America's Rorshach Test

What do you see in the Los Angeles protests?

For the first time, I regretted not having a 24-hour cable news network, having eliminated our access in a reorganization of our streaming services. I missed Ali Velshi in particular. 

My son, Greg, who lives in Irvine near Los Angeles, was messaging me about the protests. I wanted to see what was going on. The only live feeds that I could find were on TikTok.

This was not a big help. Most feeds were static (one place or camera shot), and the commentary running through them was quite partisan. One-half commented about how terrible and dangerous it was, and welcomed the National Guard and the military. Kill 'em all!

The other half urged to keep the protests peaceful and dreaded the intrusion of the National Guard and the military. Be careful! They want to kill us all!

So, who was right? Those who wanted to arrest, hurt, or kill? Or those who were concerned that they would be arrested, hurt, or killed? What a dilemma!

It's hard to cut through. Nevertheless, it looks like the protests are overwhelmingly peaceful (with a few property damage exceptions), and, most importantly, THEY ARE WELL WARRANTED.

Ice agents, masked and dressed as civilians, are kidnapping people from their workplaces, their schools, even from just outside courtrooms. They are arresting young and old, pregnant women and children. If you are swept up, it doesn't matter whether you are a citizen or not. You will be disappeared and traumatized.

This is not an action of a democratic country. This is not representative of a constitutional republic. They are the actions of authoritarian fascism.

In two terms, Obama deported over 3 million people. In his first term, Trump deported 1.5 million people. In one term, Biden deported 4.4 million people. Not what Fox News was telling you, was it?

A comprehensive, bipartisan immigration plan was proposed in 2023. In my opinion, it bent way too far to please the Republicans, but nonetheless, it would have moved the ball forward in improving the system.  

It didn't happen. It didn't pass. Why? Because Trump came out against it. Not for any great purity reason, but because it threatened to go a long way in resolving the issue he wanted to make the centerpiece of his campaign. He didn't care what was in the best interest of the American people. He only cared about himself.

ICE HAS TO BE PROTESTED. What it's doing is wrong and inhumane. It makes us appear monstrous in the eyes of the world. And it is also highly ineffective. You can deport a lot of people, if that is your goal, without acting like the Gestapo.*

The goal here is to provoke and create unrest. If they can create enough chaos, then they can have an excuse for their true objective: declare martial law and take complete dictatorial control of the country. You can disregard Congress, the courts, and the Constitution. You can arrest whoever you want and hold them for as long as you want.  

These are some tough, scary times. Protesting, even the most peaceful kind, is a risk. But it may be the only way to show them we will not be cowed.

There are many NO KINGS protests scheduled for June 14th. There is likely one in your area. They are being held on the same day as Kim Don TACO's massive military parade.  

Attend one, if you can. It's time for the American people to roar, in numbers too big to ignore.

Until next time,

T. M. Strsit

AOC '28

*if you really want to reduce the undocumented population, a more effective way would be to go after the businesses and individuals who HIRE THEM.  Put a few business owners in jail, and this will reverse this much more quickly than random busts at Home Depot.

Suddenly Seventy

 

What? How did this happen?

I'm not sure, but oops, there it is! Nothing I could do about it.

We spent the last week in California, meeting my oldest son, Greg, my middle son, Doug, his wife, Paige, and my one and only grandchild, granddaughter Retta, who is all of three years old! I'm not posting many pictures of this glorious event, as Doug and Paige do not want Retta's image to be shared on social media. Given the awful nature of our times, I agree with their decision. I might post other pictures from the trip at some point.

I am including a picture of me on my 70th birthday. I'm wearing a cap I got from our visit to Disneyland. It states Disneyland, authentic, original, established 1955. Just like me!

Yes, I'm as old as Disneyland. I'm not in as good a shape, but I haven't had as much money spent on my maintenance as Disneyland has!

Really, the only things that make me aware of my age are mirrors and arthritis. Most of the time, I'm still a young kid reading comic books, enjoying movies, eating pizza, and spending time with those I love.

California was a risk, in that I was afraid of a flare-up of arthritis pain, making it difficult for me to do things and keep up. I asked, "Please! Just let my arthritis stay away while I'm in California!"

Sure enough, it did! Now that I'm back, it's starting to flare up again. I asked, "What's up? Why am I getting it now?" The answer? " I gave you California! You didn't ask for anything after that!"

Oh, well.  

No, I don't have everything I dreamed of as a kid. I'm not famous, not as a writer, not as an actor, not as a politician (that last one may be a blessing, but really, whatever my flaws, I couldn't be anywhere as bad as the Orange Despot).

But, in reality, I do have everything that I want. A beautiful, loving partner, three successful and kind sons, an amazingly gifted granddaughter, a supportive church, a wonderful library, and so much more. I may not be a professional actor, but I've been in over a hundred plays, a body of work that encompasses a tremendous variety of roles. I may not be a professional writer, but I have self-published books and maintain this blog, which has garnered over half a million views.  

I've had ups and downs, calamity and heartbreak, success and failure, but through it all, I've always had what's most important, in family and friends. And at 70, that is what you cherish most.

I'll keep this positive, and not deal in this post with what an absolute nightmare the politics in this country have become. I just pray that it eventually straightens and I get to see it.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

May 25 Update: Life Keeps Marching

You don't know when you're 29 what your focus will be when you're 69.

Am I President of the United States? No, unlike the plan I outlined in junior high, I did not achieve the Presidency by the year 2000. Looking at the current occupant, that is not necessarily a bad thing. I could never sell myself out to make that kind of appeal. I could not comprehend when I was young where I would wind up living, and what consequences that might have for my electoral viability. Not to mention my flaws as an introvert. I can give purty speeches and write well, but I could never glad-hand the way that they can.  

Not only can't I be President, but I'm not viable for anything, and that's somewhat depressing. But I'll keep trying.  

