Holmes was still his entirely reasonable self.  There's no fire in Holmes.  The mystery is little more than a distraction to him, hardly more interesting than a crossword puzzle.  On the other hand, Watson is good.  Welsh has followed the model of Edward Hardwicke, a competent aide to Holmes rather than a clueless bumpkin to show how brilliant Holmes is.  The rest of the cast is unremarkable.

The script does no favors.  The Brother who is killed in the alley was alarmingly stupid.  Gee, I can't see a thing in this alley, someone is killing monks, and a spooky voice is calling for help.  I'll just abandon the blind nun who I am guiding to check on this mysterious voice in the alley.  Face palm!  It was hard to feel sorry for him when he was killed.  Many of Holmes deductions are made off-screen, so the viewer doesn't have an opportunity to follow the logic.  It's just revealed at the end.  As for the defeat of the villain, good grief.

Mediocre and disappointing.  Skip.

Project Hail Mary (2026)

Somewhere in space, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awoke.  He was disoriented and a robot prompted him with questions.  Soon, he was coherent, but he didn't know who he was or where he was.  After exploring the ship, he found that his two crewmates had died.  As he familiarized himself with the ship, Hail Mary, some flashes of memory returned to him.  The sun was dying on account of an alien lifeform.  In fact, every star in the neighborhood was dying with the exception of Tau Ceti.  He was at Tau Ceti to find out why and perhaps save the earth from an inevitable and unending ice age.

Some days after he awoke, the ship's flight plan concluded and now it was up to him to determine what to do.  However, an alien vessel approached!  A meet-cute between Grace and Rocky (James Ortiz) takes place.  Rocky is a five-limbed rock-like creature and has come to Tau Ceti for the same reason as Grace.  Together, the duo investigate what makes Tau Ceti immune to the sun-eating micro-organisms.

The story takes place both in the present - Tau Ceti - and in the past - Grace's recurring flashes of memory as his amnesia fades.  His earth memories show him as a middle school science teacher who was recruited by an international agency headed by Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller).  She is not friendly and quite ruthless.  Understandable considering the situation, but not a likeable character.  These past memories show that he was not intended to be on the mission and also introduce his two deceased crewmates.

The movie does a very good job of following the book.  It simplifies here and there, but hits all the important points.  The very different environment of Rocky is softened, which allowed him to wander around the Hail Mary in a hamster ball rather than building a tunnel system.  Solid xenon is much funnier in the movie than it was in the book.  Where I liked the book Grace less as I got to know him, the movie Grace was more likeable by the end.

Excellent film and great popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Qualifications Don't Matter

Darlene Graham, sister of the recently deceased Lindsey Graham, debated Ralph Norman.  During the debate, she was asked a question about Taiwan and the South China Sea.  She was clueless and had no idea how to answer the question.  Most embarrassing.  The pundits had a field day.  Clay Travis and Buck Sexton declared her answer to make her unqualified to be a senator.  Of course, she is the sitting senator, having been appointed in her brother's place.  Moreover, she has been endorsed by President Trump.  Sean Hannity defended her, saying her brother just died.  Oh, so that excuses it?

If I were a South Carolina voter, I would probably switch to Ralph Norman; this is a primary election, so he is a Republican too.  However, if she secures the nomination, I can guarantee that Clay and Buck will change their tune on her qualifications.  An 'unqualified' Republican will suddenly be vastly preferable to a highly-qualified Democrat.  Do you want a reliable Republican vote or a reliable Democrat vote in the Senate?  That is all this is about.  If the general election were between a candidate with Henry Kissinger level knowledge of world affairs and a chihuahua, you vote for the one who will reliably toe the party line.  That goes for both parties.  Recall that Pennsylvania Democrats selected a recovering stroke victim over a medical doctor.  Tragically, that is where we are.

Prior to the 17th Amendment, it is unlikely that a sibling would be chosen to fill a vacant senate seat.  Name recognition is important for popular elections, but no so much in being selected by the state legislature.  The legislature would seek someone who could effectively argue on the state's behalf, not someone who was broadly known and could get votes.  Repeal the 17th and the qualifications of senators will rise.

Rise of Insanity

Economics is a social science, which makes it dependent on human behavior.  As human behavior can be wildly divergent, hard scientists look askance at the 'dismal science.'  To provide a foundation economics, the economist assumes that man is rational.  Given the choice between two goods of equal quality, the rational man will choose the one that costs less.  From here, we can graph a demand curve.  Likewise, a rational man will sell his product for as much as someone will pay: a supply curve.  The rational man theory carries into other social sciences as well.  But is man rational?

Lately, it is getting harder to accept that humans are rational.  Or, perhaps, a growing number of them are becoming irrational.

