Election in Four Vote Batches

At midnight on November 3, Trump was leading in Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  If he held these three states, he would win re-election.  The balance shifted in four discrete batches of votes.

At 1:34 AM on November 4, Georgia ran a batch of 136,155 votes.  Of these votes, 82.4% were for Biden and 17.6% were Trump.  That is a 107,040 vote margin for Biden.  As of this writing, he leads Georgia by 12,670 votes.  Hmm.

At 3:42 AM, a batch of 168,542 votes were run in Wisconsin.  Biden received 85.1% of these votes.  He thus gained 118,216 votes in the statewide race.  His margin of victory for the state is 20,608.  Hmm.

At 3:50 AM, a batch of 59,215 votes were processed in Michigan, 92% going to Biden.  At 6:31 AM, a batch of 147,226 votes were run, 95.9% for Biden.  Biden gained 185,069 in the race thanks to these two batches.  The margin for the state is 154,188.  Interesting.

Of course, this could totally be cherry picking.  The margin is always somewhere but this does make for some peculiar graphs:

This graph could just be a brilliant piece of propaganda but there are several such graphs.  Some Democrat should produce graphs from previous elections that have this same pattern so as to debunk this.  Failure to do so only makes it more suspicious.  The only counterargument I keep hearing is there is no widespread fraud.  All right.  Four instances is hardly widespread.  It doesn't need to be widespread to make a difference.  Assure me there isn't fraud in these four lopsided vote batches.

Hannie Caulder (1971)

Hannie Caulder (Raquel Welch) and her husband are living a happy life when the Clemens brothers ride onto the scene.  Emmet (Ernest Borgnine), Rufus (Strother Martin), and Frank (Jack Elam) murder her husband and then gang rape her.  On their way out the door, they light the house on fire and leave her to burn.  Unsurprisingly, she escapes the inferno and swears vengeance.  Soon thereafter, noted bounty hunter Thomas Price (Robert Culp) comes across Hannie.  She hires him to teach her to shoot.  Though he advises her not to seek revenge, he agrees to train her and also take her to a gunsmith, Bailey, to make a revolver more suited to her.  Bailey (Christopher Lee) lives in Mexico and hosts the pair while Hannie is trained.  While they are with Bailey, some bandits attack.  Hannie finds herself unable to gun down a man who is about to kill her.  Again, Price advises her to abandon her plans for revenge.  Instead, the two part company though it is clear that he has fallen for her and she him.

Here is a Spaghetti Western with ketchup for blood and filmed in Spain.  The Clemens brothers prove to be hapless bumpkins who spend most of their time berating each other.  They're like the three stooges at times.  With the exception of their initial murder/rape/arson, these guys seem more like they are in some campy comedy western.  Very odd.  As a character, Hannie isn't well-developed.  If not for stupidity or outside intervention, she would have been killed by 2 of the 3 brothers.  Why is she so intent on letting them know she's after them or even scheduling where to meet.  Hey, they are wanted criminals; just shoot them without warning.

Mediocre.

How the West Was Won (1962)

The epic 1962 film is told in five parts, all following the Prescott family.

The Rivers (1839): Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) has decided to move west.  He sold his farm in the east, packed up his family, and boarded a boat on the Erie Canal in Albany, NY.  Soon, the family is rafting down the Ohio River in search of land to farm.  On the way, they meet mountain man Linus Rawlings (Jimmy Stewart) and have a run in with river pirates.  Zebulon and his wife drown in the river and their elder daughter, Eve (Carroll Baker) decides that this is where she will settle with Linus.  Her younger sister, Lilith (Debbie Reynolds), has no desire to farm and plans to return to the East.

The Plains (1851): Lilith, who showed a knack for singing, dancing, and just being entertaining during The Rivers, is now a professional entertainer in St. Louis.  She receives word that an admirer has left her a gold strike in California.  She decides to claim her gold mine and joins a wagon train headed to California.  The wagonmaster, Roger (Robert Preston), finds her attractive and pursues her.  Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), a down on his luck gambler, had heard of her gold claim and is following to take advantage.  The journey makes him a better man and he weds Lilith.

The Civil War (1861 to 1865): Zeb Rawlings (George Peppard) wants to join the army and follow his father to war.  Eve tries to convince him to work for her sister in California but he's determined.  He joins and soon finds that war has no glory.  His father dies at Shiloh in 1862.  When the war is done, he returns to the farm to find his mother has died.  He declines his brother's offer for half the farm and stays in the army to go further west.

The Railroad (1868): The railroad is being built to join the east and the west.  Mike King (Richard Widmark) cares not a whit about anything but getting the railroad constructed as fast as possible.  It is left to Lt. Zeb Rawlings to try to keep the peace with the Arapaho.  He is helped in that task by Jethro Stuart (Henry Fonda), a man who used to trap with his father.  Eventually, King presses the Arapaho too far and Zeb can take it no more.  He resigns the army and rides out west.

