tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52960783284875922002024-03-16T15:21:28.996-05:00Janus Heels . . .Politics, current events, humanities, sports and more. Janus Heels = Janus- the oldest of Roman deities who is identified with gates and doorways and - the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, of course. So, I'm covered from head to toe, or thereabouts.obihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903727839090351466noreply@blogger.comBlogger97125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-89785334995716279542024-03-16T15:20:00.003-05:002024-03-16T15:20:51.511-05:00Fantasy Football - Luck and Skill (Definitive Edition)<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Below, is a list of all of the ways luck can negate skill when it comes to the results of fantasy football games, seasons and dynasty seasons. Luck consistently derails the best laid plans so consistently, anyone espousing the view that skill is <i>mostly</i> at play, or even that it is the majority of the reason for fantasy success, may as well attempt to convince me Putin is their favorite autocrat of all time because of all the good he has done for Ukraine. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Most of the words below may be interpreted as whining, (and some definitely are) but the messenger should not be shot because the message runs counter to an incomplete understanding of the factors at play. Don't blame me because you haven't considered them to date. For the non-injury and non-usage reasons, claiming one has exclusively suffered without ever benefiting would be myopic, biblical plague level stuff. I've benefited about as much as been victimized of late in all of the categories, except three- injuries, usage, and some dynasty hi-jinks. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That said, the reasons luck has a 70-80% impact on the results of fantasy football games and seasons boil mostly down to injuries and usage. If one manager is 20% more skilled at fantasy football and another is 40% luckier, do the math. Those percentages are highly negotiable, but only by people paying attention with a memory. A goldfish's recollection eliminates you from the conversation. Unless you know how a player you have invested in is going to be used or whether he, or others, will stay healthy, there's no argument- the hobby is 70-80% based on luck. The victor in a game of Uno is due to luck. Drawing the highest card out of the deck seven of every ten times is luck, and fantasy football has well more variables at play.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All the other reasons listed below count, but are window dressing. I get it, if you want certainty don't participate in games of chance. This hobby shouldn't have to be this painful. But it is. I do too much analysis to get things to make sense for someone else's luck to dominate my preparation. Everyone is punished and benefits from luck, even me.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Experts and novices alike will tell you that fantasy football is 60, 70, 80% skill. The experts distinguish between sharps fantasy leagues (a competition among fantasy analysts) and home leagues (novices, family and friends, plenty of whom barely pay attention). The experts are fantasy players whose jobs are to watch full games, watch for trends and research all kinds of metrics looking for skill sets and opportunities for football players to flourish in the NFL given a certain offensive scheme. Not all experts are created the same. Some can break down a reason for a player's success and others just list off the stats that player accumulated that week. I've listened to guys that ramble on more than I do, but say virtually nothing for an hour, so I unfollowed them. If the audience supported it, I'd quote Rousseau and Twain once a page, throw in some Seinfeld reference and compare an offensive game plan to the Battle of Hastings. But I have no audience, so I'll get on with it.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If fantasy football were mostly skill, then the 8-10 hours of fantasy I listen to every week during the season (5 hours off season), the 2-3 sites I review offering start and sit advice every week, the 2-3 other articles I read each week and the hundreds of games I've watched would pay off more often. Below are the reasons why luck trumps skill in fantasy football:<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>INJURIES</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>1) Player injury (the fantasy owner’s actual player). </b>Whether it is being blown up on a crossing<br />route, concussed crossing the goal line, getting hit late along the sideline, or making a cut or planting a leg and suffering a non-contact injury- all of those are out of your control. Period. Period. Period. Owners will say that everyone gets injuries. No, no they don't. There is a difference between almost every meaningful player on your roster missing 2-3 games (and 3 for the season by week 6) and another owner having 2 or 3 key players miss a game here or there.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">An owner in my dynasty league had Hurts and Mahomes in 2022 and 2023. They've missed a combined 2 games in 2 seasons. In 2022 I lost Trey Lance for the season in week 2; in 2023 I lost Anthony Richardson for 2.5 games <b>before</b> a season ending injury in week 5. Those aren't the same thing. Some might wonder about pinning your hopes on those players, but that's the point. We haven't seen what they could do because they got injured.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And here is some of the going logic, specific to players in Lance's position. Experts and idiots alike will mock that anyone could have been relying on Trey Lance as a fantasy commodity at this time. He had 4 starts in an offense that has been very fruitful and welcoming to quarterbacks without Lance's ability to run for 60-80 yards every game and a rushing score an average of every other. Nick Mullens, Jimmy Garoppolo and now Brock Purdy have all been viable QB2s in superflex leagues in that offense. Lance, in that system, would have been at least at that level. Why wasn't he? Reason #1 is because of injury.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You also don’t control <i>when</i> injuries occur. Getting injuries in the first half of games in 2023<br />became my MO. If the players waited until midway through the fourth quarter I would have won 2 more games and been 8-6 rather than 6-8. Because of all the injuries which happened in the first halves alone I would have scored another 50 fantasy points (having lost Richardson, Dobbins, Kupp-4 games, A. Rodgers, Gibbs-2 games- I'll stop there). I lost probably another 125-150 points above replacement. At the end of the year, if you assess the performances of other owners and just look at wins, losses and points scored and don't objectively factor in injuries, your opinion is extremely flawed. You would probably be welcome at FOX News, or, it appears, be at least as qualified as the bi-polar Katie Britt to give the GOP response to the state of the union.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Nothing in fantasy football has more to do with luck than injuries. If you’re in multiple fantasy leagues, maybe as many as 10-12, you own anywhere from one-third to one-half to three-quarters of all viable players. Undoubtedly, some of your teams will suffer more injuries than others- that isn’t luck. That's the law of averages. If you own <b>one</b> team and suffer an endless string of injuries where every week you’re out another player and another and another, which impacts the points and victories you earn, and can kill an injured bench player’s trade value because they can’t stay healthy, that is luck. Bad luck! It happens to everybody is the old saying.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If before reading that reason you were of the opinion that fantasy football is 70% skill and you haven't reduced that to 60% already, you may as well quit reading, because logic just isn't your thing.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Injuries II.</b> This is such a big one, I'm gonna keep going. You lose J.K. Dobbins (after 1 half) and Aaron Rodgers in 4 plays in week 1 (not for the game but for the season); in week 2, Anthony<br />Richardson is dominating, but is out after 10 minutes in the first quarter (and misses game 3);<br />you’re missing 5 starters in week 3- Kupp, Waddle, Dobbins, Rodgers, Richardson. You lose, not<br />because you don’t know what you’re doing, but because of luck.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />In week 4, Johnathan Mingo and Kendre Miller are both injured. Miller missed his window during the Kamara suspension. If they could show something, anything, perhaps they could be used as trade chips to bring veterans for a title run. Instead, you have other owners mocking the fact that you are heavy with rookies. Also, if Carolina ended up with CJ Stroud or Mingo ended up with Stroud in Houston, you can’t possibly say that Mingo doesn’t get nearer to Dell’s productivity than he was to mine, a guy who can barely spell NFL.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><b><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Injury prone. </b>I always smile, with irritation, at pundits and experts who say one football player is injury prone. These guys are playing a sport where they are prevented from moving forward by players whose job it is to knock them violently to the ground. Thriving and surviving in that atmosphere has a lot to do with luck. Christian McCaffrey missed most of the 2020 and 2021 seasons. In 2022 and 2023 he was healthy. If in 2024 he’s injured in game 5 and misses the rest of the season, what is he? Injury prone? I owned CMC in 2022. I have much better thoughts about him than the person who owned him in ‘20 and ’21- I can guarantee you that. Want to chalk those thoughts up to anything more than luck? Hell, owning McCaffrey period isn’t luck or skill- it is wise.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><b>2) Dependent player injuries. </b>This one has nothing to do with #1 because you can assume your player stays healthy all year.<b> </b>If you’re a fantasy player and don’t pay attention to offensive<br />linemen who get injured, you’re useless in this conversation. Missing two good run-blocking<br />guards for a month, or a pass protecting left tackle can drastically impact your fantasy RBs and<br />QBs, and for that matter, WRs and TEs. Tight ends can lose value because they have to stay in<br />more often to pass block if there are offensive line injuries or inefficiencies. Routes get shortened and play calling changes if the QB has .025 fewer seconds to throw. That deep threat you took in the sixth round, or for which you paid $6 in an auction, is half as productive because O.C.s can’t call longer developing pass patterns, which neutralizes a player’s productivity.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Jets just signed free agent OT Tyron Smith from the Cowboys. He's missed 37 games the past four years, but in 2023 he had an 89.1% pass block win rate and a 78.8% run block win rate. (Credit Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer) Imagine his replacement, should Smith miss games on his current four year pace during the 2024 season, wins his pass and run blocking assignments at rates 15-20% less than Smith- is that good for Breece Hall, Aaron Rodgers, Garrett Wilson or worse. Any idea which games Smith will miss, against which opponents, who he'll be blocking against? I don't imagine a fantasy manager would bench Hall, Rodgers and Wilson, but their numbers likely won't be as good. There isn't a question, unless his replacement is judged better, as sometimes happens in the NFL, but either way, you wouldn't know that. The Jets don't even know that and won't know it until it happens. Imagine all that taking place for a team that features the league's 28th best RB who may be featured because his running mate, whom he's been splitting time with is injured. You decided not to start your guy, assuming you heard about a Joe Schmoe injury from a fantasy expert who says the Commanders will have trouble running the ball, but the RB you only thought of starting blows up, on your bench. Luck. If you were on vacation and knew none of this was going on, you would have taken him out but weren't paying attention. You left your RB in during his blow-up game. Skill? Get outta here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Anyone who had Garrett Wilson, who was supposed to explode with Aaron Rodgers in 2023,<br />knows the horror of an injury to someone your player depends on to throw him the ball. A weak<br />or injured offensive line, protecting, opening holes and allowing a QB's time to throw the ball to<br />your players are tremendously important. Ever listen to experts rate the offensive lines? Ever base decisions off of that prognostication? What if they got that wrong? Luck or skill? This rarely occurs to some people. Offensive line effectiveness fluctuates from year to year. If you think the O-Line aiding your players doesn't need to be skilled and healthy for your players to succeed (and the O-lines health also equates to you being lucky) there is a medal for delusion with your name on it.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>3) Injuries (or traded or released players) from the same position group.</b> if Tank Dell goes down, Niko Collins will get more targets. If Chase is injured, there may be an uptick in Tee Higgins opportunities. Experts speculate on which players are the beneficiaries of targets and carries when a player at the same position gets injured. They're right about half the time. You pick up the guy they advocated but that Sunday another player actually benefits. That's luck. Anyone owning Kyren Williams in 2023 had no idea he would run for anywhere close to 1,100 yards and score 12 touchdowns. The Rams traded Cam Akers. Trey McBride didn't take off until Zach Ertz was injured <i>and then</i> released.