1. Gender identity.  Men claim to be women and women claim to be men.  Those making the claims are rarely those who possess biological markers of both sexes.  Nope, they are physically one sex while claiming to be the other.  Rather than view this as a psychological issue - gender dysphoria - to be treated, an alarming number of people are treating it as something that requires medical intervention, whether that be puberty blockers or even gender reassignment surgery.

2. Lindsay Clancy.  In 2023, this Massachusetts woman strangled her three children to death, all aged 5 and younger.  The trial is currently in progress.  Many women have come to her support with online videos claiming they have been close to strangling their kids.  Nearly a million dollars has been raised for Lindsay while many are pointing at the husband as the true villain.  What?  When Susan Smith drove her kids into a lake in 1994, she received no sympathy.  When Andrea Yates drowned her five children in 2001, there wasn't a fundraiser and a Conga line of women saying they could relate.  Today, Clancy has a fan club and astrologists who claim her husband is the true killer.

3. Jason Arday.  This Cambridge professor committed suicide after his life story was revealed to be fraudulent and his academic work plagiarized.  Rather than blame those who lifted an unqualified man to a position beyond his demonstrable skills, there are calls to outlaw an excess of stories on any one person.  Moreover, the professor who got the ball rolling on Arday's lack of qualifications has been suspended.  Thus, there are moves to protect the gatekeepers who should never have allowed Arday to rise so high, and instead to effort to punish the whistleblower who exposed it.  That sounds like exactly the prescription to produce more unqualified professors.

4. Celebrating Criminals.  George Floyd was a career criminal.  Today, he is viewed by many as the sainted victim of police brutality, the first martyr of BLM.  Carmelo Anthony stabbed a student to death and hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated to him and his family.  Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant with gang affiliations and accused human smuggler, was glorified as a 'Maryland father' and an example of ICE overreach.

None of this is rational.  What has led to this degradation of society?  Mental illness is now to be validated, criminals are to be excused or celebrated, and academia shall promote the incompetent.  This is no way to maintain civilization.  In fact, it is unlikely that this is accidental, as the madness seems to focus on Western countries.

Hellfighters (1968)

Chance Buckman (John Wayne) was known internationally as the best oil rig firefighter in the business.  When the call came in that his services were required, he turned his jet around and summoned his crew.  There was Greg Parker (Jim Hutton), a playboy with a different woman in every city.  There there was Joe Horn (Bruce Cabot), a reliable and able man.  Lastly, he had George Harris (Edward Faulkner), who mostly served in an administrative capacity, but was eager to get in the thick of the action.  The crew convened at the fire, which was being actively covered by NBC News.  In fact, the news crew became a nuisance that resulted in a serious injury to Chance.

Chance's injury was serious enough that Greg contacted his estranged daughter, Tish (Katharine Ross).  Of course, Greg is drawn to her and vice versa.  By the time Chance awakens, Greg has become his son-in-law!  What will his ex-wife, Madelyn (Vera Miles), think of this?

The story covers several fires, with particular interest on the anxiety of Madelyn and Tish.  Madelyn had divorced Chance because she could not endure his dangerous profession.  She was worried that Tish would have the same issue with Greg.  Unsurprisingly, he nearly dies in every fire.  Will he survive the movie?

The original script didn't have enough action for John Wayne's tastes, so he insisted more was added.  Thus we have a barroom brawl in Southeast Asia, rebels attacking a series of wells in Venezuela, and even a strafing run by rebel planes that is countered by military anti-aircraft guns.  Oil well fires just aren't sufficiently exciting.  Intermingled with all this action are the love stories of Greg & Tish and Chance & Madelyn.  These are very much by the numbers romances that feel tacked on.

The character of Chance Buckman was based on Red Adair, a famous oil rig firefighter.  He was still active when Saddam Hussein ignited the oil wells in Kuwait during the Gulf War (1991).

Mediocre.  John Wayne needed to stick to the Western or the World War II epic.

Civilizational Dead Ends

By strange coincidence, I encountered two different stories (one as a YouTube video and the other as an article in SciTechDaily) about signs of ancient civilizations.  Though each sought to elevate the story to groundbreaking or rewriting history, they both concern civilizations that went nowhere.

Murujuga concerned rock art in Australia.  There are a variety of carvings that date as far back as 50,000 years.  Yes, it is pretty cool, but it represents a people who never advanced beyond the Stone Age until more advanced civilizations arrived.  Is it important to preserve Stone Age graffiti in situ or will a photographic record be enough?  Do some 3-D modeling of the area to preserve it and carry the more interesting pieces to a museum.