The Outlaws (1889): Lilith is forced to sell most of her belongings in San Francisco as she is broke and Cleve has died.  However, she still has a ranch in Arizona and she knows just the man to run it: her nephew Zeb.  Zeb spent much of the intervening years as a marshal.  He has married and has 3 children.  A settled life appeals to his wife.  However, an old enemy, Charlie Gant (Eli Wallach) happens to be in Arizona and is keen on revenge for his brother's death at Zeb's hands.  Deducing that Gant has arrived to stage a train robbery, Zeb plans to be on that train to catch him in the act with the help of Sheriff Ramsey (Lee J Cobb).

At 2 hours and 44 minutes, it's a long film.  Some casting choices are goofy.  According to his tombstone, Linus Rawlings was born in 1810, meaning he was 28 or 29 when he met Eve in The Rivers.  In fact, Jimmy Stewart was 53!  Agatha Clegg has joined the wagon train to find a man in the west but is played by 60 year-old Thelma Ritter.  Optimistic.  Though I like Harry Morgan, he is totally overshadowed by John Wayne in their scene together.  General Grant should not be so overshadowed by a subordinate, even Sherman.  Someone with more star power should have been cast as Grant to balance out John Wayne.

This is a Western that covers all the bases: mountain men, buffalo stampede, railroads, Indian attacks, wagon trains, gambling on steamboats, train robbery, gun fights, romance, dancehall girls, and on.  Five movies in one which tie together neatly.  Entertaining from start to finish.  Thumbs up.

On The Rocks (2020)

Laura (Rashida Jones) thinks her husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), is acting peculiar.  In fact, she suspects that he is cheating on her with his attractive co-worker, Fiona (Jessica Henwick).  She tells her father, Felix (Bill Murray), about her concerns and he immediately sets about investigating.  He is very soon certain that Dean is unfaithful and takes Laura on increasingly outrageous stake-outs to catch Dean in the act.  Along they way, Felix also flirts with every woman they meet and shows he is a charming though often unreliable man.  He had left his wife, Laura's mother, for another woman.

Murray is fun, but not really funny here.  The comedy is more of the ludicrous situation variety.  He's the center of attention because he is charming and talented, not because he is a barrel of laughs.  Rashida is a downer from beginning to end.  The very plot of the film makes it hard for her to be otherwise.  

When the movie concludes, it is just a letdown.  Maybe we could have had some father-daughter bonding in picturesque New York City with some other foundation than infidelity.  After all, Laura is a writer.  Maybe she could have been doing research when dad re-enters her life and joins in her project with passion.  As is, if felt like the director, Sofia Coppola, just wasted my time with a nothing movie that was only lightly flavored with Bill Murray comedy.

Skip.

Distant Drums (1951)

It is 1840 and Lt. Richard Tufts (Richard Webb) of the US Navy has been selected for a special mission with Captain Wyatt Quincy (Gary Cooper) of the US Army.  The assignment is to sail across Lake Okeechobee and destroy the fort of gunrunners who supply weapons to the Seminoles.  The joint operation is hugely successful and also saw the rescue of captives, among whom is Judy Beckett (Mari Aldon).  While waiting for the boat to come get them, a band of Seminoles arrive.  The heavy fire prevents the boat from coming to shore so Wyatt's company must flee into the everglades to avoid being overrun.  Now they must trek 150 miles through dangerous swamps while evading the Seminole pursuit.  The high stress flight is the perfect setting for romance between Wyatt and Judy.

Much like Seminole, this one is terrible on history.  The soldiers are wearing uniforms from the Spanish-American War (1898) rather than the Second Seminole War.  Though the Patterson revolver was available by now, the Peacemaker that Wyatt carries is decades in the future.  Nobody seems to be using muskets, which is the weapon of the day.  However, it does show some knowledge of the era.  Wyatt declares himself to be a Georgia Cracker and picks out Judy as one too.  The Seminoles are mostly played by Seminoles.  The navy and army did have joint operations and saw a crossing of the Everglades from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.  The Seminoles were armed with rifles that were supplied by Spanish smugglers from Cuba.

The plot is good but the execution has much to be desired.  Like the love triangle in Seminole, this one is equally unsatisfying.  Judy has chosen Wyatt right out the gate and Tufts spends most of his time as a tag along character.  Why didn't he stay with his boat?  Of particular note, this is the movie that had the original Wilhelm Scream when a soldier was eaten by a crocodile, which has proven to be the most enduring part.  Unfortunately, sounds from an African jungle are played to set the mood.