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Just listened to an "expert" advocate that rostering all kinds of backup running backs is more beneficial than rostering some back up wide receivers because you can predict which RB will get all the work if the starter goes out and with WR, you don't know who the target earners will be if the stud WR is injured. No, you don't know. You'd don't know in either case. You may end up being right, but you don't KNOW. Higgins and Chase have both missed enough time in Cincinnati the last two seasons to see that Tyler Boyd isn't getting even half Higgins' production when the studs are out, yet you'll still see people race to the waiver wire to add Boyd, and still see experts assume Boyd will be the beneficiary of a Chase or Higgins injury. In Chicago, when Khalil Herbert went down who knew D'onta Foreman would take off for a month rather than rookie Roschan Johnson? Experts have little idea. And besides, experts have different opinions. Who do you listen to?<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">USAGE</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;">This is a long one (yes, longer than injuries) because besides injury, it is the biggest determinant of a player’s performance.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>4) Offensive system. </b>Sure we can debate about zone-blocking, west coast, zone-read, option, hell- wishbone and run and shoot, etc. but in theory, the teams selecting the players plan to use them to their best ability. Anyone who has owned any Saint the last 5 years knows the scourge that is<br />Taysom Hill. He comes in to steal goal line touches, touches in the middle of the field, snaps<br />from the Saint’s QB. It is amazing Kamara scored 20 TDs in 2020 with Hill around. Dennis Allen,<br />please come up with a different offensive system in 2024 because the OC was finally relieved of his duties in New Orleans. I pray for Kendre Miller’s productivity, if he can actually stay healthy for more than 1 game in a row- see #1.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>5) Favorites. </b>Tua likes throwing to Tyreek Hill (at the expense of Jaylen Waddle) and Derek Carr likes throwing to anyone but Chris Olave. Carr got hurt in the 2nd half of the Vikings game in week 10, so insert Jameis Winston. Olave had 1 target and 0 catches with Carr in the game. He finished with<br />6 catches for 94 yards and a TD. I could not have predicted that Carr, who came back from concussions and shoulder separations every week, was allergic to throwing the ball to a top 12 dynasty wide receiver (Olave). Yes, Carr repeatedly coming back from injury to not throw to Olave was bad luck for the Olave owner. There's no argument. I traded Waddle, who I loved, for Olave (and other pieces) because Tua seemed Waddle averse.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> Kenny Pickett likes throwing to George Pickens and Trubisky to Diante Johnson. Unless you know which game Tomlin will bench one QB for the other, good luck predicting which wide receiver you'd want to own, and the answer certainly isn't both. That goes for both the wide receivers and the QBs under discussion here- you wouldn't want to own either or both.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>6) Coaching <i>changes</i> (head coach or offensive coordinator). </b>Neither Frank Reich (fired after going 3-5-1 as the Colts head coach in 2022), nor the toddler calling plays post-Reich, in the disaster that was the Jeff Saturday experiment, had a prayer. I was desperate enough to go through Jonathan Taylor's carries in every 2022 game to prove that running him off tackle/outside (which happened at a rate of less than half of his inside runs) would have equated to more productivity, and it would have, but not by as much as I thought. Taylor's underwhelming 2022 was due more to: 1-Matt Ryan, who did the best impersonation of a statue being attacked by bats I've seen; 2- a terrible offensive line (which was among the league's better ensembles for the two years prior); 3-a probable Taylor ankle injury he dealt with most of the year. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ryan was truly pathetic. Going through each game log, he should have been benched much much sooner. The number of interceptions, sacks, 9, 13 and 17 play drives that ended in missed field goals or Ryan or Taylor fumbles was alarming. If you couldn't have predicted that, you aren't as skilled at fantasy football as you think. Ryan was supposed to be an improvement over Wentz from the year before. That was definitely not the case.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jeff Saturday was brought in as a stop gap who some said might have been able to help fix the offensive line. Nope. He sucked as a head coach. This was yet another indication that guys who spout off about how they know the game because they played it, as a coach, couldn't carry the jock of the player they used to be. </div><div><br /></div><div>I believe the guy calling plays for Indianapolis after Saturday was installed, was coaching third-graders Red Rover strategy in phy-ed before he got the job. I didn’t need a fantasy expert to tell me what was happening. In fact, none of them did. Not one of them mentioned the rate at which Taylor was being chronically misused by running him inside and not utilizing his 4.4 speed to run off tackle. I looked up box scores and went play by play. Admittedly, the challenges identified under this number are circle of hell material- injury, usage, coaching change, terrible offensive line, terrible players at positions of dependency (aka Ryan) were all at play.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pittsburgh fired Matt Canada in 2023, who was terrible. For 2024, they hired hired Arthur Smith, who is evil.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>7) Questionable coaching and coaching decisions. </b>Yanking your starting QB in New Orleans to put in a guy everyone in the world knows is going to run the ball (Taysom Hill) is highly questionable. You can’t prove you’re winning any more games the last five years by subbing Hill in for Brees, Winston, Dalton or Carr. Ok, so maybe Winston. What Hill does to fantasy players is a tragedy. Can we see how the Saints would do without him- pleeeeeeeease?<br /><br /></div><div>A. Smith was calling end-arounds at the goal line to Jonnu Smith, a better blocker, who is slower than Kyle Pitts. Brainiacs on Twitter, reasoned that Jonnu Smith was getting rewarded because he was a better blocker- meanwhile, the whole team was getting punished by A. Smith because of his playcalling. Now, all fantasy players (who don't own Steelers) are getting rewarded because A. Smith was fired in Atlanta. Pitts was in the game, (at the time of the goal line tight end rush) said Arthur. Given a certain look, the play could have been different, said A. Smith. Knowing Smith's fantasy sins would have been that egregious, serially underusing Pitts since the 2021 season, Drake London since the 2022 season, and Bijan all of 2023 is not something half the fantasy community could have predicted. That is a traumatizing amount of luck because we couldn't have known a coach would be that stupid. I could go to a lot of examples- Reich and Saturday in Indianapolis running Taylor up the ass of his linemen in some weekly crusade to attempt to re-enact Mark Sanchez's butt-fumble; Kirk Cousins, despite some pretty good mobility, is always right where the pass rush can find him- in the pocket. Credit Kevin O'connell's "ingenuity" for that. Let’s just never roll him out, and never ask him to run- ever. If he can't pick up 10-12 first downs a year when the games are on the line with his legs, he is not worth $40 million a year. Good luck Atlanta.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span>More usage examples. I'm placing another few examples here and putting more at the end of this article, but in point of fact I could come up with enough examples from the last five years to fill ten more pages.</span><br /></div><div><b><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>a) Bijan Robinson</b> was treated like a yo-yo all year. He ran the ball 1 time in the headache game (vs. Tampa Bay) that Arthur Smith and the Falcons were fined $25k and $75k for respectively. You sat him right? There were no reports of him being ill. Smith was fired (I hope) as much because of his criminal under usage of his three stud offensive weapons as for three consecutive 7-10 finishes. </div><div><br /></div><div><b><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Arthur Smith actually had the nerve to say, </b>after being asked about his usage of star players- “I hope we aren’t valuing fantasy football over winning.” Dude, buddy- we care more about winning than you do. Why would someone in that position behave like that? And I'm not dumb enough to think that players like Robinson should get the ball 100% of the time. They will wear down. But the 50-50 split, considering the results and the metrics was utter nonsense. </div><div><br />Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay head coach, was asked about how the Bucs plan to stop Bijan before facing the Falcons for the 2nd time in 2023. His response was funny because it alluded to what happened in the first game (the “headache” game, when Bijan carried the ball 1 time for 1 yard in the 4th quarter): “We can stop him full-time if he doesn’t play.”<br /></div><div><br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>b) Easing rookies in? </b>David Montgomery returned from an injury in week 3 of 2023 and gets 32 carries against the Packers with Detroit up by 3 scores the entire second half, rendering Jahmyr Gibbs relatively useless. I get that a rookie missing blocking assignments and holes he’s supposed to hit may be reasons to keep their workload in check. Gibbs ran the ball 8 times for 40 yards, an average of 5 yards per carry. Problem is, he didn't need to pass block, because Detroit didn't need to pass. I don't need to be an NFL head coach to question one given those preconditions.</div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> Next, someone would say, well, if Gibbs were in up three scores and Detroit had to pass, Gibbs may have missed an assignment. The Lions had another experienced RB on roster who could have come in. The point is, not many could have known that the 12th overall draft pick would need as long to get acclimated as he did. Coaches seem to have the mentality to teach rookies a lesson before they have done anything wrong. Suspecting this, I opted to go rookie heavy in 2023 (Richardson, Stroud, Flowers, JSN, Nacua, Gibbs, B. Robinson, K. Miller, Mingo) with the intention of finding half of them that would work out to accelerate the timeline.</span><br /><br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>c) Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Zay Flowers, in 2023, </b>were used far more as possession receivers than the game-breakers they could have been. 29 of JSN’s 63 receptions were behind the line of scrimmage (credit an expert on that stat). Did the teams that drafted JSN and Flowers not watch them in college? <b><i>Knowing</i></b> team’s that paid a first round price for incredible talent wouldn’t put the players in optimal situations for much of the entire season isn’t a skill; it would not even be luck; it would be wizardry.<br /><br /></div><div> <b> </b><b>d) JSN: </b>according to Rotowire.com, JSN’s air yards per game was at 32.4; percentage of his<br />team’s air yards was 13.6% and his avg. depth of target (or ADOT) was 5.9 yards. Those are metrics which show criminal under usage and were even worse the first 4 games of the season when he was nursing a broken hand. If Seattle was going to use a racehorse like a nag, they could have drafted the less equestrian Demario Douglass in the 6th round. Now, Metcalf and Lockett had plenty to do with keeping JSN’s production in check, because they stayed healthy. In 2024, it is expected that both of them will be back. If one or both are injured for a few games and JSN is utilized in a manner equal to his talents, that owner will have gotten <b>lucky</b> in 2024, because JSN was just as capable of showing his talents in 2023.<br /><br /></div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>e) Banking on an injury to Metcalf and Lockett </b>was not my plan for JSN, but it happens.<br />Quentin Johnston (with an ADOT of 12.8 yards), drafted one pick after JSN, had every opportunity to succeed given the injuries to Mike Williams, and later, to Keenan Allen, but failed; I wisely did not draft Johnson. In JSN's only game without Metcalf against the Cardinals, he caught 4 balls for 63 yards and a touchdown. That was tied for his highest yardage total, and that game, he had his second highest yards per catch number of the season. If either Metcalf or Lockett were injured in game 3 and was out for the year, like Mike Williams was for the Chargers in 2023, JSN is probably catching 89 for 1150 yards and 7 TDs; instead he caught 63 for 628 and 4. Imagine this could happen, and does, to 10-12 NFL teams every year. Now, please tell me, which teams will have this situation play out in 2024, especially considering this is one of the deepest WR drafts in recent memory. Please tell me right now which rookies will over and under perform. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Note:</b> other usage-related examples which could not have been predicted are at the end of this list.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">GAME DAY IMPACTS</span></b></div><div><br /></div><b>8) Down 10-0, 17-6 game flow. </b>Holy hell do NFL head coaches panic when they're down by two scores, even if it is the first quarter. The best running teams in the league abandon the run way too often. The RB you started because the experts told you he was facing the 25th ranked run defense, gets only 7 carries for 24 yards and because the team that is trailing has a pass-catching specialist, he gets no receptions. That is a game script you could not have predicted. That’s luck. If that were a skill-based outcome, you would have known that before the game started and left your stud RB on the bench. There is an in-season Minnesota-based Fantasy Football show that gives letter/confidence grades to any worthy fantasy players every Saturday for that week's games. Listening to that show after the games have been played is amusing. They're about half right on a game by game basis and the host has been in the industry his whole life. If he told you his ability to beat a bunch of sharps were skill, they would be insulted, and if he told you him losing every week to a bunch of novices wasn't bad luck, I'd be shocked. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>9) Stupidity.</b> Chris Olave lost out on a bonus at 100 yards, and another catch (6.5 points in 1/2 ppr) when Rasheed Shaheed lined up offsides by two yards. Unless you can teach a professional football player, who has been playing the game since he was 5, to know how to line up on sides- that is luck. Bad<br />luck.