I need Shooters, not an Uber...

 This is a political post.

At this point I check everyday for the news that I'm certain no one wants to hear: that a Russian team has tracked down Zelensky. This comedian turned actor turned politician turned honest to god hero is defying the odds with both his bravery and his charm. "I need ammo, not a ride" he responded when the US offered to airlift him out. He's doing what all of us hope we have the ability to do when we're attacked - Stand your ground and fight. And it looks like he's pulling off this long-shot play for the most part. I hope he does, for Ukraine's sake. The problem for Putin now is if he kills him, it will only make things tougher. Because you can stop a man, but a legend is a hard thing to put into a cell. And a Zelensky who goes down swinging defending his country is the kind of guy whose name you scream before you go over the top.

Which means Putin has no out.

Because the longer it takes, the more likely that the Ukrainians finally drive them out. After taking much ground the first few days, the grand Russian might has been unable to hold onto much. And as it turns out their soldiers don't really have the stomach for what they're being asked to do, as errant men show up at farms asking for gas for their useless tanks, surrendering en masse and others using dating apps to find more amenable company. And with each passing day, the furor and outside support in form of weapons and money pours in. The longer this takes, the worse the eventual failure to a grass roots guerilla army would look for a modern "world power."

 But to get victory in this invasion the Russians may have to destroy the country. Only the idea was never to take a shell, or just the territory, but a functioning country. Yes, they needed Sevastopol, but Putin claimed he wanted to reunite the former USSR. And yet despite bold claims that sanctions would only strengthen his position, being kicked out of SWIFT, the bank run, the collapse of the ruble to loss of outside investment in general, the motherland doesn't have the resources to rebuild their new holding if it comes to that. Russia's economy is basically the size of the state of California's. Or rather it was. And that won't change anytime soon as long as Putin remains in power. The term Pyrrhic victory might be changed to a Ukrainian victory if he keeps this up, with the whole of Russia collapsing under the weight of one man's ego.

Which leaves capitulation and retreat. Which would leave this world leader looking weak, which might just be the ultimate insult in Putin's mind. One believes that the self imposed isolation caused by Covid, along with an apparatus designed to keep bad news at bay would mean that when the real news that he can't win finally, inevitably shows up, it's not gonna be pretty. As it stands, he'll have to back down on his nuclear deterrent threat and in the near future will see that that thing he feared most of all - a united Europe and NATO that includes Ukraine, Finland and Sweden, placing all access to the Atlantic via a NATO window - actually coming to fruition. And although it's really a old geopolitical situation that may or may not be still as relevant in this age of non-state actors, it was the thing he was working most diligently on, with international election interference and a world wide disinformation campaign to avoid. 

I'm not sure who told him this invasion this was a good idea, but I can say this with certainty: They were wrong. 

Yeah, the real problem now is that Putin has no out that he's willing to accept. 

I'm not going to get into all the other sundry items - the detainment of Africans trying to escape the conflict by some Ukrainians, why this time the world seems to have stood up and taken notice, etc and so forth. Or the buffoonery that is Cheato's response. No, I say let's just get through this and get to the other thing - back to virus that's still could kill us all if we're not careful.

Uncle Joe, call your boy Barry.

If you want we take this outside, ain't nobody gots' to know...

MLK - some thoughts.

 He walked so you could run.

Or rather he marched. Which if you've ever done it for political reasons really is walking, along with thousands of others, to show your support for a particular cause or ideal. Which I have done on occasion. It's a interesting sensation, realizing that that idea that you hold in your head is shared by so many others. It's validating. Empowering. Inspiring.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., boy genius who went to college at fifteen, who won the Nobel Peace Prize before he was forty, whose oration still rings in the ears of anyone who has ever heard it - live or on tape. In an age before the internet, his name was known far and wide. Not for music or film, but for a drive for justice for those people oppressed by a system for which they had been forced to build the foundation. For organizing and guiding marches, sit-ins and protests. And that oration. He was a remarkable person in age where remarkable people were in short supply.

In his last speech, the iconic "I've Been to the Mountaintop," he compared himself to Moses, in that he would look upon the promised land, but would not live to get there. He had hoped to live a long life, but he wasn't worried about that, he had a people to save. The very next day he was killed.

And still, all these years later, we have not reached the promised land.

He walked so you could run.

He walked so you could run. For Congress. For Senate. For School Board. Own a business. Purchase a home fairly. For President. To be able to have a fair shot at building something for a legacy, for your children, for the future. So put your sneakers on. And run until your legs give out. The promised land awaits.

What I learned ...Last Year (Part 2)

What did I learn last year? Nothing. I learned absolutely nothing.