Did I get my own sitcom? No. I'm a good actor, but I've never aggressively pursued it for more than just a hobby. Would I have succeeded? Probably not. It's a hard field to make a living. The truth is that I don't have the temperament to sell myself like I would need to. There are opportunities I should have taken a chance with - many movies and TV shows are now made in Georgia, but I have not.

Do I have a bestseller? No. I've taken a few baby steps in writing but have never really broken through. I feel like there are two primary reasons. One is that I write well, some things better than others, but I don't write well enough to catch the attention of those who could help me. The second is that I'm the world's worst self-promoter. I have done a piss poor job at promoting my writings, either as a self-piublished writer, or someone looking for an agent or a publisher.

Do I have my health? Yes. There are question marks, and I need to care for myself better, but I am more than holding my own for someone on the verge of 70. I need to watch my blood pressure and sugar consumption, and I am far too tubby. My biggest concern is the periodic arthritis that makes getting consistent exercise a problem. It also affects how long I can sit at the desktop writing, as sitting in the desk chair too long can accelerate my arthritis attacks.

Do I have a loving and supportive family? In this one, I have hit a home run. I have a beautiful, supportive partner, going on over 28 years. My three sons make me very proud, and I am finally a grandfather. I only have one grandchild, but what I miss in quantity is more than made up for in quality.

My father dedicated his life to the promotion and success of public education. He was a brilliant teacher and later a high school principal. I was not able to continue in his footsteps. I spent most of my career in the private sector. Technically, I was helpful to people with their finances and businesses, but for the most part, there was very little soul satisfaction in what I did.

I have become a huge proponent of public libraries. I have come to appreciate them more and more, and I will continue to do whatever I can to assist them.

My focus, at 69, is on my family. I do whatever I can to help around the house. I'm supportive of all the activities of my various family members. Our vacations revolve around seeing family, including a big one coming up in California, where we will help my granddaughter enjoy her time with Mickey and Minnie and visit with my middle son and older son.

I write, even though my big dreams have evaporated. Whoever enjoys it, thanks for reading. I may never have a big breakthrough, but it is still fun to do, and I will continue to share.

I act, even though I will never have an IMDb page. I don't need it as much as I used to, but it is still great to get up onstage occasionally and feel the electricity between me and the audience. Hopefully, I can continue to do it without my arthritis from flaring up at the wrong time.

I got one of them fancy watches, and I am trying to keep track of my steps. Exercise is challenging sometimes, but I will do what I can. Monitoring my eating is very hard, because I love food so damn much, but we're getting more fruits and vegetables in the diet, and we don't eat out much.

I still read comic books, more online now. I read as much as I can, with many books being donated to the library after I've read them. I love storytelling in all forms, and that includes scripted television.

So, even though my teen and twentysomething dreams have fallen by the wayside, I think I'm doing pretty damn good, and my focus is on the right things.

At least for me!

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

Wall Street is Not Your Moral Compass

 Wall Street is not your moral compass.

You cannot judge how well the moral soul of the nation is doing based on how the stock market reacts.

I despise Trump and MAGA with every fiber of my being.

I don't think that when the stock market is doing well, that means Trump is doing the right and decent thing. I don't think that when the stock market is down, that is a clear sign that everything Trump is doing is wrong.

Blanket tariffs are a bad thing. They will hurt us all. We will have to pay more for almost everything. Inflation will rise again. We will experience shortages again. Domestic production is not likely to return to the United States. If any of it does, it will likely cost more unless the USA returns to super-low wages, and the cost of construction is passed on to taxpayers. If it creates jobs, many of them will be positions that Americans would rather not have.  It will mostly create opportunities for robots and AI. The manufacturing sector has changed, and it is not always stocked full of the high-wage jobs you think it is.

But the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) doesn't care about any of that. They only react to stockholder value. Will whatever the government does increase or decrease that shareholder value?

When Trump announces blanket tariffs (without regard for reality or economic impact), the stock market plunges. When Trump says, "Psych! Just kidding about some of those!", the stock market may rise.

Meanwhile, those with advanced knowledge of Trump's moods can "play the market" by buying low and selling high.

Because the other aspect of the market is that much of it is legalized gambling. Short sales, buybacks, all sorts of weird stuff that are beyond the scope of my everyday knowledge, happen all the time. The 2008 crash had a lot to do with gambling games that stockbrokers and bankers were playing with, involving mortgages.

So, my feelings about Trump and MAGA are not based on these short-term fluctuations in the markets. It is not my moral compass that should be used to judge whether what the fascists are doing is good or bad.

Virtually all of what Trump is doing is bad, and it may not be reflected in the markets.

The market does not just react to tariff news. The stock market may rise when unemployment increases, because increased labor competition could lead to lower wage increases. It might celebrate legislation that makes it harder to unionize. It might reward Amazon for understaffing and abusing labor, and punish Costco for paying its workers too much. It might be disturbed if polluting companies have to pay to clean up the damage they do.  

It doesn't care. Shareholder value, and the fact that it will rise forever, is capitalism without ends or limits.

The flip side of this is that I know that if Progressive values ever take hold, as promoted by people like Bernie Sanders and AOC, may cause a flip-out of the market. They would throw a hissy fit if they thought things like universal healthcare and free college were coming. Much of what our capitalism thrives on is the exploitation of the working class, not just in wages but also in keeping them in debt. They love things like student loans, payday loans, buying furniture on rent-to-own terms, high home and car prices, and medical debt - these are all money-making opportunities for the capitalist class.

So, when the stock market throws a hissy fit over Progressive changes, I am not going to dwell on it. I am not going to let that convince me that we cannot change. That our moral compass cannot be fixed, and that we forever have to give in to the wealthy and oligarchic power.

Wall Street is not my moral compass.  

Tom Strait

AOC '28

One More Lick: Mysterious Photograph #3

 

Once upon a time, I knew everything there was to know. But now, that time is gone. At my age, I’ve forgotten more than I remember.

