Ready or Not (2019)

Grace (Samara Weaving) marries Alex (Mark O'Brien), a scion of the wealthy Le Domas family.  Alex fled the family years ago and the wedding, hosted at the family estate, serves as a tense reunion.  Though outwardly all smiles and support, it is clear that most view Grace as a gold digger; she is an orphan raised in foster homes, hardly the pedigree for a Le Domas.  After the ceremony, a peculiar ritual is performed.  Whenever someone new joins the family, they must place a blank card into a small box.  When removed, the card will list a game.  In most cases, it is something harmless like checkers or Old Maid.  However, if hide & seek appears, the hunt is on.  Unsurprisingly, Grace draws hide & seek.

 

While Alex tries to smuggle Grace out of the mansion, his family chases her with a variety of old-fashioned weapons, from 19th century revolvers, crossbows, and even a battle axe.  Not everyone is keen on killing Grace.  Alex's older brother, Daniel (Adam Brody) is a sad drunk who didn't flee the family madness but only marginally follows the rules of the game.  Can Grace survive until dawn?

 

The movie is more often comedy than horror.  Clearly out of practice - the last hide & seek had been 30 years ago, the family is mostly incompetent.  The incompetence gets overwhelming as the story progresses.  The ending was surprisingly gory and not really satisfying.  Even so, it was fun to watch.

9/11 + 18

18 years after the war began, Trump appears to be looking for an out that doesn't include winning.  If we've spent 18 years fighting and haven't won, then maybe we should just quit.  Throw in the towel.  Have a meeting with the Taliban and threaten them with furious retaliation if they start hosting al Qaeda again.  Oh, that'll work just great.

 

Like his predecessors, Trump is unwilling to identify the enemy.  If you can't say what you are fighting, you can't win.  We've been fighting symptoms - Islamic terrorists - for years but haven't even thought to address the disease: Islam.  Islam is not a religion of peace.  Read a biography of Muhammad and there is no way you can view him as a peacemaker.  He was a warlord and conqueror.  The religion he founded calls for the subjugation of all non-Muslims and views martyrdom - death in the cause of Islam - as the most praiseworthy thing a Muslim can do.  Is it any wonder so many are willing to blow themselves up or fly planes into buildings?  This isn't some crazy misinterpretation.  This is the religion.

 

The only way to win is to wipe out Islam.  That is an impossibility in the world today.  The West cannot do that.  In fact, the West is happily allowing Islam to migrate and takeover.  Charles Martel stopped the invasion of the Muslims into France but modern French leaders are inviting them in and paying welfare to have them.  This will not end well.

 

I said Trump's new plan wouldn't work and it hasn't.  Like his predecessors, he will not do what it would take to win.  The argument used to be that we fight over there so they don't show up here.  Well, they are showing up here because we've rolled out the red carpet to show how tolerant we are.  Fighting there just creates pressure for them to migrate to the West (see Syria).

 

"There is no substitute for victory."  Douglas MacArthur

 

Is it time to admit that we lost?  Is it time to cut and run?  So it seems.  But maybe we can spin it to look like a win.  Or at least a tie!

Republican Presidential Contenders

Incumbent presidents do not usually face primary challengers; the party likes to stay in power and primary challenges to a sitting president usually lead to the other party winning.  For example, Reagan challenged Ford in 1976 and Carter won.  Ted Kennedy challenged Carter in 1980 and Reagan won.  Pat Buchannan challenged George H W Bush in 1992 and Clinton won.  Challengers never get the nomination and usually sabotage the general election.  This is well-known, which means the challengers are spoilers.  The three challengers thus far are:

 

Joe Walsh is a one-term Congressman who was elected to the House in 2010 and lost in 2012 after his district was redrawn.  He has no other elective office experience.  He has spent most of the years since as a radio talk show host.  He admitted to saying 'racist things' on air, which is going to sink him in an instant.  He's going nowhere but maybe he can raise some cash and increase his name recognition.

 

Mark Sanford is the former governor of South Carolina who went 'hiking' but was discovered having an adulterous affair in Argentina.  He dodged impeachment but was censured 102-11 by the South Carolina House.  He has served in Congress since 2013, managing to make a political comeback though it was a demotion; he had previously served in Congress from 1995 to 2001.

 

The most formidable of the bunch, Bill Weld is the former governor of Massachusetts (1991 to 97).  Despite a huge re-elect margin in 1994, he decided to run for Senate against Kerry in 1996.  He lost.  Then he accepted a nomination by Bill Clinton to be Ambassador to Mexico.  Didn't get it.  He resigned his governorship with 18 months left.  Boy, I'll bet the voters loved that.  Then he moved to New York and ran for governor there!  Mercenary politician.  In 2016, he was the VP nominee for the Libertarian Party.  He's a Republican like Bernie Sanders is a Democrat.  He is older than Trump and nixes age as a factor.