I want to say that during this time of enforced precaution, where we all needed a bit more vigilant to the world around us that I looked inward and explored who I was, what I wanted and what I hoped to achieve in life. I want to say that I spent mornings meditating, found my soul in a pot of greens and learned to speak to my inner child like a zen grandparent. That built a paradigm that helped me shore up my weaknesses, bolster my strengths and plot a course into the living possibility of the future.

I did none of that.

I watched a bunch of old movies, home renovations shows (Love it or List it is fantastic) and weird Netflix cartoons. I played video games (Okay, I played the Sims 4 which is terrible but addicting). I half kinda wrote some stuff.

I officially meandered through this portion of life.

I did lose some weight, as I'm eating a lot more veggies and a lot less starch now.  I do have a little home gym setup now, and as of yet it does NOT have any dirty clothing hanging from it. I discovered sheets made out of this jersey material that are fantastic. I'm gonna have to get a new couch soon.  

I don't want to talk about what happened last year outside my house. At least not right now. Working from home the days begin to blur after a while. Weekends no longer beckon, they practically sneak up on you. The news becomes a window into the world, but if you've ever stepped outside and realized you really do need a jacket you know that the world can still sneak up on you, even when you're paying attention. Just like last year it still feels like we've packed ten years worth of living into twelve months. It maybe that more isn't happening, we just have better access but sometimes that just isn't the sense you get. But that's for another time.

Working from home made me realize that I need people. I need the concrete interaction, not just the tweets and the IMs,texts, and emails, but the voices, the stories, the energy. That I need the smiling faces, the frowns, the joy and the anger. I need the person part of the person. But in my need for conversation that I've hung on to contacts for too long in some areas common sense would have made me abandon ages ago. Every conversation isn't a good conversation. And that I've been nervous about starting it in others because I'm always concerned with wasting other's people's time. But I know these things about me and my personality. I tend to care to much, in general. Ah, life would be so much easier if I was an asshole.   

So what have I learned? Nothing that I didn't already know but I stubbornly find myself reluctant to change. But you can't grow in your comfort zone. And life was gonna change anyway, so you may was pick the changes you want before some others are forced upon you.

So. Some bourbon. Some ice. A promise to myself. And let us begin.

The difference an Omicron makes...

Ramblings Post #400
Life comes at you fast. We always think we have time. But things happen when we aren't looking. And we have to adjust, figure out a new plan, and move forward because time doesn't stop. So do what you gotta. And don't forget to have some pie. Sweet Potato. Because it's good, and the world it makes the world right.

Let me say this...medical clinics need a one diagnosis or less lane.

Anyway, the day after Christmas this year myself and forty other hearty souls, properly socially distant of course, gathered in an urgent care facility in hopes of being seen. I was about number seventeen or eighteen in line, but only because I had arrived an hour before they opened. I was grateful that they were open, offering same day PCR testing, and hadn't already booked up online...because they weren't taking online appointments. Such are the holidays in the days of Covid.

I haven't done a crowd of any kind since my running partner's birthday drop in last summer when we all had gotten vaxxed up and thought that the 'Rona was on the way out. It was a fun evening, live jazz on the deck, folks having a good time, dancing, cards, food on the grill, etc., but I've had a couple of scares since then so I've become a bit of a homebody. Okay, that last part is an understatement. I leave my house to get groceries and pick up food to go. That's it. But as luck or fate would have a week ago some old partners of mine came into town for the Celebration Bowl and I broke with routine and went by their hotel to see them. My plan had been to drop through, say hey, revel in some old memories and then excuse myself and take it to the house. I ended up in Downtown Atlanta because their hotel was in Buckhead and they would still be lost on a side street if I hadn't served as street guide. My fault really, should have stuck to the plan, but I hadn't been social in a minute, so there I was.

In any case, my plan had been to ride down to the folks on Christmas Eve, spend the day and then ride back on Sunday. I had my bag half packed, the few gifts (most of which I picked up from my brother) ready to load into the car and went to sleep with visions of highway driving in my head.

I awoke with a cough and sneezing. 

Now, I never did develop the fever or lose my sense of taste, but better safe than sorry and my parents are old, so I called and updated them and realized I needed to get tested.

Let me back up a bit though. My last test before this one was at the beginning of the month. I'd felt a tingle and started coughing so I decided I needed to know. I decided this after ELEVEN in the morning and jumped online to see what I could get. Well, the drug store around the corner had an opening. A bunch of openings. Really, they could have just had a button that said "I'm on the way." I chose the time slot at ONE to give myself time to clean up the house first. I drove over, got in the drive thru line, gave the attendant my name and check in code, she sent out the kit in drive thru slide, I did the swab, dropped it in the box. Leaving the house, test and drive back took all of twenty-five minutes, but only because there were two cars in front of me in line.