Zachary Taylor, who gained his promotion to brigadier general thanks to the Battle of Okeechobee in 1837, is the commanding general here.  Yes, he really was the commanding general from 1838 to 1840, so this is accurate.  He earned his nickname of 'Old Rough and Ready' during his tenure in Florida.

As mindless popcorn fun, the movie is fine but don't think you have learned anything when the credits roll.

Seminole (1953)

The story opens with the court martial of Lieutenant Lance Caldwell (Rock Hudson), accused of murder and treason.  As such, the story is mostly a flashback.  It is 1835 in Florida and the Seminoles have refused relocation to Oklahoma.  Major Degan, commander of Fort King and a hero of the Creek War, intends to move the Seminoles or slaughter them.  Lt. Caldwell, newly arrived at Fort King and a native of Florida, suggested peace talks.  Furthermore, he is opposed to an assault against the Seminoles as the swamps will be difficult to navigate.  In no time, he and Major Degan have a contentious relationship.  Degan marches a detachment into the swamps, intending to make a surprise assault on the camp of Osceola (Anthony Quinn).  Of course, Osceola knew they were coming and set a trap, wiping out almost the entirety of Degan's troops (one supposes this was to represent the Dade Massacre that triggered the Second Seminole War).  While a wounded Degan is dragged to safety by Sgt. Magruder (a very young Lee Marvin!), Caldwell is captured by Osceola.  Soon thereafter, Osceola is summoned to a peace talk by Major Degan.  Osceola comes under flag of truce and is immediately imprisoned.

The movie doesn't know what it wants to be.  Is it an action-adventure film?  Is it a story of a love triangle?  Is it a historical epic?  It tries to be all of the above and fails.  There are a few action scenes, the battle in the Seminole village being the big one.  Not much action really.  Revere Muldoon (Barbara Hale) plays the love interest for both Caldwell and Osceola but there's no tension here since she has already chosen Osceola when the story begins.  This feels tacked on and could have been dumped in favor of more development of Osceola.  Much is made of his being a half-breed which is true but is not further explained.  As far as history, this story gets all the specifics of Osceola's life wrong but still has the gist of it.

Osceola was the son of a Creek woman of mixed heritage and a Scottish trader.  Though he is named John in the movie, his given name was Billy Powell.  He was born among the Creek in Alabama but he relocated to the Florida after the Creek War (1813-14) when he was only 9 or 10.  Despite being a Creek with mostly Scottish ancestry, he became a chief among the Seminoles.  He killed an Indian agent named Thompson in 1835 around the same time as the Dade Massacre, which began the 2nd Seminole War.  In 1837, he was summoned to a peace conference under flag of truce.  General Jessup had him arrested and imprisoned.  He died three months later in Fort Moultrie, South Carolina.

Anachronistically, both Degan and Caldwell are armed with revolvers in 1835 though Samuel Colt didn't patent his revolver until 1836.  The soldiers marched with their bayonets fixed which makes it very difficult to reload a musket.  There were many escaped slaves among the Seminoles, called Black Seminoles; none are to be seen here.  Rather than the fictional Kajeck (which isn't a Seminole name as far as I can tell), how about John Horse, a famous Black Seminole of the time.  Or what of Coacoochee or Micanopy?  Did the screenwriter read any sources before naming these other Indians?  Why not have General Jessup instead of the fictional Degan?  Why are there monkey screams in the background?  Someone grabbed jungle sounds from the shelf and thought that was appropriate.  Ha!

Entertaining film but terrible history.  I did like seeing Lee Marvin and James Best (best know for his role of Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane in The Dukes of Hazzard) early in their careers.

Ballot Breakdown

Here's what I want to know.  This should be available but I haven't seen it.  What portion of each vote type did the candidates get?  Who won the early voters at polling stations?  Who won the absentee ballot vote and what is the ratio?  Who won election day voters?  Who won the mail-in vote?

There are, as far as I know, 4 types of vote:

1. Early in-person voting at a polling station.

2. Absentee ballot - one that the voter had to apply to receive.

3. Mail-in ballot - one that was mailed to registered voters unsolicited.

4. In-person election day voting at polling station.

What is the breakdown between Trump and Biden of these various types of vote?  Heck, what proportion of the vote do each of these types of vote represent?  Are mail-in ballots 10% of the votes or 50%?  My preference is for in-person voting, ideally on election day.  I have the least confidence in unsolicited mail-in ballots.  If mail-in ballots change the result, I have serious concerns.

China, Russia, and who knows who else have databases full of American voter rolls.  What would prevent them from setting up a print shop and just churning out mail-in ballots with their preferred candidate and sending them in?  Sure, lots of them will get rejected and many will be challenged when the actual voter shows up and claims to have not voted.  But a lot will be accepted.  Wisconsin had 89% voter turn out.  Really?  That seems high.  How many of those votes were mail-in ballots?  I want to know.