Speak Out: Politico wants you to solve the US’s problems – in 100 words or less

Seriously, that’s what they’re asking the public, one hundred words or less.  (I say seriously because they have no intent of taking people’s comments seriously.)

How Would You Fix America’s Broken Politics?

We aren’t looking for diagnoses. We’re looking for cures. If the problem is that America is not democratic enough (or too democratic), how would you change that? If the problem is with the news media, or inequality, or information technology, or social mobility, or racial relations, or gender equality, or Wall Street, or our religious institutions, or how we raise our children, or something we haven’t identified, what’s a structural reform—to our government, our economy, our society—that would make things better? In particular, we’re looking for ideas that are daring, new and specific.

Submit your suggestion below—in 100 words or fewer—by August 16, and we’ll feature the best ones in our issue, launching in September.

It’s farcical, until you remember that you can write in point form.  Below are my first fifty-six words:

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Final thoughts: Three verses for the three shooters

The mass shooters are all white,
And the mass shooters are all male.
The mass shooters are all childish,
In their small lives, all did fail.

Their self-inflated views are not,
A form of poor mental health.
They know exactly what they’re doing,
When they plan to kill by stealth.

“Alpha” incel underachievers,
Leaving wreckage, ruin, rubble.
If they just killed themselves first,
It would save everyone the trouble.

Murdery Rhyme: How many more before US politicians grow a spine

A murder-y rhyme, as opposed to a nursery rhyme….

Rat-a-tat-tat,
The bullets they spat,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the killer,
The coffin-box filler,
All on a killing spree.

Pop-a-pop-pop,
The bullets non-stop,
Empty shells all falling down.
The AR, the AK
All legal they say,
And fire off 200 rounds.

Ring-a-ding-ding,
The racists did sing,
And who do you think they be?
The criminal who rules,
The gun-toting fools,
All counting bodies with glee.

I’m glad to hear Elizabeth Warren speak out.  Now let’s see if anything comes of it.

Let’s Backtrack: Breaking Away was officially released on July 13, 1979

This is the second of two posts about memorable 1979 sports films. Were you expecting “Meatballs”?

Breaking Away is a great coming-of-age movie with believable characters, a likable cast, and makes you believe an underdog can win (because they sometimes can).  It’s about four misfit Indiana teens, call the “Cutters”. They are sons of the stonemasons who built the universities, but aren’t welcome there. They form a cycling team and compete in the Little 500 bicycle race.

The movie won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, plus other awards elsewhere. An odd thing about Breaking Away is what happened to the cast. Dennis Christopher, the lead actor, had the least successful career, while the supporting cast’s careers speak for themselves: Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley.

The Little 500 is a real race for women and men that takes place every April at Indiana University, 200 laps around a 440 yard track, emulating the Indianapolis 500. (At the speed it would take to ride a lap, the two races are equally long, about three hours.) The film’s Cutter team could never have competed because riders must be IU students. Most teams are from “greek” fraternities. A real life Cutters team from the general student population was formed in 1984.  They have won 14 of the 36 races since, becoming the most successful team.

“Breaking Away” at Rotten Tomatoes. How many films have a 94% rating?

Roger Ebert wrote a glowing review when he saw it in an early release:

“Breaking Away” is a movie to embrace. It’s about people who are complicated but decent, who are optimists but see things realistically, who are fundamentally comic characters but have three full dimensions. It’s about a Middle America we rarely see in the movies, yes, but it’s not corny and it doesn’t condescend. Movies like this are hardly ever made at all; when they’re made this well, they’re precious cinematic miracles.

“Breaking Away” can be found on youtube.

(Okay, Meatballs is a funny coming of age movie, especially Bill Murray’s “It just doesn’t matter” speech and the likable Chris Makepeace. But it’s not a great sports movie.)

Side Notes: Details about the El Paso shooter

I file this under Politics because unrestricted gun ownership is the fault of politicians.

Patrick Crusius, the mass murderer of El Paso, attended Plano High School in Plano, Texas, graduating in 2017. In 2016, the school had a spate of deaths by suicide while he was a student. In 2018, Plano West High School (a few kilometres away, one of three high schools in the district) had an attempted mass shooting that was stopped.

Claims have been made that Crusius posted a picture on twitter of firearms spelling “trump”.  He only “liked” the picture, it was posted by someone else.