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Your opponent has Courtland Sutton and you're up by 4 points on a Monday night. The team with the ball is close to being able to run the clock out, but the running back flushed outside goes out of bounds, when he could have fallen down to keep the clock moving. His mistake stops the clock and the team in the lead has to punt. This gives the ball back to the team on the NFL field and gives Sutton a chance to catch 2-3 more balls and the game winning touchdown. That could happen to anybody; but, tell me that ain't luck. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>10) Weather. </b>Windy/blowing conditions, icy conditions, heavy rain, poor field conditions. I’ve heard<br />former players state that wind is the worst of these. If your opponent’s players have ideal<br />conditions, or play in domes, and yours are essentially on the set of The Perfect Storm . . . that’s<br />luck. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>11) Miscellaneous. </b>I lost a playoff game 20 years ago because Tony Romo invited Jessica Simpson on a date to watch him play against the Eagles at Cowboys’ stadium. The final score was 10-6. I also had Terrell Owens in that game, and that whole year (Romo to Owens was magical). Oh, and that was the game Brian Westbrook laid down at the 1 . . . I had him too. If I had either the Cowboys or the Eagles’<br />punters, their combined punts may have outscored the 3 studs I had in the game (Romo, Owens<br />and Westbrook- who were all top 5 at their position that year).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Every fantasy manager has their own horror story where they lost by .2 because Christian McCaffrey ran the ball one more time for 2 more yards and it ended up costing them the game. That isn't even luck, just a bad loss. If you're in five leagues, those will even out. I'm not sure they always do in a short window of 1-3 years.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>12) Terrible officiating. </b>Zay Flowers had a 60 yard TD reception nullified late in the year because of<br />a holding penalty called by a ref who should have been suspended. The call was that bad. Phantom penalties are called all the time to extend or kill drives- hits to the head, late hits, interference, holding (for or against) that keep drives alive with your players on the field while your opponent’s are kept on the sideline for another 2, 4, or 7 minutes of game time, impacts one way or another the stats they can accumulate- that’s luck. I saw 2 obvious scores not overturned, or not challenged in the same week. These players obviously crossed the goal line- OB-VI-OUS-LY! Kyler Murray and Michael Pittman lost obvious touchdowns, but both crossed the goal line by a foot. Whoever owned those players in fantasy were screwed out of 6 points. Both the Cardinals and Colts subsequently scored touchdowns, but it wasn’t Murray and Pittman. Very, very predictable, and thus, that has gotta be skill. Nostradamus is back baby!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>13) <i>When</i> you play players. </b>Justin Fields misses game 9. The eventual division winner houses the<br />fantasy manager who owns Fields. Week 10, you play that same team, with Justin Fields who<br />also has DJ Moore and Cole Kmet. Fields’ availability makes them all viable now. Take a wild<br />guess about the results of those games. Tell me that isn’t luck. People will say it evens out.<br />Shouldn’t it though? It is pretty to think so. Write that down, someone quoting a Hemingway<br />line from the end of “The Sun also Rises” in a diatribe about fantasy football.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>14) The run stuffing D-lineman, 4 total defensive starters or the shut down corner </b>are out the week you play them, or back the week your opponent does. If a fantasy manager doesn't think that impacts the <b>probability</b> of an offensive player's production, they're not paying attention. Ask a fantasy manager who owned Stefon Diggs in 2023 if he would rather see L'Jarius Sneed and Trent McDuffie playing corner for the Bengals or prefer if they were injured and unavailable. Got you. Sneed and McDuffie don't play for the Bengals, they play for the Chiefs. Knowing that is important, (both who they are and whether or not they're healthy) not because you would have sat Diggs for a lesser player, but because Diggs' stat line (with healthy shut down corners) is more likely to be 2 catches for 28 yards than 9 for 147. That difference will cost some managers the game.<br /></div><div><br /><b>15) Fumbles, drops, dropped punts and pick 6s. </b>James Cook fumbled once in 2023 and barely saw the field the rest of that game. His stat line was horrible. Those are drive killers, stat killers, change the feel of a game, the score, and impact every play in the game and player on the field. These plays are the NFL equivalent of the butterfly effect.<br /><br /></div><div><span> </span><span> </span>Ps. Ask anyone who lived through the 2021 Diante Johnson drop-gate if they felt lucky or skilled that<span> </span>Tomlin was on a month long witch hunt to bench him. He wasn't wrong, but you would have been if you didn't know it- and you couldn't have.</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>16) Who you start any given Sunday.</b> Unless you’re playing best ball, this is a problem. There are 500 guys out there ranking players before the season starts and before every game. If you only followed their advice based on consensus, you would be wrong about 40% of the time. The 17th ranked tight end routinely outscores the 4th ranked, and the 32nd ranked RB can often outshine the 8th. If you start the right guy EVERY single time, that's still luck. You can't possibly predict what is going to happen in these games, unless you work for a Las Vegas casino sports book.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">DYNASTY IMPACTS</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>17) Trades, signings, drafts. </b>If you don't play dynasty, you have no idea. One example- I was high on Jaylen Waddle, who set the rookie record for receptions with 104, for 1015 yards and 7 TDs. That offseason they brought in Tyreek Hill. That's like having Jamaar Chase and bringing in another Jamaar Chase. Hill, along with head coach Mike McDaniel and Tua, has since killed Waddle’s fantasy value. Hill is better than Waddle; he’s just not twice as good as Waddle and that is close enough to what the target totals indicate most games. Hill’s usage is well better. I had no control over the Dolphins trading for Hill. If you think any more than 30% of fantasy football is skill, you should have replaced Arthur Smith in Atlanta because you’re just that messed up. I’ve got Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave now- I can’t wait for A. Rodgers to pout long enough to get Davante Adams to the Jets, or for the Saints to draft a top 4 WR prospect this year. If they don’t, that will still be luck. It will actually be good luck.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> <b>Note: </b>Waddle is every bit as good as Chase. They were selected one pick apart in the same draft. Waddle set the rookie receptions record (since broken by Puka) as a slot receiver averaging 9.8 yards per reception, and in his second year, Waddle was used completely differently, as a down field threat averaging almost double that with 350 more yards to his name, <b>with</b> Hill on the team. Imagine Waddle playing with Tee Higgins and Chase playing with Tyreek Hill and how their production would flip. Luck man. Luck.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>18) Holdouts. </b>Consider it is quasi-dynasty, salary cap when you can only keep 7 players. I had to let J. Taylor go because I couldn't trust he was going to play for the Colts in 2023 and I already had Cooper Kupp when there was no guarantee Kupp was only going to miss four games. If that isn't bad luck, let's chat, but only long enough for me to see if you are real.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>19) Suspensions or releases for off field issues. </b>Gambling (Jameson Williams, Calvin Ridley), PED positive test results, mary jane or gun possession, going 158 miles an hour in a 50 zone (Henry Ruggs), beating your significant other on camera suspensions (Ray Rice), spanking your children with switches suspensions (Adrian Peterson), mental health issues (Ridley). Unless you personally tweet all your players to tell them to have no opinions, interests, stop being evil, flawed, violent or human, this is something you cannot control (aka ‘luck’). I rostered Williams, Ridley, Rice and Peterson, among those listed, during those specific fiascos. Not coming remotely close to contending I suffered as much as the victims of their antics. Anyone who can predict all of that shouldn’t be playing fantasy football. You should quit your job and attempt to predict the next time Travis Kelce will say something meaningful with a microphone in his face and stop quoting the Beastie Boys’ most famous lyric. My guess would be never.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>20) Scouting college prospects (for Dynasty). </b>I chose CJ Stroud over Bryce Young. I<br />saw Stroud’s athleticism, poise, accuracy, accuracy on the move, pocket presence, etc. against Big Ten competition and hitched my dynasty fantasy wagon to him. I let some other unsuspecting owner pay the same amount (in a dynasty salary cap league) for Young. Multiple owners tried trading for Stroud,<br />perhaps thinking I didn’t know what I had. Wrong. One guy, hearing me complain about losing A.<br />Rodgers and A. Richardson for the year pointed out I was able to watch Stroud grow into a valuable dynasty asset because of their injuries. It is that kind of logic that separates the lucky from the good, too often benefitting the lucky. That owner scored fewer points than I did despite injuries to nearly all my starters and not half of his, claiming his depth saw him through to 11 victories v. the 6 that I had. He had 150 fewer points scored against him than anyone else in the league- luck, or skill? LUCK! Take it and move on, but don’t be ridiculous.<br /><br /></div><div>For about every CJ Stroud I get right, I get a Jameson Williams, who missed all of 2022, which I knew, and the first 4 games of 2023, which I didn't, that latter due to a gambling suspension. When Williams started playing, he didn't get on the field until he was willing to block and didn't seem to have the ability to track the ball, a problem for a deep threat. The Lions have Laporta, St. Brown and Gibbs, and they like to run, so they barely ever throw Williams the ball. I got him for $1 before the 2022 season when the Lions defense was trash. <br /><br /></div><div>I couldn’t have known the Lion’s defense would step up rendering Williams’ big play potential<br />useless into year 2; they’re rarely chasing points and Goff is legally obligated to target St. Brown ten times a game. <b>Knowing</b> all that about the Lions would have come in awfully handy. Congratulations to you, not for knowing all of that about the Lions (including that they added the #1 tight end in fantasy, as a rookie, which never happens), but for probably having invented time travel. <br /><br /></div><div><b>21) Making the right selection- veterans.</b> In 2021 I knew I wanted a Rams receiver, given the addition of Stafford into a McVay offense. Should I pay for Woods or Kupp? I paid attention and knew what both Woods and Kupp brought to the table. I knew Woods would be good with Stafford; I highly suspected Kupp would be great. I was wrong- he was otherworldly- better than Jefferson and<br />Chase, the darlings of dynasty, in 2021, and through week 9 of 2022. I paid $7 for Kupp.<br />Someone else paid about as much for Woods. Was that luck? A little bit. In another league<br />an owner who ended up with Kupp admitted they guessed and tried chalking that up to<br />skill after going 12-1. Guessing and skill are mutually exclusive. They could have easily ended up with Woods and lost 2 to 3 more games in a competitive league. Woods also played barely half the season while Kupp was averaging well over 20 points per game.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>MISCELLANEOUS</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b>22) NFL teams that tank or stay competitive.</b> In addition to actual injuries, there are fake ones.<br />The logic from the real NFL teams is sound. If the Bengals are 2-9, what is the incentive to keep playing Joe Burrow if he's recovered from an ankle injury? What is the incentive to play a promising rookie RB who has been dinged up for a month or a WR that suffered a hip injury the week before if they can play for a better draft pick? Players suit up and play, and some play well with nicks and bruises. But they're far more likely to do so in the first couple months of the season than in the last 4-6 games once their team's fate has been determined. It behooves a fantasy owner to know all the teams that are going to be competitive so they only roster players from teams that will make the playoffs. I wrote that sentence with a smirk. Anyone with skill will be able to tell me all the playoff teams so I only roster players on competitive teams compelled to play their players because the games are meaningful instead of sitting a player who skinned his knee.</div><div><br /></div><div>We all knew the Chargers would suuuuck in 2023 and so we traded Keenan Allen before he and Herbert got hurt. You knew just when to bail. Also, you traded Aaron Rodgers right before play #3 of the season and Dobbins during halftime of game one. If you're fighting to win the title and Ja'Marr Chase suffers a shoulder injury in week 13 with the Bengals 3-10, you think your <i>skill</i> is keeping Chase active? For you?</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>23) Fantasy football is a science AND an art,</b> but it looks more like Guernica than a naked picture of Marilyn Monroe I didn't inherit from my dad. If you don't know what metrics, models, analytics, draft capital, age curves, high value touches, targets per route run, age-based production profiles are, could mean, or where the players you're considering drafting rank among those you don't end up with, I have no time for you. Knowing those things is where the skill is. And even knowing those things can still be trumped by luck; the experts are flummoxed every week by a player's usage despite knowing all of those numbers among a dozen other qualities.