I look down at my beautiful stamp collection. One stamp for every country. Switzerland, where I pushed a man off the Matterhorn. Gambia, where I injected a man with strychnine. France with poisoned wine. Strangulation in the USA. 

Every country in the world. But somehow, I had missed Uruguay. I couldn’t stand being incomplete. I had to correct my lapse. Even at 86.

I booked a cruise to Montevideo. As the cruise was leaving port, I knew I had to act fast. Failing to kill in the city itself, I acted before we entered international waters. I pushed an old woman over the railings, but my mind was not what it was. I left a witness, and the police slowly traced it back to me.

Now I sit at my desk, holding the precious Uruguayan stamp in my tweezers, ready to place it in my collection. I hear loud knocking. I move the stamp towards my tongue. I hear the door breaking down.

I need time.

Time for just one more lick.

Like most of my entries, this one neither won nor received an honorable mention.  Nevertheless, I persevere!

When Did the Madness Start? Our Most Recent Going Off-Track?

 

In the blog post immediately preceding this one, I explored some of the off-road paths we took that led to the madness we are now in. 

I articulated - probably not very well - the two major threads of American History.  Let me try again.

Thread 1 - this thread upholds the ideals of constitutional democracy.  Although it is not a perfect place, it represents the idea that more equality and opportunity will become available over time.  It's found in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that followed.  Except for Prohibition (which was reversed in relatively short order), most of the amendments expanded the concept of democracy, rather than limiting it.  Freeing the slaves, direct vote for Senators, and Civil rights, including women's right to vote, have all been a part of this thread.

Thread 2 - a more authoritarian view of the country, eschewing the benefits of immigration, preferring the dominant culture, and disputing the separation of church and state.  All for so-called economic freedom, which is really just allowing the wealthy and powerful to run roughshod over us. Personal freedom is limited to gun ownership, and the right for their version of religion and morality to control us.

These threads often run concurrently in American History.  However, there have been times when one is more in control than the other.

The circumstances that led us to this point have roots that date back to the country's founding.  However, there has been one event that has most recently and clearly allowed the more virulent and anti-democratic thread to dominate over all the others.

And that was the shoving aside of Bernie Sanders, mostly in 2016, but also in 2020.

It's not that Bernie Sanders is the most golden child of all time.  It's not that Hillary Clinton would not have made an excellent President.  It's more about what it represented in terms of time and opportunity lost by the Democratic Party.

Barack Obama was an excellent President.  He did, however, oversell the "change" aspect of his Presidency. People were quite excited in 2008, ready to move past the disaster that Bush and the mainstream Republicans had led us into.

Even though things seemed relatively stable, the dominant mood in 2016 was a rejection of mainstream politics, as practiced by both the Democratic and Republican parties. Whether the country was advancing or not, they did not see themselves as part of that advancement.

The Republican Party was captured by an outsider, one who promised to blow up politics as usual and make things better for the average American.  Of course, it was a huge lie promoted by a narcissistic conman - but it was clearly different from the controlling political elites.

There was an outsider running in the Democratic Party.  One whose policies were solidly in favor of working families.  It was very exciting and promised a return to true progressive policies, not the Third Way incrementalism that had dominated the party since Bill Clinton.

Well, the powers that be were not going to let that stand.  They put their thumb on the scale and tilted things to ensure Hillary Clinton was the nominee.  Would he have won without this tilting?  Maybe. We'll never know for sure.

The bottom line is that, whether they intended to or not, the Republicans decided on something completely different, and the Democrats decided they would stay the course and promote a highly qualified candidate who was also the very epitome of the establishment that many had grown tired of.

Even with all that, it took considerable Russian interference and the weird vagaries of the electoral college to allow Trump to take the Oval Office.

Once he did, he proved to be quite incompetent.  His only legislation, the Tax Act of 2017, greatly favored the wealthy and powerful.  His behavior during the COVID-19 crisis led to hundreds of thousands of excess deaths that more competent leadership could have avoided. His stupid tariff actions almost broke the American farmer.

In the 2020 primaries, Bernie Sanders was once again emerging as a front-runner, and the Democratic Party was a-twitter-pated.  Biden was dead in the water coming out of Iowa and New Hampshire, but he won in South Carolina.  With Biden revitalized and other primary candidates floundering (except for Bernie), one by one, the other candidates dropped out and endorsed Biden.  It was a stampede to protect the mainstream candidate.

Biden won the 2020 election DECISIVELY (despite whatever lies you've heard), and if you ask me, he was a brilliant leader.  He got us out of the Pandemic and subsequent inflation quicker than anywhere else on Earth.  His economic numbers were the most sterling any President has ever had.  His organization of the international effort to support Ukraine was remarkable. He was as progressive as he could be given the small margins in the House and Senate. And the fact that he was dealing with an ultra-conservative Supreme Court.

But large swaths of the American people did not see that. Their carefully culled media kept them fired up and ready to dismiss Biden - no matter what he achieved.

A bad debate performance and a weak-willed Democratic Party led to him dropping out in 2024.  But his Vice President was highly qualified and made for an exciting campaign.  She picked one of my favorite people, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, to be her running mate, and although this was not quite the progressive turnaround I was hoping for, it went a long way.

Unfortunately, some of the establishment consultants got hold of their campaign, muted her and Tim Walz, so they did not appear to be the progressive powerhouses they could be.  For these and other reasons that may take years of analysis and investigative journalism, they narrowly lost the popular vote to someone who should have been in prison rather than running to be a dictator.

Now that we are clearly losing our democracy, now that the authoritarian thread is unraveling anything the democratic thread tried to do, we are once again seeing that the most popular face of the opposition is...Bernie Sanders.  He has the highest positives of any politician in the country.  His rallies with AOC are setting attendance records, even in traditionally Republican areas.

It's crystal clear.  If the Democrats are ever going to regain their footing, it will have to be with a Bernie Sanders-style approach.  However, well-known establishment Democrats are still fighting back.  Dinosaurs* like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are resisting change and the newer generation as hard as they can.  

A vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), David Hogg (survivor of the Parkland shooting), has suggested running younger, more progressive candidates in primaries against older, more establishment incumbents in safe Democratic districts, to facilitate the change necessary for the Democratic Party to survive. For this effort, establishment Democrats are trying to paint David as a cartoon villain.

It's a tough call to say that the DNC should do this directly.  But...  IT HAS TO BE DONE.

It may take time.  It may not change overnight.  But it does have to change.  Or we really have to sacrifice America's democratic thread.

And I, for one, am not ready to do that.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

*Yes, Bernie Sanders is old.  But his policies and outlook are forward-thinking.

When Did the Madness Start?

Sometimes it takes a while for a retort.

Maybe as much as two decades ago, in response to global warming, a conservative church parishoner made a joke to other conservative parishoners, deingrating Al Gore by making fun of the so-called claim that "he invented the internet."

Of course, Al Gore made no such assertion, but I couldn't figure out how to challenge it without making a big brouhaha.

So, I let it go. But I never forgot.

A couple of weeks ago, it came up again in a brief conversation about something else involving the perpetrator of the joke. This time, I was comfortable reminding them that Al Gore's claim was not about the invention of the internet but about paving the way legislatively that helped the internet become what it is today.

Victory was sweet, but mostly went over the head of the person who said it two decades ago.

This came out along with some points about the damage Trump is causing. But it mostly swept over the head of whom the message was aimed at, and went careening against a distant wall.

That person was cognizant enough to know that something had gone off track - that our politics had devolved dramatically.

Then he stated when he thought that "off-trackedness" had started.

The answer? 9/11!

I'm like wtf? 9/11?

The assertion was that 9/11 is when "extremism" came out and divided us.

Huh?

What I remember from that period was the Patriot Act, and the potential to be thrown into the Gulag without any constitutional protections, if it connected to "terrorism". What I remember is not being able to say WORD ONE to object to the Iraq War. I remember celebrities, like the Chicks, being vilified and expelled from the airwaves.

So, if that was not when our politics turned nasty, when was it?

It is a nesting egg of brutal decisions, tracing back to the original European settlers of this land.

What led us to this moment where our government is in the hands of an orange conman and his bigoted allies? How did we come to this?

Could it be Newt Gingrich when he led Republicans to treat the Democrats not just as colleagues to negotiate with, but as enemies to vilify and demonize?

Or when Reagan spoke his silly nine-word phrase that has ever since made it difficult to get the government to work together to solve anything - "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help!" Ever since that phrase was uttered, people have gleefully voted against their own interests, and even Democrats are scared to employ government as part of any solution.

Or it could be when President Hayes ended Reconstruction in 1877, and the South quickly reasserted itself, reversing whatever civil rights progress had been made, and returning blacks to a state that was slavery by another name. At that point, without firing a single shot (at least shots aimed at white people), the South in essence won the Civil War. And that status, with some wavering here and there, has essentially held up all the way to today.

Maybe it began at the time of the formation of the Constitution, whose compromises handed an inordinate amount of power to the slave states.

There have always been two threads in American History. One is of bigotry and exclusion, wanting power to remain with a few, and for those of the right skin tone and ancestry to dominate. The other interprets American History as a journey towards more inclusion and participation, a greater move to democracy, open to all who live here.

There has always been a tension between these two. Even in expansive times, there are setbacks. The same President, FDR, who improved the social safety net, increased unionization, and fought the fascists, also interned Japanese-Americans just based on their ethnicity. LBJ brought long-overdue progress in civil rights, but also led the senseless war in Vietnam. On the other side, Bush Jr. brought us the misdirected Iraq War, but also stood up to people who wanted to vilify Muslims. And Trump has...

nah, can't play that game. Trump is not mixed. He's entirely on the wrong side of the agenda, more than any other figure in our history. This is the nightmare we are now facing, and my Gore-dissing friend needs to understand that. Yes, we're divided. We always have been.  

But the authoritarian fascists, the oligarchs, have complete control now.

This is not one set of extremists vs. another set. This is democracy vs. fascism.

I do not know all that we need to do about it. But it starts with recognition of the situation we're in.

There is another, more recent reason we're in the mess we're in, and yes, Democrats are primarily to blame. But I'll save that for another blog story.

Today, let's learn to stand together against that wayward thread of American History.

Let's stand with our better angels instead.

E Pluribus Unum.  Out of many, one.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28.

Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies of the 20th Century!!! Part 4 No. 79 - 73

  I received this issue of Remind, or what Alison calls "my old people magazine," which ranks the top 100 Science Fiction movies of the 20th century.

Remind does have many pop culture stories, focusing primarily on the 1950s through the 1990s, although there are some references to earlier decades. Each issue focuses on different topics, such as country music, westerns, where are they now issues, and much more. I enjoy it, as I love pop history. They also have puzzles and a monthly guide to what's on TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

I thought it would be fun to review the movies on the list in reverse order and share my thoughts. The magazine's ranking of the movies is not mine.  

I won't go into detailed reviews, but I will share the IMDb ranking and my own on a 1 to 10 scale.

79)

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Year: 1954  IMDb: 6.9 Tom: 6  Had I seen before?   No  Service found on: Flixhouse

Bits of  this seemed familiar, but I don't recall seeing it in it's entirety. This is not so much one of those movies about how humankind has caused mutations with their destructive acitivity, but more about our encroachment into areas where we're not supposed to be treading too hard. The creature is a predator, true, but it's mostly defending its territory, and all its moves are met with hostility. The overall feel is kinda retro, but I think it's underwater photography was actually ahead for its time.

78)

 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Year: 1931  IMDb: 7.6 Tom: 7  Had I seen before? No Service found on: Classic Movies & TV

This is a great rendering of this classic tale, really quite sharp and dramitic.  Fredric March is incredible, winning his first Best Picture Oscar for his performance. It does back away from some of the seedier aspects of Hyde's personality. The ending does not quite lead up to the impact you would expect, but I find that true in a lot of movies. The monster is actually more vulnerable than you would expect.