 

A few thoughts:

If “shock” websites can and have been shut down by courts, why haven’t 4chan and 8chan?  It’s no secret what sort of cesspools they are.

I’m not in North America and don’t watch TV, so I may be wrong, but I have yet to hear a peep out of the Nationalist Racist Antagonists (NRA) about either the El Paso or Ohio shootings.  Could it be that they have finally been silenced, now that they are as financially bankrupt as they are morally bankrupt?  We can only hope.

How much does the NRA’s silence play in some democrats finally showing some spine and calling for gun laws?

And how badly is Cheetolini (aka Trumpelthinskin, aka Annoying Orange) taking this?  Is he raging hard enough that his staff need a defibrillator?

Everything about the Ohio shooter screams white male – the media have not identified the shooter’s race or name, the choice of weapon (AR15), and labelling it as a “mass casualty incident” instead of a terrorist act.

Out Yourself Or Starve: Canada’s message to victims of anti-gay purges

Canada, like most pseudo-democracies after World War II, bought into the myth of the “gay communist” and went on a red baiting campaign of harassment, discrimination and rights violations of people who had never committed a crime.  Dustbin Trudeau’s mealy mouthed apology of two years ago is worthless.

Why should the Canadians hurt by the purges have to apply for compensation?  The government already knows who the victims are, they have the RCMP’s files.  The government should be approaching these people in secrecy and protecting their privacy.  Forcing people to out themselves is yet another form of discrimination and harassment, like demanding women who have never reported a rape to speak out publicly or their rapists will go free.  Even if the people hurt by the purges are 90 years old, they may STILL want to stay in the closet, and that’s their right.

This “compensation scheme” is a scam.  Excerpts from the link, below the fold:

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Let’s Backtrack: Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko, January 13, 1919 to June 28, 1982

Igor Gouzenko was born in the village of Rogachev, near Moscow, on January 13, 1919.  He was a cipher clerk (coding and decoding messages) for the USSR during World War II, and was stationed in Canada.  In September 1945, he and his family (back when the USSR didn’t use families as hostages for those working abroad) were ordered back to the USSR.  Gouzenko knew the political situation at home and in Canada, and made the choice to defect.  He took massive amounts of documents with him of Soviet agents in Canada and elsewhere.  (The link lists a different birthdate, but same month and year.)

Gouzenko was the first high profile defector of the Cold War.  As such, there was initially no paranoia or willingness to listen to him.  The Ottawa Citizen newspaper turned him away, and the RCMP actually considered handing him over to the Soviets.  In a rare display of competence by the RCMP, Gouzenko was taken to Camp X and questioned by Canadian officials, MI5 and MI6 of the UK, and by the US’s FBI.

Twenty spies were caught in Canada, the UK and US, along with Fred Rose, the leader of the Communist Party of Canada.  (Rose was ahead of most Canadian politicians, the first to propose a medicare system and introduce anti-hate legislation.)

Gouzenko was given a new identity (the imaginative name of George Brown) and lived a middle class existence in Toronto.  He wrote two books, one about his defection (“This Was My Choice”) and a novel (“The Fall Of A Titan”) which won a Governor General’s award for literature.  He died of a heart attack in 1982.

Let’s Backtrack: Georgi Markov was assassinated on September 7, 1978

Georgi Markov died on September 11, 1978, but he was assassinated on September 7 in London when a KGB operative stabbed him in the leg with an umbrella.  The tip contained a hollow pellet containing Ricin.  Markov’s assassination was one of the most high profile murders of the Cold War, and the case where the name Ricin appeared in the news.

The prime suspect is Francesco Gullino, a Danish national of Italian origin.  Though police have questioned him, he has never been arrested and remains free, last seen in Austria.  No one from Bulgaria or the USSR was ever held accountable for the crime.  Here is a documentary about the case:

In 2000, Markov was honoured posthumously with Bulgaria’s Order of Stara Planina for his “significant contribution to the Bulgarian literature, drama and non-fiction and for his exceptional civic position and confrontation to the Communist regime.”

In 1979, the Scottish band Fingerprintz released the song “Wet Job”, about the assassination of Georgi Markov.  “Wet work” is espionage parlance for assassination.

He got out of bed and had his breakfast
He kissed his wife goodbye
As he was waiting for a bus
He got it on the sly

I got out of bed and had my breakfast
What is all this fuss?
In the rush hour rush.