The experience has changed.

To start, I went online but the drugstore had no slots for Christmas Eve. Or the day after Christmas. Or the week after Christmas. I expanded the search and the nearest branch with slots was on the other side of the city. On the next Thursday. At 5pm. And by the time I clicked refresh they were gone. My brother searched his neighborhood for the at home test kits, which were in the stores last week but have disappeared with the surge. I checked another drugstore chain, and then looked to see what the county was offering. I finally found this clinic, open on Christmas Day where I decided my Christmas present to my mother would be easing her mind about my status. They opened at 8:30am, but I didn't get there until almost 10am. I figured it was Christmas, what other idiots would be out here like this? As it turns out, quite a few.

The nurse was kind enough to give me the skinny on the proper time for arrival, so we return to the beginning of our tale, with me in a parking lot with a growing crowd trying to get a test to set my mother's concerns to rest. I got there an hour before they opened. I was checked in fifteen minutes after they opened. They didn't test me until almost noon. Same test as before, the ID confirmation and actual swab and what not took less than three minutes. But they had actual patients with actual issues not related to Covid, so there was a bit of a wait. And I sat there and waited. Because that's what you do.

I tested negative by the way.

But damn. Now watch the scalpers do the at home tests the same way they've done the PS5s, which I still can't get.

Barkeep. The good bourbon, your boy is gonna live. Well, at least so far.

Your honor, we find the defendant....

This is a political post. 

I had this dream.

The Wisconsin Bar Association held a press conference and declared a mistrial in the Rittenhouse ....well, thing. Action, let's call it an action. I dreamed that the Bar Association as a whole had looked at the whole...action...and decided the obvious display of bias on the part of what is supposed to be it's referee was just too egregious and just decided to rescind his license effective immediately. Pretend he died they'd say. And if the world could just hold up, they take a month, let everybody settle down and then start over.

I mean, although I'm certain more than few in the region see the circumstances of what happened that night differently than I do, I would hope they would at least be affronted with how blatant this thing is getting.

But that's not going to happen.

It's almost like it's not understood that it was this type of action - one where the law is applied as one person sees fit in front of everyone, damn what you other people think - that sparked the demonstration that got us to the night that got us here. It's like a total lack of self-awareness. It's why now the National Guard is on alert for verdict. A few years of civil rights demonstrations, followed by a tone deaf incident leading to another demonstration and then another incident and we've...well, some folks... still haven't gotten the idea that maybe justice really needs to be blind. Or at least hold the cane, bump into stuff and pretend, real, real hard.

I'm going to be honest, I didn't think they'd get a conviction there. Just the demographic make-up of the region. Even without the prosecution bringing up Call of Duty, or rulings that suddenly Apple zoom is suspect or not being allowed to call the people the defendant shot 'victims.' The judge finds no issue with the defense calling protesters to rioters or looters, but go figure. People have looked at the judges past conduct and claimed that this is about par for the course with him. But someone should tell him THIS isn't the usual course, this is Augusta's older cousin. All the little personal quirks should have been left at the clubhouse.

I do find it odd that trying to get a murder conviction against a minor who crossed state lines, with a illegally acquired weapon, who then purposely went to an area where it was possible he might have to use that weapon, after publicly stating he wanted to do just that, would be a hard sell. I mean there are photographs and video. And even with the admittedly less than great witnesses, we would normally get there. As someone in the legal profession, the judges restrictions on Rittenhouse's previous statements, considering what we theoretically all learned in law school regarding state of mind, are a bit hard to swallow. But even if all of that were...even keel... I still just didn't see a conviction there. It's just that part of the country. I've read people swear that this clearly self defense. How I don't know, but they swear. These are probably the same people who don't see what Aaron Rodgers did wrong, but as I said, its that part of the country.  

What I didn't think was that the situation would look like this. Because although I'm aware the court has in essence followed the law in the usual manner, it feels like the judge has done everything but straightened the defendant's tie, patted him on the head and told him to show us all that pretty smile, because they won't let the bad 'prosecutor men' hurt him. And the idea that it even feels this way is wrong. 

I'm hoping for the best. Either way the verdict is not going to be liked. But the version I'm hoping for involves the incident/rights demonstration cycle at least getting a break. For a couple of weeks at least. 

Sigh.

Five minutes watching... Dune

I don't watch a lot of movies because, well, at this point I just don't. A lot of movies and television of late have become more niche oriented and just plain horrible, and I'm trying to be productive, and also write this thing (second draft) and moreover I have a ton of video games I bought on sale I still want to play so there. So, I watch a movie or a little TV when I get a chance. Go figure. 