77)

 

The Time Machine

Year: 1960  IMDb: 7.5 Tom: 8 Had I seen before? Yes  Service found on: Classic Movies & TV

My favorite author when I was young was H. G. Wells, so much so that in 7th grade I was determined that my writing career would use the pen name T. M. Strait.  Some of my love for his works came from his books and stories, but it also came from the movies. And one of the best was this 1960 adaption of The Time Machine.  Done with special effects flair by Director George Pal, and with the gifted Rod Taylor in the lead role, it was one of the first time travel movies I saw that really felt like a journey to the future.  Moving from 1899 with stops during the 20th Century, and then sweeping some 800,000 years into the future, reflecting an exaggeration of the social trends we see presently. 

76)

 

Night of the Comet

Year: 1984  IMDb: 6.3 Tom: 7 Had I seen before? Unsure  Service found on: MGM+

Maybe I've seen this before.  All I can say for sure is that this time it stood out to me more than I was expecting.  Valley girls surviving a horrible apocalypse brought on by a closely passing comet?  Sounds weird, but it was more quirky than stupid.  

75)

 The Truman Show

Year: 1998  IMDb: 8.0 Tom: 8 Had I seen before? Yes  Service found on: Library Rental

Some movies don't age well.  This isn't one of them. It's theme, of our lives being more and more turned into a reality show, is more relevant than ever. And the special effects used still hold up.  Jim Carrey gives one of his strongest performances. I think more and more of us are questioning whether what's happening around us is real, or whether we are stuck in the Matrix.

74)

 

   Gattaca

Year: 1997  IMDb: 7.7 Tom: 7 Had I seen before? Yes  Service found on: Library Rental

I liked this pretty well, but I wanted to like it more. It reflects a near futire where most people are genetically engineered at the time of conception. Those who aren't are considered inferior.  Discrimantion against them isn't official but it exists nonetheless.  This centers around a character who is not genetically engineered (refereed to as in-valids) and tries to pass by disguising himself as someone is engineered but disabled by an accident.   My hesitation on the movie is that the character really wanted to go to Titan, and I REALLY wanted to see that happen, but the movie ended before it transpired. Another important by-product of this movie is Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) - it's where Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman met and began their relationship.

73)

 

Barbarella

Year: 1968  IMDb: 5.9 Tom: 6 Had I seen before? No  Service found on: Prime Rental

Yowza! Is this movie weird! The plot kept making me feel like I needed a drug check.  Hard to follow, but it was fun.  Not quite the X-rated romp some are led to believe, it's actually rated PG.  It seems maybe a little bit much for that rating, but it's not a raunchfest either.  Jane Fonda is beautiful and enthusiastic in the part, if not a shining beacon of acting ability (which she would prove to be in later films).  The chief antagonist is named Durand-Durand, and yes, that is the inspiration for the band named Duran-Duran!  Girls on film!

As an added feature, I would like to keep a running list of those movies I have rated 8 or higher.

90) Akira 8

89) Cocoon 9

88) They Live 9

84) Face Off 8

77) The Time Machine 8

75) The Truman Show 8

Next up? We go on a Quest of the Galaxy, a couple of time romps, and a movie featuring the greatest superhero of all time.

Until next time!

T. M. Strait (thanx, H. G. Wells!)

AOC '28

Pax America!

 April  1st, 2027

God Bless these United States of America!

God Bless Greenland, our 51st State! August 31, 2025!

God Bless Canada, our 52nd State! April 1, 2026!

God Bless the four Senators, 39 Canadian Congresspersons, and one Greenland Congressperson elected in the 2026 election.

God Bless the 2026 election, making it possible to add the following -

God Bless Puerto Rico, our 53rd State! April 1, 2027.

God Bless the District of Columbia, our 54th State, also on April 1, 2027.

Additionally, every territory and possession the US has in the Caribbean was incorporated into the State of Puerto Rico!

And every US territory and possession in the Pacific was incorporated into the State of Hawaii!

Territories and occupations are now rightfully considered backwards and barbaric, a throwback to a more exploitative time.

And now, with all these progressive voters, we will never have to suffer another fascist like Trump again!

HUZZAH!

* too bad, so sad. Even if the authoritarian dictatorship takes over Greenland/Canada/the Panama Canal/Gaza, he will never let them vote. None of us may ever get to vote again. Remember, Trump knows and has said that Musk is really good at getting into computers and voting systems. Good luck, America. You have surrendered your freedom to a monster.

Sinking Into the Sunset

 The blog slowly goes the way of the dinosaur.

It's not a popular way of correspondence anymore. At least for getting social media attention.

I see my view numbers plummeting. I might get a few more by linking to different social media sites.  
But it's not significant.

Does having a picture help? Marginally, but often not worth the time to find and add it to the post.

How about a family connection? Oh, it might boost it a bit.

The only things that seem to matter are accidentally using a commonly Googled phrase and having the post shared on more frequently visited sites. The blog story Authentic Frontier Gibberesh has received 114,000 views, over 100,000 more than its closest rival.

I'm beginning to understand that I might get a larger response if I posted directly on Facebook and other sites. Even if long, they might get more responses.

It's also a factor that many who are pro-conman either have been algorithmed out, or just scroll past. The people who often need to see them the most...don't. And in our divided media world, nothing I say or do would move them even if they accidentally saw it.

Look at the most recent scandal, Signalgate. The dictator-supporters are STILL, to this day, answering with...BUT HER EMAILS! Anything to not have to deal with the truth of what they have wrought.

It's hard to be optimistic. I'm not sure how we get out of this. Part of me (perhaps the largest part) feels like it's too late. So what if they wake up now? Elections are over in this country. They will either not exist, or be shams like they are in other dictatorial countries, like Hungary and Russia.

And yet...