Wet job. It’s a scoop
Foreign body’s in a suit
Wet job. It’s a hit
And it wasn’t them all with a syndicate
Foreign Office in the shit

‘Just a job’ the coroner said
A dirty needle in the back of the leg
Hot shot hit its spot
Sneaky little micro dot

Wet job. Catch your death
Foreign body’s in a grave
Wet job. It’s a sin.
Foreign office dirty linen

He got out of bed and had his breakfast
He kissed his wife goodbye
As he was waiting for a bus
He got it on the sly
Wet job

Wet job. It’s a scoop
Foreign body’s in a suit
Wet job. It’s a hit
And it wasn’t them all with a syndicate
Foreign Office in the shit

 

Rise And Shine: No, my second tattoo doesn’t mean I ‘got religion’

A few months ago, I got my second tattoo, and intend to get more in the future.

Yes, it’s a symbol of a religious mythology.  No, it doesn’t mean I “got religion”.  No, you don’t get to see my first tattoo unless you’re a boyfriend, doctor, or come with me to the beach.

But please don’t tell me it’s cultural appropriation.  It’s bad enough that the artist made a (fixable) mistake without having to remove the whole thing.

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Let’s Backtrack: The Jericho Mile premiered on March 18, 1979

The first of two about memorable 1979 sports films.  No prizes for guessing the other.

The Jericho Mile is a 1979 film starring Peter Strauss, written and directed by Michael Mann, one of his earliest films and the one that made his career.  Made For TV movies were common in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Jericho Mile is considered one of the best.  Strauss received an Emmy award for his performance.

Strauss plays Larry “Rain” Murphy, convicted of first degree murder (shooting his father after finding him rape his step-sister).  Murphy remains a loner in prison, running to keep mentally free.  One of the prison staff secretly times him, noting that Murphy’s mile times are near Olympic level, the story building to the point where Murphy is considered for Olympic trials.  The story contains several subplots of support, opposition, and manipulation –  the prison administration, prison gangs (Brian Dennehy as leader of the white gang), USOC officials.  The only ones fully on his side are his lone friend in prison (R.C. Stiles, played by Richard Lawson) the state track and field coach who trains him (Ed Lauter).  Others have done better and longer writeups, so I’ll avoid spoilers and let their words speak for themselves.  The cafeteria scene is still a tearjerker.

Rotten Tomatoes: The Jericho Mile

Running Movies: The Jericho Mile

Peter Strauss was 32 at the time of filming and trained for the role with UCLA coaches and runners.  He was reportedly running a 4:30 mile at the time – not good enough to qualify for the Olympics, but fast enough that you can suspend disbelief for a movie.  Sports movies vary in believability.  Some actors look the part and you can believe they are doing it (e.g. Rob Brown in “The Express”), others not so much (too many baseball movies to mention).  Strauss definitely looks the part.

For now, the full film can be found on youtube.  It’s worth watching.

Moral Support: How Taiwan is helping Hong Kong’s protesters

Hong Kong protesters successfully made the puppet “leader” and mass murderers in Beijing back down from the proposed “extradition” law that would allow legalized kidnapping of people in Hong Kong (citizens and foreigners) and enable secret trials that violate human rights.  But the protesters didn’t back down or assume everything was finished.  They continued their protests to make it clear they wouldn’t stand for a second attempt later nor any other criminal “laws”.

The PRC fought back, first with corrupt police aggression in uniform, then with organized gangs of thugs in white shirts to violently assault the protesters.  Reportedly the gangs were both out-of-uniform police and triad gangs)

Hong Kong students in Taiwan and Taiwanese people are showing its support by organizing a helmet collection campaign. Motorcycle helmets, new or used, are being collected and will be shipped to Hong Kong to distribute to protesters. Many protesters suffered head injuries when the PRC’s jackbooted thugs attacked.  Helmets are not weapons, so this is clearly not an act of aggression, it is a response to one.

Here’s an amusing piece of art coming from Hong Kong:

I don’t like quoting the linked site as a source” given the poor quality of the writing and the site owner’s open sexism and bigotry.

Taiwanese contribute helmets to Hong Kong protesters

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As clashes between Hong Kong protesters and law enforcement officers continue to escalate, an initiative to donate helmets as a means of supporting the anti-extradition bill demonstrations has begun in Taiwan.