Aquiry is a lost civilization in Amazonia on the Acre River.  I was at once reminded of The Lost City of Z when reading about it.  In this remote area, a civilization of up to 3 million people once flourished though it faded away sometime in the 9th century.  Though it may be interesting to study, it proved to be a civilizational dead end.  It is a cul-de-sac that leads to nothing beyond it, certainly nothing that applies to the modern world.

Where the Romans, Greeks, Chinese, Norse, Israelites, and countless others contributed to what has become our modern civilization, these two are dead ends or mere footnotes.  The Murujuga folk may be the source of the didgeridoo and the boomerang.  As for Aquiry, they weren't around to meet modern folk and pass on their innovations, if they had any.

Good Intentions and Racism

In 2003, Rush Limbaugh had a guest analyst post on an ESPN show.  Limbaugh was a huge football fan, and was thrilled to have the role.  During one appearance, he noted that a certain quarterback was getting more credit than the numbers indicated he should be getting.  He said the league and sports press was so desirous of having a successful black quarterback that it was promoting him beyond his talents.  This immediately led to accusations of racism on Limbaugh's part and he was removed from the show.

In 2008, a first term senator with only 2 years on the job ran for president.  Obama was championed despite a thin resume.  As with the quarterback, the media and the country in general had high hopes for a black politician.  Opposition to him or his policies was declared racist throughout his two terms in office.

Jason Arday, who plagiarized his PhD thesis and told the most outlandish stories was nevertheless awarded a doctorate and rose to be the youngest black professor ever at Cambridge.  Academics had high hopes for him and allowed him to bypass obstacles that no other candidate would be allowed to ignore.  His rocket rise was followed by an inevitable meteoric fall.  His tragic fall was enabled by those who wished him the best, misguided cheerleaders who allowed an unqualified man to assume a post to which he was almost certain to fail.

This has been an ongoing problem.  Colleges have given black students an advantage in enrollment - as demonstrated by the recent Harvard lawsuit settlement - where they find themselves in settings beyond their abilities.  A student who would excel and graduate from a state university is instead thrust into an elite institution where he falls behind and often drops out.  This 'benefit' to make up for past wrongs only sets the student for failure.  Such partly explains the fall of Jason Arday.

One must stick to merit alone.  By taking race into account to either benefit or penalize a candidate is harmful.  It is a misallocation of talent.  It is better to be a successful plumber than a drop out burdened by student loan debt.  One must be allowed to honestly assess an individual's abilities and accomplishments without being called a racist.  On the other side, one must hold all candidates to the requirements, regardless of how eagerly it is hoped for the candidate's success.

Keen vs. Webberley

Konstantin Kisin of Triggernometry hosted a debate between Kellie-Jay Keen (aka Posie Parker) and Dr Helen Webberley on the topic of transgender.  The sparks flew from the very start as it was clear that neither guest respected the views of the other.  Keen has been one of the most visible anti-transgender personalities for nearly a decade.  She holds that transgender is a mental disorder and that it is medical malpractice to treat them with hormone blockers or surgery.  She is particularly opposed to such treatment being given to minors.  By contrast, Webberley holds that transgender youth are able to decide their gender and that Keen was causing harm with her statements.

A good portion of the debate was Keen attempting to elicit exactly what age was appropriate for a child to decide on gender, how many encounters with a medical professional should be required before hormone blockers could be considered, whether gender dysphoria was a mental illness associated with other conditions (e.g., homosexuality, autism), and whether treatment resulted in permanent sexual disfunction.  Webberley refused to pick a specific age for treatment, though she offered 15 as a reasonable age, but would not categorically rule out 11.  She dismissed the idea of contributing conditions, even suggesting that the autism diagnosis might be in error.  Gender dysphoria is not a mental disorder and saying that it was is hate speech, which is illegal under British law.  Both ended the debate by declaring the other should be in jail, Keen for hate speech and Webberley for child abuse.  Lively!

Keen's big weakness was that she would refer to studies and then not cite them.  Which study?  She mentioned a few examples, but that is all anecdotal.  However, she was specific and clear in what her views were.  There was nothing vague or gray in her answers.  Webberley was hopelessly ambiguous and offered nothing specific except that the law stood on her side.  At one point she said that sex cannot be changed and at another point, she said that a trans-woman is indeed a woman.  Okay, which is it?  She would then explain the issue in such a way that it was entirely confusing.  She had a strategy of filibustering, denouncing interruptions and going on tangents.  She denounced Kisin for platforming Keen.

Keen's argument was far superior.  Webberley spent much of her time being offended and giving answers as clear as mud.  Comments on the debate massively favored Keen.  That said, it was not an hour well spent.  Much of this was the same old stuff gone over again, with Keen offering the standard litany and Webberley mostly offering non-answers with accusations of bigotry on the side.