...as we sink into the sunset, I an not ready to completely surrender. I see Independent Progressives on the horizon, like AOC and Jasmine Crockett, led by our modern day John the Baptist, Bernie Sanders, and I can only hope that when the sun finally rises again, they will be there to lead us to the promised land, a world of hope and freedom, a world where children do not starve, where minorites are not presecuted, where healthcare is a right and a living wage is sacred, where empathy and kindness dominate over intolrance and hate.

To the one or two dozen that actually read this, thank you. And I will try to do better by you with stronger themes and more cogent arguments.

The sun continues to set on democracy, but I will not go quietly into the night. I will continue to speak out through these dark and dangerous times. My voice may be diminished, my communication methods may not be hep and modern enough. But I will not stop.

Even if all I can do is scratch out a warning on a Guantanamo cell, I will do that rather than surrender.

I am not optimistic, but I am not silenced.

The sun sets.

But it also rises.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28.

Hello, USA! Welcome to (drumroll) ... the Axis of Evil!

 At least since World War II, the Axis of Evil has been used to identify a particular type of opposition. They represented the challenge of world powers, primarily democracies (of one stripe or another), standing up to authoritarian fascists who intended to subsume the world under their dictatorships. And, yes, it included a questionable alignment with an authoritarian communist power, Stalin. That alignment would not last long after the conclusion of the war.

Bushy Jr. revived the term during his administration to represent a new axis of evil centered around three countries that were promoting terrorism around the world - Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. All three represented brutal dictatorships of one kind or another - the theocratic madness of Iran, the despotic corruption of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the autocratic perversion of communism in North Korea. But all three represented authoritarian governments; whether they described themselves that way, they all had elements of fascism.

In more recent times many have talked about the Axis of Evil being China, Russia, and North Korea. Whatever the players composing it, it all runs to one thing - countries controlled by brutal dictators.

America has certainly not been perfect throughout its history. Often, it has joined in conflicts not just to defend democracy, but to acquire new territory, and sometimes to protect the interests of American corporate power. It's a complex history that would require many posts and much research.

Another significant thread of American military and diplomatic history has been the defense of democracy and the rights of the oppressed. In major conflicts, we have always sided against fascist and authoritarian dictators.

Until now.

We have clearly switched teams. We no longer speak out for the world's democracies. We no longer even pretend to stand up for people who are subject to tyranny.

We are withdrawing our support of Ukraine. We are even pretending that Russia did not invade Ukraine and is not at fault in the conflict. We want Ukraine to end the contest by surrendering everything to Putin. We opposed a resolution at the UN condemning Russia for its actions in Ukraine, alongside Russia and North Korea.

Trump speaks out about his love of dictators almost every day. He also condemns and ridicules democracies every day. He talks about subsuming and controlling his neighbors. These include the Panama Canal, Greenland, and Canada. He wants to turn Gaza into a playland for billionaires. His treatment of Mexico is barbaric.

He does this not to forward democracy but to take over the resources of those countries and to use them to benefit himself and his billionaire buddies. It is a return to 19th-century colonialism, stripped of pretense of any moral basis.

At any given time, it's a real grab bag to see which dystopian novel whose path we are following most closely. The Handmaid's Tale was even money, but now 1984 is pulling into sight. In 1984, the world was divided among three dictatorial superpowers, constantly rewriting their history to keep their citizens in line, centering them on lotteries and entertainments, false cultural issues, and spying on each other.

Trump has decided that the Americas are HIS, to use and abuse however he wants. The tradeoff is to let the other big players have their own spheres of dominance - Russia dominating an increasing portion of Europe, and China taking back Taiwan and dominating Asia.

Questioning some of the US military/diplomatic decisions is one thing. It's another to see the US clearly and consistently aligning with evil, which authoritarian brutality is.

It breaks my heart.

We are no longer the good guys.

We are a primary player in the Axis of Evil.

Morgan in the Delayed Dawn

It is time for Morgan

For a walk through the Ley

It should be Dawn again

But it has been thrown into delay

What has transpired

Who has maligned

Where is the sky afired

How is the Dawn unfind

Who messed with time

The dark is pitch

No one can see her dress with lime

Morgan is ready to glitch

Time of daylight savings

It's a curse

The road's now invisible pavings

Whatever could be worse

The thing that's most foul

With the extension of dark

The monster's still on the prowl

And to Morgan it will hark

Because it wants her beating heart

In the palm of it's claw

To twist it apart

And chomp it in its maw

So Morgan will wait an hour

We're Flying!

 

Come fly to the world of pure imagination!

I did not intend to be in this show. But here I am. I got a text in mid-Febrauary asking if I could fill in as Grandpa Joe. I wasn't sure, but they sold me when they said I didn't have to dance.

Joining the cast? One of the best decisions of my theater career!

I highly encourage you to come out and see this big, fantastic, enjoyable show!

It may be the biggest cast I've performed in, with close to fifty performers! Community theater fills many vital functions, but one of its best is large productions where many people can experience what theater is like, and whole families can get involved! Like the amazing Mr. Salt and his Oompa Loopa daughter, Ross Bedford and Alary Bedford! Or the accomplished Mrs. Bucket, her son playing Charlie, and another son playing an Oompa Loompa, Angi Helms, and her two boys, Noah and Micah!

I'd love to brag on every member of this cast and crew - it really takes a village to make a production as outstanding as this one.

I do have to mention Taylor Hereford as the perfectly quintessential Willy Wonka. His performance is Broadway quality and is the second time he's played the character at WACT. 

And it's been hard for me to stay in character with Liv McConney and Gabrielle Walker playing Augusta Gloop and Mrs. Gloop. They are brilliantly funny!

Charlie, played by Noah Helms, proves that the W.C. Fields quote - "Never work with children or animals," is absolutely wrong*. Noah has been a joy to work with and a true star performer (in his first performance with lines!). I also want to thank those who have helped me onstage so much, including Cole Hendley and Angi Helms, Mr. & Mrs. Bucket, and the Choral Director, Kathy Cox, for helping keep this "man without rhythm" on track!