Hong Kong students based in Taipei organized two helmet donation events in the city last week, collecting nearly 200 new and second-hand helmets on Thursday (July 25), and 500 on Sunday (July 28). Known as the Hong Kong Outlanders, the group helped organize a number of solidarity protests in Taipei throughout June.

[…]

Hong Kong online news outlet Stand News has also reported the issue. Nearly 20 shops on Taobao, one of the biggest online shipping websites in China, have openly said they refuse to sell and deliver “sensitive” equipment to Hong Kong, including helmets, masks, and other protective gear, the report said. According to the report, this is in response to anti-government protesters vandalizing Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong on July 21.

[…]

The Hong Kong Outlanders have so far declined to reveal how they plan to send the collected helmets from Taiwan to Hong Kong, citing fear of interference. They said they would keep the public updated once the helmets arrive safely in Hong Kong.

Let’s Backtrack: Murder a doctor, get only ten years in prison

The second of my facebook posts migrated here….

In May 2017, Joseph Esmaili murdered Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann after Pritzwald-Stegmann told Esmaili not to smoke in a hospital.  Esmaili responded with a sucker punch that caused Pritzwald-Stegmann irreparable brain damage and death.  In November 2018, Esmaili was convicted only of manslaughter and sentenced to a maximum of twenty years in prison, possibly an earlier release than that.  Imagine if Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann wasn’t a surgeon, just an average person – Esmaili might have gotten only manslaughter or maybe even parole.

If you take the time to look, there is a long string of cases where smokers perpetrated violence (assaults, murders) against those who told them not to smoke where it’s illegal to smoke.  It’s not just cruel people burning others and children with cigarette butts, though there is plenty of that.

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Let’s Backtrack: Visicalc turned 40 in November 2018

I said in a backchannel email that I had been writing mostly on facebook while I was away. It was suggested I post some it here, so this is the first. (Finally, a useful facebook feature: you can download your entirety of posts and comments to look at them.)

November 1978 marked one of the most important moments in the history of personal computers: the invention of Visicalc, the first “killer app”, a process, tool or purpose that justifies spending large amounts of money to accomplish a single task. The telephone’s killer app was communication over distance, and the internal combustion engine was speed (trains and automobiles). Huge computers were built for military purposes such as bombing and codebreaking (Bletchley Park’s computer breaking the Nazi’s Enigma Code), but it was Visicalc that justified owning a personal computer.

In the fall of 1978, Dan Bricklin was attending Harvard’s MBA program after graduating from MIT. One of his accounting classes involved case studies on business accounting, a process which involves large sheets of paper with many amounts and calculations and is prone to errors – one mistake can ruin and entire sheet. I know, I’ve done this stuff the hard way.

Bricklin had the idea to create an electronic calculator which allowed him to change one value, and all other values connected to it would change automatically. Errors would be eliminated, changes could be made quickly, and different scenarios could be tried. He envisioned the world’s first spreadsheet program.

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Responsibility Dodged: Racism and lousy parenting in one fell swoop

The unnamed white mother of an unnamed white ten year old boy has filed criminal charges against another ten year old boy, who is Black, over alleged injuries that occured during a dodgeball game at school.

The mom of a 10-year-old boy received the shock of her life recently: a phone call from her local juvenile court, explaining that her son would be charged with aggravated assault, months after a playground game of dodgeball at his elementary school.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Cameishi Lindley, mother of soon-to-be-fifth-grader Bryce Lindley, told 7 Action News about the call, received from the Wayne County Juvenile Court in Canton, Mich., on July 24.

Now, because the boy being punished is black and the boy who was injured is white, some critics are calling the incident racist, while others — including celebrity comedian DL Hughley, who called the charge “ridiculous” — are coming to the boy’s general defense.

[…]

But the injured child’s mother — who declined to release her name or her child’s to the public — says her son had a previous medical condition that made him susceptible to head injuries.

If she knew her son had a prior condition that endangered him, WHY did she not inform the school? Why was she letting him play and not telling him to avoid such games?

How is the ten year old child who threw the ball supposed to have adult knowledge of other children’s medical conditions and potential legal consequences?

This reeks of racism and overcharging by the public persecutor, treating a Black child as an “adult threat”. It’s revolting and pathetic that the charges were even filed, that the complaint was even taken.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/critics-of-10-yearold-boy-charged-in-classmates-dodgeball-injury-blame-racism-191039356.html