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><u>Additional <b>usage</b> examples (lettering continued from Usage heading above)</u>:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>f) Flowers:</b> per Rotowire.com, Flowers’ ADOT was 8.4%, with an air yards per game number of 56.4. All of Flowers’ numbers went up when Mark Andrews was injured, as did Isiah Likely’s<br />(Baltimore’s backup TE). What would Rashee Rice’s have done if Kelce were injured? Rice came on late after it was confirmed that other Chiefs wide receivers weren’t capable of catching the ball which is different from the Ravens in that their offense is built around not being all that interested in throwing it . . . at least not to Flowers . . . in a manner anyone who scouted him for fantasy football purposes had expected. Raising my hand!!! The point is, there are all kinds of variables even experts don’t consider, so the assumption that skill trumps luck in novice fantasy football leagues when half the league doesn’t know what they’re doing, is pretty fantastic. Not fantastic in the first definition sense- "extraordinarily good," but in the classic sense- “imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality”.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>g) Tank Dell</b> averaged 97.5 air yards per game; his average depth of target was 14.3 yards and<br />he had 22% of his team’s air yards. People now want Tank Dell for season long and dynasty more than these wide receivers drafted in the 2023 draft’s first round- JSN, Flowers, Johnston and Jordan Addison for two reasons- 1) usage, which not many could have predicted prior to the season and 2) because he is tied to C.J. Stroud. Rookie QBs don’t have the habit of supporting two top 24 wide receivers (Dell and Niko Collins) in a single season; they barely ever support one. Stroud did that. Tell me you could have predicted that before the season started. You didn’t; that’s luck. Picking Dell up in week 6 because half the league isn’t paying attention isn’t skill either. Winning leagues with participants who barely pay attention isn't skill or luck; you're just the one-eyed king in the land of the blind.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>h) Playcallers (an extension of the coach and O.C. examples). </b>How many times have you listened to the breakdown after a game where the play caller says "we should have gotten player X or Y more involved?” I’ve heard that from Andy Reid on more than one occasion. Todd Monken, O.C. for the Ravens kept throwing the ball in the AFC Championship game despite having the #1 rushing offense. Some of these guys are top 10 play-callers. You cannot predict that NFL coaches, with decades of experience, know what they’re doing. How is a fantasy football owner not unlucky given those scenarios? What else is there besides skill and talent, except patience- as a rookie player takes time to get acclimated to the speed of the game, the playbook, the nuances of the position. I really, really want to crawl inside some of these play caller's brains and find out why they misuse the talent that, quite frankly, you don't need to have decades of coaching experience to see.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /> <b> </b><b>i) Goedert. </b>Just listened to a fantasy show discussing Dallas Goedert’s 2023 performance.<br />They said he became a guy who caught a pass and just fell down. That’s not quite right.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Goedert analysis:</b> His 2022 and 2023 seasons were very similar. Only thing that seemed to change was the offensive coordinator, who was fired after the 2023 season. Blaming Goedert’s usage on Goedert makes no sense. He can only run the routes the O.C.s call. Some people are walking around thinking they skillfully owned Goedert in 2022, but luckily didn’t in 2023. Nonsense. The O-line and skill players were just as effective and healthy in both seasons.<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> Goedert </span>played 2 fewer games in ’22 than ’23 (12 to 14) and had 14 fewer targets. The productivity difference was insignificant (excepting a 2 yard difference in yards per catch). In 2023 Goedert caught 4 more balls, for 110 fewer yards and the same number of TDs (3). The truth about Goedert is Philly didn’t use him to his capability in ’22 or ’23. They never have.<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>I didn’t know how closely those seasons resembled each other until I studied, something <i>lucky</i> fantasy owners don't do. Goedert has never had more than 87 targets, 59 receptions, 830 yards or 5 touchdowns. If he eclipses any of those numbers in 2024 and the fantasy owner credits his own skill, I'll bring him up on charges. You have no idea; neither do the experts. I've been listening.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> I owned Goedert in 2022 and 2023. Both Brown and Devonta Smith stayed healthy. If either of them get injured in 2024 and Goedert gets 20 more targets, another 130 yards and 2 more touchdowns, how is that not luck?</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> <b>Special Note:</b> see comments about what would have happened to JSN's productivity in 2023 if Metcalf and Lockett had gotten injured and the same applies to Goedert if A.J. Brown or Devonta Smith had gotten injured. The fact they have stayed healthy for two straight years is luck for their owners and conversely, that isn't <i>good</i> luck for Goedert owners.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> <b>Special Note #2: </b>of the first round receivers, all benefited from notable pass catching option injuries except for JSN. Jefferson (Addison), (Williams and Allen) Q. Johnston, and (Andrews) Flowers all missed significant time. Guess which one I owned for all of 2023. If that wasn't obvious- it was JSN. That ain't skill. (Also had Flowers but traded him in week 10).<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><b>j) The Ravens were not getting blown out in the 2023 AFC Championship game</b> against the Chiefs and yet O.C. Todd Monken called very few designed runs. The panic of NFL teams/coaches who are down by 7 to 10 points is the panic the average dog has when the door bell rings. Imagine the score of a game is 13-3 with three minutes left in the first quarter. Are there more than 10 whole numbers between 13 and 3 I don't know about? Run the god-damned ball!<span> </span><span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">All that said, my fantasy football days are much closer to the end than the beginning. I listen to 8-</div><div style="text-align: left;">10 hours of fantasy football podcasts a week during the season, read as much as I do and lose to people who don’t know the difference between luck and skill, and don't know the difference between 8 injuries and 4, nor the difference between your players missing entire seasons and their players who miss three games.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I’ve probably managed 35-40 fantasy football teams over the 25 years I've been playing. Never owned more than 2 teams in any given year, so complaints about injuries, usage, coaching, etc. carry more weight. There is an industry "expert", as long-winded as I am, who acts like he's Sisyphus or Job if he suffers an underperformance injustice. Anyone who owns twelve teams and wonders why player X has underperformed to spite him needs psychological help. Player X will underperform just as much in the other 8 leagues where you don’t own him- did none of that player's terrible scores positively impact you? And never have about as often as they've hurt you, any week, of any year?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I’m still too competitive to have all the attention I pay and the calculated risks I take, be defiled by wicked luck in the only league I participate in.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>obihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903727839090351466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-5669502517917026282020-08-01T08:46:00.002-05:002024-02-18T10:33:31.255-06:00Racism and the Color of Money - Part IV (History)<br />
Broadly, all groups, but the rich, have been historically and chronically short-changed by American politics and socioeconomics no matter the color of their skin- per below.<br />
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I apologize if this installment comes off a little cryptic. I’ve read both the source subject matter and some criticism of this man’s work- namely, that he wasn’t a legitimate historian, his presentation wasn’t as original as we first supposed, that he neglected certain truths while passing off anecdotal evidence as historical fact. He was a socialist, and too many of his conclusions promote a socialist’s view. We should ignore the torrent of truth because of a droplet of seeming cantankerous un-Americanism. There are always going to be class divisions in this country. But the economic and influential disparity of those classes started out extreme, again per below and continues to expand as it keeps stretching into infinity like the outer reaches of space.<br />
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One, apparently legitimate historian, wrote this about the man I'm referencing, with his work under question, after some reluctant and back-handed complements: "The problem with [his] work, however, is that it sometimes tries so hard to assault our complacency that it fails to offer an honest account of how political change actually happens."<a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/22296/howard-zinn-peoples-history-of-the-united-states"> Criticism of one man's historical view</a>, <br />
Kyle Williams, March 9, 2020.<br />
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How does political change actually happen in this country? Mostly, it doesn't. Sure, there are labor disputes and public outcries of support for one cause or another, but all that energy spent in view of the country mostly immune to its effects are definitely ignorant of its causes (probably a paraphrase of a Madison quote from Federalist #10). We, the historically subjected lesser economic classes, fight for rights mostly granted a generation or two too late, if at all. The kind of America we have is largely left up to the miasma and stench of power-brokers and corporate elites. I don't know that I'd put a lot of stock in a rebuttal where the leading critique of someone bringing that much truth to the discussion- (see below), is that he's naive, and I don't care if the source of that criticism had been granted, by god, a post-doctoral fellowship from the University of Heaven-ville.<br />
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The book I'm referencing is 688 pages, not including a 19 page bibliography.<br />
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So, what really has changed.<br />
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Well, we aren't gunned down in the back by Rockefeller-hired detective agents as was the case in the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, because "mostly foreign-born--Greeks, Italians, Serbs" who worked for a Colorado mining company and went on strike "against low pay, dangerous conditions, and feudal domination of their lives in towns completely controlled by the mining companies." (pg. 354) So, that's good right, that we aren't gunned down.<br />
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However, companies are still bringing in foreign workers to compete for jobs with people who are already here, which guards against strikes and keeps controllable costs/employee salaries low. It used to be the Irish, Hungarians and Chinese, then Latinos, etc. who were imported, now it is Indians. The ancillary benefit of that import, only slowed recently by Trump's visa suspension<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/us/politics/trump-h1b-work-visas.html"> Trump visa suspension</a>, Michael D. Shear and Miriam Jordan, The New York Times, June 22, 2020.<br />
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The ancillary benefit of all that importation is that all of those workers become consumers and contribute to the GDP. Convenient. The importation of tens of thousands of foreign workers into technology sectors isn't a check against black people; that is a wage check against anyone with a certain type of skill set, given their experience. And why pay someone with 20 years of experience who is at the upper tier of the salary structure when you can pay someone else far less, give them a tryout as a contractor, while not supplement what they’re paying for medical benefits, and then bring them on at a severely reduced salary, letting experienced people go in the process. Forgive me if some of the results of this Visa suspension seem to indicate that it is a net loss for America; it is a gross loss for this particular writer, as I’ve already once had my job shipped to India, and once had IT competition shuffle me into the churn of the job search world without my consent. Sorry, but I can’t care if some extra doctors, nurses, or IT professionals aren’t admitted to my country, when I’ve got a mortgage, three kids and the responsibility to fund my retirement for which I’ve been saving my whole life.<br />
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The globalization pandemic means that the country doesn't even have to physically bring people into the country to compete for American jobs. The visa suspension wouldn't necessarily slow that avenue for the rich to continue to build their wealth/maintain their advantages. And lord knows that the rich don't just spend their money on homes, vacations, expensive dinners and boats when there are candidates for government offices to support in their re-election campaigns. Since the supreme court has granted free speech rights in the name of campaign contributions, nothing has changed there either, and you can go back well past the 2010 Citizens United verdict to see how much it hasn't changed.<br />
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Along with that, there's a recession scheduled about every six years. There have been twelve in the seventy-five years since the end of WWII. A recession is defined as "a contraction in economic growth lasting two quarters or more as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP)."<a href="https://www.history.com/news/us-economic-recessions-timeline"> History of recessions</a>, Dave Roos, April 29, 2020. If you think companies won't use any official recession indicators, or plenty of unofficial ones, to justify a dip in the salary structure or to communicate salaries or bonuses were negatively impacted, well then, the reason for lower salaries this year is because not enough bird-houses were refinanced by squirrels in the last 18 months, so you're only getting a 1.25% salary bump for all the hard work we were told you did last year.<br />