The director, Jenny Varnadore, has been very supportive and kind to me and everyone else. It's hard to keep a ship this big on course, but she has done so in first-rate fashion.

Please come out! This is not just to support one of the longest-running theater groups in Georgia but also because this is a darn fine show, and you will have a blast watching it!

The wonderful world of Willy Wonka awaits you!

*well, I'm still not sure about the animal part!

Speaking Out

 I know. I'm shallow.

I'm not speaking up much right now. Maybe a few memes here and there.  

I haven't given up. I need to prioritize the musical I'm in right now.

I'm not afraid to speak out. I need to keep my head as clear as possible when I'm performing. Otherwise, I'll go onstage too fired up about a political discussion and fail to concentrate on my part.

The good news is that I'm not the only one speaking out.

Thre are people I know, who've been on the right side, but have in the past not spoken up much, who are now speaking out. My Facebook feeds are full of people who are tired of keeping quiet.

Unfortunately, I don't know of many converts—people who were with the orange conman, at least for voting purposes, but who are now willing to speak out against him.

At any rate, this is just a personal note to tell my most dedicated blog readers I haven't surrendered. Come March 17th, I will be speaking out again.

Hopefully, we'll still have a country left!

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

For Love of Boss-A-Man

 On February 21st, we had to make one of the hardest decisions of our lives. Boss-A-Man had severely declined, suffering from kidney failure. Quality of life was gone, and there was no hope for improvement.  

Over the last few months, Boss-A-Man had become more and more selective over what he would eat. We switched to Farmer's Dog, which at first he loved. Then he dropped one meat after another until he was only eating pork. Then, even that became a struggle.

We were concerned that his heart murmur was coming back, so we took him for that and started a treatment to help like it had done before. But his lack of appetite increased. We came back to the vet to see what was going on, and that is when we received the blood test that showed his advanced kidney failure.

We rescued Boss-A-Man in August 2017. This sounds made up, but he lived in a van down by the river with two elderly ladies and maybe as many a dozen other dogs. We adopted him about the same time I was cutting back to part-time at my CPA job, so I called him my retirement dog. I was very, very close to him and loved him very much.

He had a lot of physical problems when we got him, including heartworms, but we nursed him back to health. The vet thought he was 10 when we adopted him. I don't know if that's true, but that would have made him about 17.

He was a playful, spirited, friendly dog. He liked to bounce and bound and followed his companion, Pixie, everywhere. He loved people and was the ultimate lap dog. He had a myriad of nicknames - Sir Barks-A-Lot, Bossy, Turd Burglar, and many more.

I wish this was fancier. I wish this was a better tribute. But even after a week, I'm still in shock.

I love Boss-A-Man, and I wish he was still with us.

Sorry, MAGA! Everything You Thought Was Wrong

 

You thought you were electing Donald Trump President of the United States.

Surprise!

Instead, you got a foreign-born billionaire, one whose very citizenship is questionable, controlling what gets funded and what doesn't, using a small squad of barely adult hackers to break into secure systems and pillage all our data. And you were worried about unelected bureaucrats? HA!

Nothing he is doing is to combat fraud and abuse. Like  Trump, all Musk is doing is petty grievances. FAA had fined Space X for safety violations! FIRE HIM! Fire all those in aviation safety!  Offer buyouts to stressed, overworked air traffic controllers. If planes collide and go down, who cares.

USAID dared to investigate some of his StarLink sales to Russia?  Destroy their agency!  If people in other countries starve because of it, or farmers lose some $2 billion in sales, so what?  LET THEM STARVE!

You thought Trump was going to root out corruption.

In addition to the actions of President Musk, Trump has eliminated all the inspector generals who monitor such things, leaving us more open to government corruption.  He's fired other government-efficiency people. He is determined to weed out people from the Federal government not to save money but to replace them with people loyal to him over the Constitution.

Private corruption will soar now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, our only protection against bank and corporate overcharges, has been dismantled and kneecapped. Executive orders have eliminated many climate change regulations and others designed to protect us from corporate greed.  

Think that's a good thing?  You may be less enthused when you get tainted meat, when you find your workplace unsafe (they want to eliminate OSHA), when you find there is an outbreak you can't get information about because the CDC and NIH have been censored and we have left the WHO, when you no longer get weather notification because the National Weather Service and NOAA have been destroyed.

You thought he would mass deport all those undocumented aliens you rail against.

So far, even with all the noise and thunder, the rate of actual deportations is not much different from what it was under Biden.

But have no fear!  He still may pull ahead.  Of course, the economic consequences of this will be catastrophic.  But do not despair!  Those jobs may be replaced by PRISON LABOR.  Some may come from the undocumented held in concentration camps.

Isn't that a pretty picture for the United States?

You thought he was going to lower prices, specifically mentioning eggs and gas.

Psych!

Fooled you, didn't he?

You can't entirely blame the President.  Economic events are not always under their control.   I mean,  you sure cut Biden some slack for the Pandemic-caused global inflation that he got under control quicker than virtually every other country on Earth, didn't you?  No, things weren't perfect. However, the fact remains that Biden generated the best economy in decades.

Trump promised he would lower prices from day one.  When he was elected, he immediately switched course and said that would be hard for him to do.

Of course, he may still impose more tariffs, but only those who have never studied economic history would believe that this is a good thing.

You thought he was going to get rid of DEI and we would return to a merit-based system.

Yeah, he's succeeded in dismantling DEI (including a lot of cooperation from a pathetically weak business community), but he is galloping as far away from merit-based as you can get.  Think Not?  Look at the qualifications of his cabinet nominees compared to those in the past. 

This cartoon sums up best what DEI is really all about -

DEI means Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Anti-DEI means Discrimination, Exclusion, and Intolerance.

I know what side I'm on.  How about you?

You thought he would end our endless wars and bring our troops home. No more foreign adventures for us!