Blame Israel and the USA!

In response to the sudden influx of 'immigrants' into the Spanish town of Ceuta, the Spanish government has determined that the fault lies with... Israel!  And the United States!  Even Iran agrees with this assessment.  Gee, it must be true.

No, it isn't a logical response to the incentives of recent Spanish laws and court rulings.  Spain just legalized hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and the Spanish courts have ruled that deporting those who arrive by water is near impossible.  Look at those incentives.  Spanish citizenship - with its sweet, sweet welfare checks - is just a short swim away.  But no, that can't possibly explain the hordes of invaders.

Clearly, Israel is furious about Spain's stance on the Gaza issue.  And the US is peeved that Spain barred US access to Spanish airbases during the dustup with Iran.  Obviously, Israel and the US engineered this border breach to punish Spain.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez needed to shift blame from his disastrous policies that have set a reversal of the Reconquista into motion.  He's a socialist so he isn't going to take responsibility for this.  Better to blame those who are already unpopular with the Spanish people.  Maybe they will buy it.

As for Iran, they have jumped on Sanchez's bandwagon since it drives a wedge between Western nations.

His Dark Materials (Season 1)

During the night of the great flood, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) placed an infant girl in the protection of the master of Jordan College (Clarke Peters).  Twelve years later, Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) eagerly awaits a visit from her Uncle Asriel.  During his brief visit, Lyra learns about something called dust, which attached to adults but not children, whatever that meant.  Moreover, the talk of dust is treated as the gravest sin, a topic that should never be discussed.  Though she wanted to travel north with him on his further research, she was left behind.  However, Marissa Coulter (Ruth Wilson) arrived at Jordan College soon after and enlisted Lyra as an assistant.

In this world, humans have an external soul that is called a daemon (pronounced demon).  Though the daemon of a child can change shapes, it settles into one form after puberty.  Lyra's daemon is named Pan.  The religion of the world is an oppressive form of Christianity that is maintained by the Magisterium, a militant order that deploys armed airships and ground troops in the later episodes of the series.  The world also has an underclass of folk called Gyptians, a gypsy-folk whose children have been targeted for abduction for unknown purposes.  The abductors are called Gobblers.  Then there are the armored bears, polar bears who live in the cold north, wear suits of armor, and maintain a kingdom.  They look like normal polar bears who just happen to have the power of speech.  Not particularly dexterous paws and yet they have buildings and skilled craftsmanship items.  Interesting.  Lastly, there are witches.  Witches are long-lived - the only one who appears claims to be 300 years old - can fly without a broom and move like the Flash.

Before Lyra left Jordan College with Miss Coulter, she was given an alethiometer.  It is a peculiar device that can answer any question, but few can deduce the meaning of the answers.  Where most must spend years to learn how to decipher an alethiometer, Lyra has a natural ability.  She is thus an unmatched augur, able to know the unknowable if only she can craft the right question.

The story follows Lyra as she traveled north, having different allies along the way.  Initially, she is with the Gyptians, then she teamed with Iorek Byrnison (Joe Tandberg) the Armored Bear and Lee Scoresby (Lin-Manual Miranda) the Aeronaut.

Meanwhile, in our world, Will Parry (Amir Wilson) is the son of an explorer who went missing 13 years ago.  He is a highschooler who boxes after school.  His mother, Elaine, suffers from anxiety and Will is more her caretaker than vice versa.  As it happens, Carlo Boreal (Ariyon Bakare) of the Magisterium has a doorway between worlds.  He believes that Will's missing father, who was exploring in Alaska, may have found another path between worlds.

With how central dust is to the plot, it is not well explained.  Is it the physical manifestation of sin, thus it sticks to adults but not children?  Is it a byproduct of the clash of worlds, most easily investigated at the northern lights where cities in the sky can be viewed with the right lens?  Why is the Magisterium ramping up to Def Con 1 over a couple of scientists investigating the northern lights?  Even after 8 episodes, it is unclear why there is panic.  Perhaps this adaptation missed something.

Dafne Keen is good as Lyra.  In the previous adaptation, The Golden Compass, I developed an almost instant dislike of Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) because she lied with glee from the moment we met her.  This Lyra likewise proves to be a talented liar, but it is a tool rather than a personality trait.  Lin-Manuel Miranda is a downgrade from Sam Elliot as Lee Scoresby.  He's okay, but he doesn't pass as a Texan.  As for the armored bears, there is no matching Ian McKellan and Ian McShane from the 2007 version, but the new actors are adequate.

Overall, pretty good.  The longer format provides for more explanation of some characters and development of the world.  The character development of Lyra, Lord Asriel, and Miss Coulter greatly benefit from a miniseries format.  Good popcorn fun.