So I watched Dune. All two hours and thirty-five minutes of it.

It was....ummm, er.

Boy am I jaded.

Maybe it's because I first experienced Dune more than thirty years ago and unlike a quite few books I still own, I've never gone back to it. It was one of those things you were supposed to experience as a nerd in the eighties, so I did. A whole bunch of it didn't make sense to me back then, because I was young, and because it went in a wholly different direction of the big 'Stars' types (you know, Wars & Trek), I used to read everything back then so it got lost in the shuffle. Later on I would grow to appreciate the type of world-building that Herbert did here, but at the point in my life I indulged I wasn't there yet. Now comfortably aged, but not immune to nerd pressure, I tuned into my HBOMax and gave it a look.

I know a story as dense as Dune is hard to bring to the big screen. it's got a lot of backstory, side plots and intrigue wrapped in little pieces of lore that a veteran sci-fi reader gobbles up like candy. So the reality is you have to cut out a lot of what makes the story the story to get it down to your standard movie run time. And even though this went long, the director still put too blunt a blade to this thing. Trying to be inviting to someone new to the story without throwing too much exposition at them early was a great idea, but handled badly, and so they've unfortunately crafted a film where most viewers are are going to miss pieces without repeated viewings (which again given the length of the film probably is unlikely) or doing some homework. As it is I suggest you at least go read the Wikipedia entry for the story so you'll understand why a bunch of stuff is happening.
 
so, SPOILERS from here on out. 

The film suffers from three things really: Long slow 'Lawrence of Arabia' type establishing shots coupled with long pregnant moments before something happens, the set decorator's complete lack of imagination and the missing pieces of the story. Well, four things really, but let's tackle these three first.

Dune is supposed be this epic tale of an Empire, while most of this part of the tale takes place on the desert world of Araakis, sole source of the melange...um, spice. To convey the grand scope, we're 'treated' to several large stately set pieces and ceremonies early in the film to let you know the Empire is big, space ships the size of small towns rising and all that, then sweeping shots of backgrounds and open space when they reach Araakis. This is where I think the film could have benefited from a widescreen format. I saw it at home, maybe in the theater it's aspect ratio is better. But most of these shots are either the city (framed badly and unimpressive CGI) or the sparsely populated (read: empty) shots of the desert. We get shot after shot of this. It just does not work, and at times with it's very less than convincing CGI makes it look like it was shot for television. I know establishment shots are needed, but I'm of the opinion they could have removed or cut down some of these less than grand ones and added in more story, did a bit more fleshing out or adding in some other subplot.    

Which bleeds really into the second issue with really most sci-fi films, in that all the set decorators seem to think everyone who ever owned a spaceship is a minimalist. The outfits and costumes worn by the characters were nice, but the sets were barren, empty spaces bereft of decoration. Big blocks of empty space. Just nothing. Empty. That it sparsely populated doesn't help, but empty just feels wrong. Oddly, the last time I saw someone consider the a sci-fi story as an actual place was The Fifth Element, where the spaces looked lived in. By like people. This does not do that.

And finally, the missing pieces of the story. Again, as I've alluded to earlier, it would have helped had it been made clearer that Duke Leto knew that the Emperor granting him reign over Araakis was a trap, but one that he could not refuse. Or some of the interplay between secondary characters that hopefully will show up in "Part 2" since that's confirmed now. Having Hawat show up aiding the Harkonnen makes no sense because we missed a whole subplot where he suspects Paul's mother of betraying Leto. There are a lot of things going on in this story that had to be cut to make time for ...long shots.

Which brings us the fourth problem.

So, um, Dune was a white savior story? Huh.

Now, I saw the first version, back with Sting, on something ages ago. HBO, Cinemax, something, but I remember that the native Fremen in that film were just a bunch of dudes from central casting. And I didn't really get that deep into the book, so I didn't make a connection at that point either. To be honest, this didn't even crystalize for me until the last five or ten minutes of the film, during the fight scene. I should have gotten it earlier during Paul's visions, but nope. You know, I don't even think that effect was intentional, more along the lines of semi-awareness woke-type thinking of "wouldn't it be a bit silly if we cast a 'Nordic' look for people of the desert?" But then that gets us here, which is equally problematic. But then, the book is from the 60's, written by a guy mostly likely raised on Tarzan movies. Go figure.

Which presents a major issue for the second part. Because while the white savior aspect was hard to spot in the first movie, that aspect will be front and center in the second. Paul the chosen one, and all those brown people. Wow. Didn't we just have this issue with GoT a few years ago? Apparently we've learned nothing.

Barkeep. Just a coke and some chips. Thanks.