This may be the thing you were most wrong about.

One of the ways we knew Hitler was such a danger was when he wanted to invade and annex his neighbors. Whether it was an excuse or not, he tried to bring any nation with any German population back into the fold of the Germanic Empire.  Putin wants to do something similar to restore the Soviet Union.

What Trump wants to do is worse. He makes no pretense of wanting to reunite with countries that have roots in us. He doesn't want to improve the lives of those places' citizens, and he doesn't even really care about the benefits to the American people.

He wants to exploit and consume their resources, and he wants himself and his billionaire buddies to profit big time.

He wants the Panama Canal back so he can control the shipping lane and profit from the traffic that passes through it.

He wants Greenland and Canada because he knows GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL, and underneath the ice, tons of natural resources, fuels, and rare earth minerals await.

He wants Gaza because he wants to turn it into a real estate development, Trump Hotels, and a place for the ultra-rich to party.  The Palestinians?  He doesn't give one whit about them as long as they are GONE.

Even in Ukraine, he's dangling the carrot of getting the rights to the country's rare earth minerals to provide them any aid whatsoever.

I have no qualms about my next statement - everything he does is monstrous.  Everything he is doing is unrepentantly evil. Many will die. Many will suffer.

Yes, MAGA. You've been had. Everything you thought was wrong.

And we will suffer for many years because of it.  

The least you can do is admit your error and join us in resisting it.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies of the 20th Century!!! Part 3 No. 86 - 80

  I received this issue of Remind, or what Alison calls "my old people magazine," which ranks the top 100 Science Fiction movies of the 20th century.

Remind does have many pop culture stories, focusing primarily on the 1950s through the 1990s, although there are some references to earlier decades. Each issue focuses on different topics, such as country music, westerns, where are they now issues, and much more. I enjoy it, as I love pop history. They also have puzzles and a monthly guide to what's on TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

I thought it would be fun to review the movies on the list in reverse order and share my thoughts. The magazine's ranking of the movies is not mine.  

I won't go into detailed reviews, but I will share the IMDb ranking and my own on a 1 to 10 scale.

86)

Videodrome

Year: 1983  IMDb: 7.2 Tom: 4  Had I seen before?   Yes  Service found on: Peacock

I say yes that I have seen this, but I think I had blocked most of this from my mind.  As I will again. I am figuring out that body horro, which David Crionenberg specializes in is not my thing.  Additionally, the plot is deliberately confusing.  Fine, if you want to take the time to anaylyze it.  I did not.  Positive side?  It had Deborah Harry in a feature role, a singing favorite of mine from the group Blondie (easily in my top ten bands).  Negative side?  In addition to the goopy guts and bizarrre storyline, the lead was James Woods, who has turned super-repulsive MAGA MAX in his senior years.

85)

Repo Man

Year: 1984  IMDb: 6.8 Tom: 5  Had I seen before?   Yes  Service found on: Prime Rental

This fared a little bit better than Videodrome, but not much. At least I could follow the story even though I wasn't all that interested. Emilio Estevez plays a punk rocker who has had little job success, taking a job helping repo men. There are some aliens and a glowing item in a car trunk. Often, the science fiction elements are minimized and muted. It was an okay but not memorable trip.

84)

Year: 1997  IMDb: 7.3 Tom: 8 Had I seen before?   Yes  Service found on: Peacock

Don't think about this one too much. The idea of exchanging faces like they do is not much in the realm of possibility, even for a science fiction film. But Nicolas Cage and John Travolta do some first-rate acting in this, switching personalities and helping make the implausible at least slightly plausible. It's filled with action, and it's a fun ride.  

83)

Marooned

Year: 1969  IMDb: 5.1 Tom: 5 Had I seen before?   Yes  Service found on: Tubi

Oy. Unlike 2001:A Space Oddesy, this one has not aged well. Big budget and big star production, with a slow moving and dull story that made me have to snack and hydrate to stay awake through. It's a shame. It had my Dad's quasi-lookalike in it, Gregory Peck. And a very game, Gene Hackman. I get it. Astronauts stranded in space. Will we get them back or not? Oh, please! Just get on with it. 2 hr and 14 14-minute runtime felt like six hours. And since it was Tubi, I'd have to sit through innumerable commercials. This is emblematic of what science fiction was often like before Star Wars.

    82) 

Quatermass and the Pit

Boy, did this one take a while to find! Part of the problem is that the movie has a different name in American distribution - Five Million Years to Earth. But when I finally found it, it was pretty good! Set in London, an archeological excavation unveils an alien spacecraft, and the danger increases as the movie progresses. Well plotted, you think the movie is, like many movies of its time, cut short where it could go. But it does not! Loved the pacing and acceleration of this nifty little story. Unlike Marooned, it still holds up really well!

81)

The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Year: 1984  IMDb: 6.2 Tom: 5 Had I seen before?   Yes  Service found on: MGM+

Sounds exciting, don't it? Sometimes campy is good. Sometimes, it misses the mark. This hits occasionally but mostly misses the mark. I think it's trying to play off Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, but that's a guess. Most of it is played too cool for school, and the intriguing multi-dimensional premise is not used well. John Lithgow plays the villain, and he leaves no scenery unchewed.

80)

Altered States

Year: 1980  IMDb: 6.9 Tom: 5 Had I seen before?   Yes  Service found on: Prime Rental

Another oy. More body horror and incoherent plot. Something to do with sensory deprivation and reverting to a more unevolved state. I think. I'm not sure. About ten or fifteen minutes of it near the two-thirds mark was interesting (like a Jekyll and Hyde thing), but most of it was not my cup of tea.

I know there was a big time gap between this one and the last one (October 24). I'm doing the best I can. They're not always easy to find, and the dystopian horror of our country's real-life descent has been very distracting.

The good news is that I have already seen four of the next seven films on the list, so it shouldn't be too much longer.

Unless, of course, in the meantime, I am sent to a reeducation camp.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28!