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Companies are so hell-bent on outlining the ways in which they measure up in the self-congratulatory corporate social responsibility index, in many cases, why would paying an employee the salary they've earned be all that important, as there is nothing left in the self-awareness department.<br />
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One last appetizing diversion before heading to the main course. The author I'm spotlighting this time out wrote this on page 441: "The distribution of wealth was still unequal [following WWII]. From 1944 to 1961, it had not changed much: the lowest fifth of all families received 5 percent of all the income; the highest fifth received 45 percent of all income. In 1953, 1.6 percent of the adult population owned more than 80 percent of the corporate stock . . . About 200 giant corporations out of 200,000 corporations--one tenth of 1 percent . . . controlled 60 percent of the manufacturing wealth of the nation." If the pages of the book were torn out and crumpled up into a hat, someone drawing them out would have a 50% chance of selecting one with a fact like that, or a quote worthy of any article someone could write to justify the historical economic advantages of the rich and how little has changed on the topic of wealth and income disparity.<br />
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And by god, I'm a capitalist, but there are other words for what we have going on here (oligarchy, plutocracy, etc.), and one of those, in the case of economics, which is something not enough people are paying attention to, is not racism.<a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/"> Pew income and wealth inequality</a> Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Ruth Igielnik and Rakesh Kochhar, January 9, 2020; "Trend in Income and Wealth Inequality.<br />
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Overall, the next source proves my point, but in fairness, I don't agree with their presentation of point #3, that "In the U.S., black-white income gap has held steady since 1970." Fifty years ago whites made $24k more than blacks; in 2018 that difference is $33k. I don't call that holding steady- that's a difference of $9,000. That difference, adjusted for comparing the workforce job responsibilities, regions of the country and industry, should be $0.<br />
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<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/6-facts-about-economic-inequality-in-the-u-s/">Pew research- 6 facts economic inequality</a>. Katherine Schaeffer, February 7, 2020.<br />
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Point #5 of that same article, is the one to focus on- "The wealth gap between America's richest and poorer families more than doubled from 1989 to 2016 . . . Another way of measuring inequality is to look at household wealth, also known as net worth, or the value of assets owned by a family, such as a home or a savings account, minus outstanding debt, such as a mortgage or student loan." Someone could spend a week consuming and digesting similar articles from the last ten years about income inequality. I defy anyone who can find a reputable site/article which would boast that the income disparity between the richest 5% of the U.S. population has not grown, or is not growing, at a rate that is difficult to comprehend. On cue- "For the top 5%, [since the start of the Great Recession in 2007 to 2016, net worth] increased by 4%, to $4.8 million. In contrast, the median net worth of families in lower tiers of wealth decreased by at least 20%."<br />
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The reason it is the one to focus on is because it doesn't take race into account. People can't tell me the larger issue at this stage of the socieconomic game is not this country's problem with the color green. Let's naively find out if that has changed.<br />
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Let us assume that there can be, metaphorically speaking, because of the equal mixing of black and white, plenty of grey areas, on any topic. People can hide their thoughts and feelings in the grey areas. They can make accusations and require the burden of proof of others because our world, and our issues, are so complex. This one time, I’ll make it easy. The difference between right and wrong is easy. This time, with a global pandemic and systemic racism as the backdrop, it's time to focus on a new headline. Let’s focus on the larger systemic issue- the historical subjection of the lesser economic classes, and not continue to embrace the uncertainty of all things, including what actually did or didn’t happen, what was or was not said, who was or wasn't elected, which are all things that Oliver Stone focused on in his 2012 documentary about the "Untold History of the United States" which largely focuses on 20th century military and political entanglements.<br />
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I ask specifically, so we do not need to live immersed in the shade of grey, so we can declare definitively in order to share a common understanding. Are these pieces of American history not true? Did the events below not occur? Are the rich misunderstood and misrepresented by the man compiling this information? Who is the revisionist- the man who offers a different look at the nation’s glossed over history based on input from the types of people unilaterally shortchanged in that department, or those who are content to nitpick at individual conclusions who miss the light of all the stars because they are distracted by the moon?<br />
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Did the citizens in the lower classes not feel and think the way the author presents? Is he providing facts that aren't true, or misquoting the person in question? Please tell me, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessup, that you haven't brought us here, to answer questions/read articles about phone calls and foot lockers, when the author I'm highlighting has written about a CODE RED! You're God-damn [write he] did!!!<br />
<br />
Due to space these are mere targeted selections to offer my reasons for contending our country’s problem is more complicated than black v. white, from a volume of some renown:<br />
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Pg. 37: “Only one fear was greater than the fear of black rebellion in the new American colonies. That was the fear that discontented whites would join black slaves to overthrow the existing order. Via Edmund Morgan- “ ‘There are hints that the two despised groups initially saw each other as sharing the same predicament. It was common . . . for servants and slaves to run away together, steal hogs together, get drunk together. It was not uncommon for them to make love together. In Bacon’s Rebellion, one of the last groups to surrender was a mixed band of eighty negroes and twenty English servants.’”<br />
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Pg. 47: “It seems quite clear that class lines hardened through the colonial period; the distinction between rich and poor became sharper. By 1700 there were fifty rich families in Virginia with wealth equivalent to 50,000 pounds . . . who lived off the labor of black slaves and white servants . . .”<br />
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Pg. 49: “. . . the upper class was getting most of the benefits and monopolized political power. A historian who studied Boston tax lists in 1687 and 1771 found that in 1687 there were, out of a population of six thousand, about one thousand property owners, and that the top 5 percent--1 percent of the of the population--consisted of fifty reich individuals who had 25 percent of the wealth. By 1770 the top 1 percent of property owners owned 44 percent of the wealth [back then] loss of property meant loss of voting rights.”<br />
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Pg. 56: “Along with the very rich and the very poor, there developed a white middle class of small planters, independent farmers, city artisans, who, given small rewards for joining forces with merchants and planters, would be a solid buffer against black slaves, frontier Indians, and very poor whites.”<br />
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Pg. 73: “ . . . just a few years after [John Locke] had written his Second Treatise [on Government] . . . As advisor to the Carolinas, he had suggested a government of slaveowners run by wealthy land barons.” It is important to keep in mind that the Declaration of Independence was based on Locke’s, among others, Enlightenment era model of government.<br />
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Pg. 75: “Four days after the reading, [of the Declaration of Independence]” . . . the [Boston] townsmen were ordered “to show up on the Common for a military draft. The rich, it turned out, could avoid the draft by paying for substitutes; the poor had to serve.”<br />
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Pg. 85: “Carl Degler says (Out of Our Past): “ ‘The men who engineered the revolt were largely members of the colonial ruling class.’ George Washington was the richest man in America. John Hancock was a prosperous Boston Merchant. Benjamin Franklin was a wealthy printer.”<br />
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Pg. 91: “Four groups . . . were not represented in the Constitutional Convention: slaves, indentured servants, women, men without property. And so the Constitution did not reflect the interests of those groups.”<br />
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From pages 103-124 is a chapter outlining the ways in which the female gender was oppressed followed by a chapter about the oppression of Native Americans (pgs.125-148), followed by a chapter about the expansion of American dominion in North America with a focus on Texas statehood, the acquisition of California, Nevada and Arizona, etc. (pgs 149-169). All are suitable topics to explore independently, and all are regrettable in breadth and depth, but none are fit material for a review of class antagonism, although a reading of those chapters would not grant the wealthy immunity from the overwhelming blame due to them because of their subjection of any class lower than theirs.<br />
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I could have chosen twenty items from among the dubious historical actions transacted against the less powerful by those in command, given the resources (due to numbers, finances, or lawful or sexist controls). Blacks aren’t the only race or gender that has suffered because of the famous, rich and powerful: (pg. 108) “Anne Hutchinson . . . defied the church fathers in the early years of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by insisting that she, and other ordinary people, could interpret the Bible for themselves . . . soon groups of sixty or more were gathering at her home in Boston to listen to her criticisms of local ministers. John Winthrop, the governor, described her as ‘a woman of . . .’" You know what- it doesn’t matter how that a-hole described her. Giving him a voice is something he didn’t allow her, so to hell with him. Let me just say it was unkind, dismissive and likely, since she had so many followers, dead wrong. She challenged his narrow view of the world and since he was in a position to silence her, he did so. He was rich and politically well-connected and a member of the elite ruling class, so he could stifle her views because he was in control and had the power to, not because he was white. See, there is a difference between one’s race and one’s way of thinking and acting toward other people because of their economic position- no matter the time period. Hutchinson was excommunicated from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638.<br />
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Pg. 176: “The instances where poor whites helped slaves were not frequent, but sufficient to show the need for setting one group against the other. [Eugene] Genovese says:<br />
<br />
‘The slaveholders . . . suspected that non-slaveholders would encourage disobedience and even rebellion, not so much out of sympathy for the blacks as out of hatred for the rich planters and resentment of their own poverty. White men sometimes were linked to slave insurrectionary plots, and each such incident rekindled fears.’ ”<br />
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Pg. 177: “The need for slave control led to an ingenious device, paying poor whites--themselves so troublesome for two hundred years of southern history--to be overseers of black labor and therefore buffers for black hatred.” When the Slave Patrol is referenced, keep in mind that it wasn’t devised by the middle class white man.<br />
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Pg. 187: “It was the Supreme Court of the United States that declared in 1857 that the slave Dred Scott could not sue for his freedom because he was not a person, but property.” Anyone who hasn’t read much about the meandering highest court in the land, and their inconsistent deference to justice is in for a treat.<br />
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Pg. 210: “ . . . W. E. B. Du bois, saw the late-nineteenth century betrayal of the Negro as part of a larger happening in the United States, something happening not only to poor blacks but to poor whites. In his book Black Reconstruction [he thought there was a] new capitalism as part of a process of exploitation and bribery taking place in all the ‘civilized’ countries of the world:<br />
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‘Home labor in cultured lands, appeased and misled by a ballot whose power the dictatorship of vast capital strictly curtailed, was bribed by high wage and political office to unite in an exploitation of white, yellow, brown and black labor, in lesser lands . . .’<br />