 

All three of these men would have been bottom tier candidates during the 2016 campaign.  Trump's overall approval ratings have hovered between 40% and 50% but are phenomenal among Republicans, the very voters who will participate in choosing a nominee.  Even if everything goes awry for Trump, primary challengers never win the nomination.  This is the longest of long shots.

Good Old Joe

Sometimes, politicians say stupid things.  It's inevitable.  If you talk for hours and days on end, there will be time when you get tongue-tied or speak before you think.  Of course, these verbal blunders can haunt politicians.

 

"I'm not a crook" President Richard Nixon

 

"I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" President Bill Clinton

 

"I'm not a witch" Christine O'Donnell, Republican Tea Party Candidate for Senate in 2010

 

"I want to be clear, I'm not going nuts."  Former VP Joe Biden, Presidential Candidate

 

That one is going to show up in a campaign ad before too long.  Joe may not be going nuts but senile is another matter.  Joe once explained how FDR got on TV in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash.  Then there is his recent proclamation that he chooses "Truth over facts."  Though he has been in the lead since he announced, I suspect Joe isn't going to make it far in the primaries.

Suicide or Murder?

Jeffery Epstein's death has been fodder for conspiracy theories.  No sooner had the man been arrested than there were claims - half in jest - that he would not survive to trial.  He had dirt on too many rich and powerful people.  Less than a month after his arrest, he was found barely conscious on the floor with bruising on his neck.  Failed suicide?  No determination was made though he was put on suicide watch in the wake of that incident.  A couple weeks later, he's dead of suicide and there are a list of procedures that were not followed.

 

He had already failed at a suicide attempt so heightened security is a no brainer.

 

Guards did not check on him every 30 minutes.  There was a 3 hour window where he was not checked.

 

Guards falsified records.

 

Prisoners with a suicide risk are assigned a cellmate but Epstein was alone.

 

Is it any wonder that there are conspiracy theories that he was murdered to keep him quiet, from cutting a deal with prosecutors to reduce his sentence?  If there was ever a prisoner that the Bureau of Prisons should have kept safe, this was the one.  Epic fail.

 

Suicide or murder?  Almost certainly the answer is suicide.  Epstein was a brilliant guy and had plenty of time to plot his death and find the ideal moment.  If the choice is between criminal conspiracy or government incompetence, I'll choose incompetence every time.  Whitey Bulger was killed within hours of being transferred to a US Penitentiary in West Virginia last year.  More government incompetence.

No Warming Trend Continues

In 2005, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration established 114 temperature monitoring stations in isolated locations throughout the contiguous 48 states.  Since they were established, there has been no warming.  The temperatures, at least in the United States, are static.  This is yet another data point to explain the change in terminology from Global Warming to Climate Change.  Climate Change is a much more flexible description, allowing virtually any weather pattern to be alarming and in need of more tax dollars.

 

Coincidentally, the Obamas have purchased a $15 million beachfront mansion on Martha's Vineyard.  Clearly, they are confident that rising sea levels aren't going to drown their new residence.

Duel with the Devil

December 1799, New York City

A few days before news of George Washington's death, Elma Sands went out for the evening and did not return.  The landlord's wife heard Elma leave with a man, presumably Levi Weeks.  Also a tenant at the boarding house, Levi claimed no knowledge of Elma's whereabouts; he had been at his brother's house that night.  In early January, Elma's body was found in Manhattan Well and fingers soon pointed at Levi.  Levi's older brother, Ezra, was a successful builder.  In fact, he was involved in designing and building Gracie Mansion, the home of the mayor.  He was also working on Hamilton Grange for Alexander Hamilton and had ties with Aaron Burr.  Both men were indebted to him and he called on both to defend his brother.  The political rivals joined forces to clear Levi's name.  The author, Paul Collins, proposes that Richard Croucher, another boarder who had testified against Weeks, was the true culprit.  Hamilton himself suggested that in the trial.  The book continues after the trial, thus including the biographies of many of the characters.  Of course, Hamilton and Burr have the duel.  Despite being acquitted, Levi was unable to remain in New York and relocated to Natchez, Mississippi.  The judge of the trial was later elected mayor.  Henry Brockholst Livingston, the third member of the defense dream team, went on to be a Supreme Court Justice.

 

A true story, the book reads more like a history book than a novel.  The events are described but the characters are flat.  This is more a narration of specific events than a novelization of true events.  Nonetheless, it is engaging and provides a broad look at the city of New York at the time and a sense of the era.

 

Thumbs up.