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Was Du Bois right--that in that growth of American capitalism, before and after the Civil War, whites as well as blacks were in some sense becoming slaves?” It is difficult for me to put servants and economically abused whites on the same level as “slaves.” The economic and political elite did not abuse each of them equally it seems. But the whites on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder and the black slaves who rank even lower, have many more similarities than differences, just like today. Not much has changed in the 400 years since the nation was colonized.<br />
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Pg. 216: “The stories of the Anti-Renter movement and Dorr’s Rebellion are not usually found in textbooks on United States history. In these books, given to millions of young Americans, there is little on class struggle in the nineteenth century. The period before and after the Civil War is filled with politics, elections, slavery, and the race question. Even where specialized books on the Jacksonian period deal with labor and economic issues they center on the presidency, and thus perpetuate the traditional dependency on heroic leaders rather than people’s struggles.”<br />
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Pg. 235: “The Conscription Act of 1863 provided that the rich could avoid military service: they could pay $300 or buy a substitute.” One stanza from an 1863 tune “Song of the Conscripts”:<br />
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"We’re coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more<br />
We leave our homes and firesides with bleeding hearts and sore<br />
Since poverty has been our crime, we bow to thy decree;<br />
We are the poor and have no wealth to purchase liberty.”<br />
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Pg. 244: German socialists in Chicago: “The present system has enabled capitalists to make laws in their own interests to the injury and oppression of the workers.”<br />
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Pg. 261: “ . . . the Supreme Court had accepted the argument that corporations were ‘persons’ and<br />
their money was property protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.<br />
Supposedly, the Amendment had been passed to protect Negro rights, but of the Fourteenth<br />
Amendment cases brought before the Supreme Court between 1890 and 1910, nineteen dealt with<br />
the Negro, 288 dealt with corporations.”<br />
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The discovery of how complicit the supreme court has traditionally been in maintaining the socioeconomic and political power broker and corporate elite status quo may await you. Enjoy. Purposeful, constitutionally law-abiding when there are no words in that document to base opinions on, for or against, or indiscriminately incompetent, it doesn’t matter. The supreme court has been too ineffectual, not just when it decides cases, historically, but when it refuses to hear them- <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/876853817/supreme-court-will-not-re-examine-doctrine-that-shields-police-in-misconduct-sui">supreme court denies hearing of qualified immunity</a><br />
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Pg. 291: “The laws that took the vote away from blacks--poll taxes, literacy tests, property qualifications--also often ensured that poor whites would not vote . . . a Populist leader of Georgia, pleaded for racial unity:<br />
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‘You are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both. You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system which beggars both.’"<br />
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In fairness, that same “leader” denounced any black support obtained for his party when it no longer suited his purposes. Including this information, just as the author of this book had done, to be even-handed about the despicable abuses of blacks, to show how complicated and multi-faceted is the interconnectedness of the race (black v. white) issue with the green issue, while also showing how duplicitous the power brokers can be.<br />
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Many times, antagonism with other countries was manufactured, or opportunities for economic expansion were hatched. Teddy Roosevelt, whose likeness does NOT need to be wiped from the side of a mountain in South Dakota, wrote in a letter to a friend- “In strict confidence . . . I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.”(pg. 297)<br />
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(Pgs. 306-307) The Maine exploded in February of 1898, and that was enough to precipitate the Spanish-American War, against the wishes of many American labor unions. Meanwhile most of the 19 workers who were killed, in the 1897 Lattimer Massacre, were shot in the back. Among them, Austrians, Hungarians, Italians and Germans, and, presumably none of them black. If they were, the author of this book would have mentioned it. I’m including this because it is indicative of the labor v. business entanglements that are hallmarks of the American system, exclusive of any intrusion of the obvious race concerns by which everyone is so easily distracted.<br />
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I’ve included the previous example because to stress another point which would challenge the typical 21st Century conservative. If someone defends a union, one isn’t a socialist, any more than one is a racist by objectively calling attention to the missteps of blacks while echoing their justifiable frustrations. I think capitalism is the best economic approach which has been tried, but I don’t like the contrivances, both underhanded and overtly violent, which can be easily traced to its historical success. Violence?<br />
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Yes. If one has not been acquainted with the stream of misguided supreme court opinions and now centuries old fights for fair wages, again, they have work to do.<br />
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An elite power structure whose biggest goal is to stay in power, like most politician’s prime concern is staying in office- do the masses of people think that independently wealthy, or corporate elitists, who stand to lose what anyone else would stand to gain at their expense, care what color someone’s skin is?<br />
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Now, has the race of white people generally benefited (in terms of competition for jobs, salary, homes, etc.) from the even worse subjection of black people? Of course. But hasn't he stood to lose economically by the importation of workers for competitive wage purposes? Of course. And I would rather we not have subjected black Americans to second-class citizenship through the ages. I would rather they were paid equal to whites in fields now highly populated with Indians, green-carded into the country to compete for technical jobs, so that employers could keep salaries low by providing competition to people who have spent their whole lives here, while simultaneously, importing millions of consumers to replenish the aging populace with fresh subjects to help contribute to the nation’s GDP.<br />
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I’m sorry, but anyone who thinks the skin color problem is bigger than our green problem, maintained by a corrupt political duopoly financed by our corporate elites, both wanting to retain influence and power, given all that I’ve referenced above, and hundreds of other citations I could have made to further prove my point, from our 400 years on this continent, is simply not paying attention. Perhaps<br />
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People think this nation's racial divide is easier to bridge than our economic one and we'll eventually all hold the richest of our countrymen accountable together. Ah, that I would like to see.<br />
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The book, from which the references above are derived, is A People’s History of the United States, written by Howard Zinn. If you read one book about American history in your life- first of all, don't do that, but if you do, it should be Zinn's.<br />
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The End.obihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903727839090351466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-77734788427073216602020-06-26T16:45:00.000-05:002020-06-28T09:01:39.859-05:00Race and the Color of Money Part III (Minutiae and Magnitude) <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(continued numbering from last time)</span><br />
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<b><span style="background-color: #fffefe; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif;">8. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Minutiae-</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I’m going to preface this next number with- Aisha told Davis to go eff himself and then Brittany and Zay backed Davis up and Aisha was like uh-uh, I don’t play like that bich! Here is the skinny on the actual hubbub- Drew Brees said something regrettable about kneeling rather than standing for the national anthem and flag presentation- </span><a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29262906/saints-drew-brees-says-never-agree-anybody-disrespecting-flag" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brees on the flag</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; Aaron Rodgers and Lebron James offered a rebuttal on Brees’ overshight. Laura Ingraham told Lebron James to “shut up and dribble!” </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/sport/lebron-james-laura-ingraham-drew-brees-spt-intl/?iid=ob_lockedrail_longstory_pool" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">just dribble</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Let me put my response to all that as succinctly as possible . . . hey, rich famous people- shut </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">up and sit down- all you all. Let’s hear from people who are going to help fix the problem. If </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">you’re famous, I probably care less about your opinion by default because odds are you’re </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">probably a self-important jackasses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>9. </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Governor Walz- the week of the George Floyd protests in Minnesota stated that Minnesota is a great place to live- economically, educationally, if you’re white.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> How is Minnesota if you’re rich? My dad worked as an auto body repairman (from which he was laid off multiple times) for most of his life and a janitor his last decade of employment. I received no scholarships for being white and was denied a low-income loan because my mom had her retirement money in the bank (inheritance from the death of her mother). I have been let go from decent jobs twice because companies in this state either 1) sent my job overseas or 2) the woman deciding my employment had a vendetta against someone rightfully challenging her authority. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I was an English major, who a month out from graduation from college learned that my future </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">prospects for yearly salary just out of college and ten years in the future was N/A (not applicable). I made it into the information technology area because I made a favorable impression in the work ethic department and was hired based on past performance. So, Mr. Governor, qualify your remarks. Look at the disparity between rich and middle class and poor a little closer. Look at education level as it equates to one’s economic prospects- I have. Don’t tell me it is as simple as black and white. The problem color is green. I have not been at the right place at the right time and gotten zero breaks because of the color of my skin.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’m not saying the racial divide wasn’t ever the biggest problem this country has had to face. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’m saying it isn’t anymore. There are millions of white people, still not enough however, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">speaking out on behalf of black people, how many rich people speak out on behalf of them? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And people please, I’m not talking about people who worked harder than I have to get where </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">t</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">hey are. I’ve got white relatives who do work/have worked 50 and 60 hour weeks routinely, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">working on vacations, to get what they have. I’m not calling anyone out assuming I know how </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">they contribute to society or financially to worthy causes.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">B</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ring to mind the scene in “Good Will Hunting”, where Sean (played by Robin Williams), tells Will “It’s not your fault,”</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> over and over again, until Will breaks down. That’s how I feel on the issue of where we are with this race issue. My wife on Facebook was following someone who had a friend of theirs comment on the race issue. He wrote, to paraphrase- if I’m a guy, with his daughter and a fluffy dog on a leash out for a walk, I’m a father, but if I’m by myself, I’m a black man. NO, no you’re not. Not to me. If you are a guy by yourself in my neighborhood with a skull cap on, pants down to the back of your knees, walking with an attitude and a scowl, and you’re black, you have my attention. But if you have that same gangster attitude, same scowl, same attire and you’re white, you also have my attention. I can’t help with the black man’s uneasiness, chip on their shoulderness, or insecurity; I got enough of my own because nothing was handed to me either. I have “won” what I have worked for.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>11. </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jimmy Kimmel just apologized for his use of the N-Word 25 years ago-</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/23/entertainment/jimmy-kimmel-blackface-apology/index.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kimmel</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Good, he should. He should have known better. But apologizing for wearing black face simply impersonating George Wallace, Oprah Winfrey, Karl Malone, etc. That’s ridiculous. Again, where are all the black comedians coming to apologize for uptight whitey cracker comments? Yeah, I didn’t think so. John Wayne (“The Conqueror”) played friggin’ Genghis Khan for Christ’s sake. Stupid stuff happens. Donald Trump’s been pretending to be president of the United States for almost four years and at least twelve percent of the country is pretending to be just fine with it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>12. </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Magnitude- an Oliver Twist. Jon Oliver featured the Police- similar to what Colbert did, for all 33 minutes of his June 7th (2020) episode of Last Week Tonight.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4cea5oObY" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oliver June 7th</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I was predominantly disgusted by what I saw- from numbers of arrests, stops and killings (of black people), to footage of irresponsible and violent acts by police, to interviews of cops (particularly of clueless Bob Kroll the president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis). I was also pretty disappointed in the tenor of the chastisement which Oliver provided. A couple times I was amused by Oliver’s disparagement of anyone who wasn’t apologizing for earning a paycheck who wears blue and is expected to protect and serve. That type of one-sided presentation is part of the problem. At one point however, and I’m proud of him, he even lowered the boom on former president Clinton (in five different state of the union addresses) for thinking just putting 100,000 more cops out on the street would solve the problem. It is tirades, or even measured dressing downs, of the police, which will discourage more people from being interested in becoming cops. Quite a roller-coaster of emotions, as evidenced by the tangled summation I’m failing at definitively offering. I'm lauding the respected and adept messenger, yet frustrated by his overall assessment, because he so often delivers. His commentary was devoid of the accessory of objectivity which must be responsibly included in any investigation of that length and type.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">At one point Oliver lambastes the country wide glorification of stereotypical renegade </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">cinematic and television representations of police officers and mostly chooses white targets, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">who have traditionally acted with the requisite amount of insurgency in the protocol, department </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">often endearing them to Americans. I friggin’ love Jon Oliver’s chutzpah, approach, rapid-fire </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">delivery, intensity and even his accent. However, I don’t think the almost exclusive use of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">white cinematic versions of cops makes a lot of sense. Unless you are going to include the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">renegade cinematic versions of black cops, you’re shortchanging full disclosure. The list of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">fictional Hollywood renegade cops is incomplete without Eddie Murphy in three "Beverly Hills </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Cop" movies, Chris Tucker in two "Rush Hour" movies, then there’s Will Smith from three </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Men in Black” movies and three “Bad Boys” movies, which also feature Martin Lawrence. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The title of that last example is indicative of this whole point. Oh and the original black </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">renegade cop- John Shaft- he surely did everything on the up and up and to date there are </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">five Shaft movies dating back to 1971. Again, let’s qualify our criticism a bit shall we? And two </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Ride Along” movies starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart; “Central Intelligence” starring The </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Rock and Kevin Hart . . . and oh, what about “Training Day”, with Denzel Washington- talk </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">about your renegade- so, mainstream as a renegade cop, he won an Oscar for his performance.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">In that feature of Oliver’s from June 7th, he aptly calls out the toothlessness of misconduct </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">firings, the joke of Qualified Immunity, touches on the disenfranchisement and marginalization </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of blacks. I was already convinced we had a white cop v. black man problem. But whipping </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">people into a categorical frenzy without quid pro quo concessions is not my idea of the whole </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">story. Here's the problem- he leads off like Colbert did, by being too distracted with what the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">police were wearing, riot gear, etc. and how intimidating they looked. And again, let me be clear, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the video clips shown of the collected offenses of the police are despicable, and we need real </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">reform all over the country- there’s no way to avoid it, excepting police unions and administrators </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and cops with tenure will try.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">But I have this question after watching the last two minutes of that episode of Last Week Tonight </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">where Oliver yielded some of his time to a representative of the black anger coursing through the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">minds, streets and veins of all black people. It is important to keep in mind that not all protests </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in the </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">wake of George Floyd’s murder were non-violent- plenty of them weren’t. When you lead </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">off a </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">presentation of the missteps and obvious gross misconduct not only recently, but </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">semi-historically, of </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">the police and their dealings with people of color, and skewer them for </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">dressing for an expectation of </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the worst behavior any of this country’s citizens </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><i>could</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> exhibit for </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the cameras and not include a history </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">of this country’s violent protests, your overall declaration </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">of who is right and who is wrong is woefully </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">incomplete.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">It is socially irresponsible to use your platform, as a rich famous person to mock and complain </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">about </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">how law enforcement personnel are dressed, and end by showing a video of a black </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">woman </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">advocating burning everything to the ground on a show dedicated to emphasizing the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">despicable acts </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">of the police, ripped for dressing in riot gear. Because, if this woman is </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">representative of a large </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">number of other black people and I’m a cop, my son or daughter, wife, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">sister or brother, or friend </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">is a cop . . . how do you think I’d advocate me and my thousand </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">closest peers dress for a night </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">out standing opposite five thousand people just as rightfully irate </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">as her?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I mentioned there would be only 3 of these and I lied, because I haven’t gotten to the turn yet, the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">reason I think the problem color in this country is tied more to the color green than those obvious, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">instantly incendiary shadows of black and white. People haven’t done enough research- not even </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Mr. Oliver’s crew. The police are not at the heart of this systemic problem, though they are a very </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">significant component. I’m not contending that Oliver, Colbert, Kimmel, Fallon, Rock, Chappelle, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Walz, et al are wrong, but that their views and conclusions are incomplete. Next time, I will show </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">why.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">If Oliver and others focusing on the police misconduct, the number of black incarcerations, deaths, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">traffic stops, etc. really want to get to the heart of the matter, they would focus on those who have </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">institutionalized greed and power throughout this nation’s history. But that might require they go </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">after </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">the groups of people who own HBO, CBS Time-Warner, NBC, Disney, Apple, the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">Rockefellers, the </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">J.P. Morgan types in older times, and even dating back to Alexander Hamilton, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">John Adams, and </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">most everyone who signed the constitution. You want to see a systemic </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">problem, then much more </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">research is required.</span></div>
obihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903727839090351466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-6845801818241898502020-06-20T14:42:00.000-05:002020-06-26T15:41:20.057-05:00Race and the Color of Money - Part II (And on the Other Hand)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;"><u>Formatting disclaimer:</u> Blogger has a mind of its own. It's certifiably possessed. It's like if Sherman </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;">Klump went into Kohls to try on some clothes with the guarantee that in a five minute span, he'd </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;">shrink to a normal sized-man and bloat to the size of a hippo twelve times.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There is fault everywhere, EVERYWHERE in this contemptible crusade of dubious inaction given </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">George Floyd’s precursors. Let’s take the sometimes appalling, sometimes regrettable, but still </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">noteworthy instances, I've hand-selected from news over the last three weeks, one at a time and </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">qualify and quantify the self-righteous overreach on both sides:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Sure, sure, your Jimmy Fallon’s will needlessly apologize </span><a href="https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/jimmy-fallon-snl-blackface-skit-apology-1234623019/" style="font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Fallon as Rock</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> for a two </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">decades </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">old black-faced impersonation of Chris Rock. I love, love Chris Rock, but there is a </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">tired history which no white person is talking about where the socially aware, talented black </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">comedian targets entitled uptight whitey by mocking a white man’s voice, his demeanor and </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">his entitlement- (circa Richard Prior, Rock himself, and Dave Chappelle, among others). I'm </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">waiting for a time when a black comedian doesn't hide his talent by nesting in the shadow of a </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">white man's "sins".</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I don’t know if they let you on stage if you’re black and can’t passive-aggressively rip whitey </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and then if accused of being a black racist, probably state some crap about how you can’t be </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a racist if you aren’t in power. If your hand is holding a gun in front of one person, or a </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">microphone in front of fifty, let alone five-hundred while your performance is being recorded, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and you offer nonchalance and hypocrisy at a rate of exchange no white comedian would get </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">away with, you’re a cheat, you're powerful, and you're a racist, and benefiting from the same </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">white oversight and complacency, the same brand of double-standard you’re calling out on </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">stage, I don’t care what color you are, I've got every right to say at least that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">If you’re paying attention and too afraid to trade in reality for some altruistic version of 21st </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">century social wokeness- get a tattoo so we know who you are before you unleash some </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">tirade of anecdotal evidence where guilt on the topic of race is the exclusive domain of white </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">people. Hell, Eddie Murphy put on white face in an amusing sketch comedy skit, “White Like </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Me” </span><a href="https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/white-like-me/n9308" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Murphy white on SNL</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> from Saturday Night Live in 1984, which is twice the run-time of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Fallon’s Rock skit. I haven’t seen any apologies for that mockumentary showing a white </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">businessman (Murphy) getting a free newspaper and a free loan from a bank without an ID, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">given the instruction that he never has to pay it back simply for being light-skinned. Neither </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Fallon, nor Murphy, need to apologize. Fallon is so annoyingly fawning over every guest </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">on his show, and he laughs at everything they say, that I lost what little respect I had left for </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">him with that apology.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-726cb36a-7fff-3afb-18e9-0504ab1a78ea" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">PS. when are white trash faux-celebretants like Kim Kardashian and Pit Boss going to </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">apologize for acting like black people?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Speaking of Rock- </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Largely, his 2018 Netflix special </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tamborine</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a disgrace for reasons I already highlighted in #1 above- plenty of anger, a lot of tired whitey talk and less funny because of his incessant preoccupation with race rather than commentary about what it is like to be human. If a white guy prowled around on stage like that, mouthing out how to prepare for life dealing with black people, he'd be ostracized to another effing planet. Here is just one example: "I been gettin' my kids ready for the white man since they was born. . . at my house we don't have fire drills, we have whitey drills." You wanna see something that should be taken off the television, or removed from a streaming service, that is at the top of the list. So, if we removed statues of Columbus (no problem with that) and statues of former major league baseball owners for racist comments from the late 1970s (no problem there either) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.newsday.com/sports/twins-remove-ex-owner-griffith-statue-over-racist-remarks-1.45889436#:~:text=MINNEAPOLIS%20%2D%20(AP)%20%2D%2D%20The,no%20longer%20%E2%80%9Cremain%20silent.%E2%80%9D&text=Griffith%20moved%20the%20Washington%20Senators,franchise%20was%20renamed%20the%20Twins.">Griffith statue removed</a>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">then Netflix should take down racist diatribes like Rock's or edit them for content, relevance, or precede those sections with the type of disclaimer I refer to below. That special should have been titled- "F*** You Whitey." He barely mentions the </span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">tambourine</span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the lines I knew when I watched that special were going to live forever, and be most applicable to all our lives going forward were these, and you see them all over social media:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“I don’t think they pay cops enough . . . And, you get what you pay for. Here’s the thing, man. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Whenever the cops gun down an innocent black man, they always say the same thing: ‘Well, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">it’s not most cops. It’s just a few bad apples. It’s just a few bad apples. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Bad apple? That’s a lovely name for murderer. That almost sounds nice. I mean, I’ve had a </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">bad apple. It was tart, but it didn’t choke me out. Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. I know being </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a cop is hard. I know that shit’s dangerous. I know it is, okay? But some jobs can’t have bad </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">apples.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“Ok, some jobs, everybody gotta be good. Like . . . pilots. Ya know, American Airlines can’t be </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">l</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">ike, ‘You know most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">into mountains.’Please bear with us.' ”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Top 20 all time. All time- the line and the comedian. He's so insightful, honest and truthful, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and funny with so much of his other material . . . you know it's hard to be a comedian, I know </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">it is, I know it is, but there's a reason we got white keys and black keys that sound ridiculously </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">high and terribly low way off to the edges of the piano, its' cuz you don't need listen to that shit </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">so often; lets keep that shit we wanna here all the time right there in the middle.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">He’s too circumspectly irreverent to be ignored and that is what I love. I just wish that he’d </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">restrict his commentary to what it is like to be human rather than to always rely on the crutch </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of what it is like to not be white. We aren't going to agree with everything everyone has to say, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">but one of those things we shouldn't have to not agree with is a black racist up on stage doing </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">15 minutes on why whitey is hate-worthy, every single time someone hands them a microphone. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Don’t get me wrong; I’ve laughed at plenty of it, because of the delivery and the truth, but at a </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">certain point, even the Germans stopped bombing the British. This is a line for enough is </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">enough, but some yahoo is going to think I’m comparing him to the Nazis. You can’t fix stupid </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and that person is probably shaking their head rather than thinking with it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. An irate New York police union chief,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> rightfully so, lost it. (</span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/06/11/nypd-commissioner-responds-mike-omeara-police-union-ctn-vpx.cnn" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NYPD union chief</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) Completely lost it. And his speech can go up against almost any impassioned speech by a white or black person speaking out </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">against</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the police. I too have seen enough about how hateful the cops all are and very few in the news media qualify those attacks, almost none of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) types do. Defund the police is the common refrain. I bet you 80% of the people who have climbed aboard that bandwagon either have no idea what that means, or stand to gain a lot more by looting, firing weapons indiscriminately into residential neighborhoods, igniting passions or buildings without having to answer for their insolence due to the threat of justifiable aggressive police protections for the victims of the rioter’s brand of fairness. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Neither side has the moral high ground, and they should both stop pretending that they do. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’ve seen and heard too much in the way of reports of innocents being pepper-sprayed, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">rubber-bulleted, or night-sticked at the knees to know the cops shouldn’t have any </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">spokesperson sanctioned to speak on their behalf with a preface comprised of the words Chris </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Rock used in his all-timer from #2 above. But I have also seen an inordinate number of BLM </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">types wanting racial segregation- the type of segregation where all the whiteys are put to death </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">for things we couldn’t keep our grandfathers from saying, doing or thinking, because we weren’t </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">effing even born yet. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Comedians, short-sighted BLMers, selective revisionist talk-show hosts on HBO, and bigoted, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">racist cops can get away with swearing, I should be able to.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Now, unfortunately, enough of those “bad apples”, which refunded police departments could </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">perform psych-evals on, are dressed for battle and armed like soldiers. Too many of them are </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">eager to use their weapons and what they feel is their prerogative, to protect themselves, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">others, and property that hasn’t even been threatened yet. One acting irresponsibly is too many. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And that union police chief better not have anyone behind him with a history of saying, doing, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">or thinking the wrong way on this issue. He was speaking in front of a contingent of white </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">officers; he better be right and not self-righteous. His record better be pristine, or else he </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">should sit the hell down and shut the hell up. We should be able to audit the citation, arrests </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and consent decree (reviews of police violations) numbers of the collected officers he’s </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">speaking for, or any cop anywhere in the country and determine their fitness to hold weapons </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and jobs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. “Stephen Colbert addresses Violent Police Response to Peaceful Protests: ‘Why Is The Government Afraid Of Its Own Citizens?’” </span><a href="https://infonews.news/why-is-the-government-afraid-stephen-colbert-dissects-a-week-of-protest" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Colbert police</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> He makes me want to hug him and bitch-slap him across the face often at the same time. I always wished he was less liberal, now I just wish he were more objective. He is so spot on and so off-base back to back it is like watching a cartoon superhero and his equally famous nemesis play tennis with a basketball. He never quite puts his points over the net. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">His speech has some great lines, but seriously- “Why is the Government afraid of its own </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">citizens?” Man, you can’t ask questions like that in your ivory tower. You have to concede </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">where your points are weak before going on an insulting, backseat driver-laden tirade like that. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Because some of those citizens were frickin’ zombies. There was no difference between a </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">crowd of U.S. Citizens (enough of whom were imported from parts unknown, if the Minnesota </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">contingent of government spokespeople were to be believed) and a mob of zombies. He </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">legitimately asked the question, why are the police coming to “peaceful protests” in riot gear. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Because the police don’t always know when the protests might turn violent, and it is always a </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">bigger pain in the ass to go back to get your coat, when you’re cold than to just bring the damn </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">thing on a three mile walk in the wind from the outset. Translation- bring the riot gear because </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">at least you have it if you need it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Were there too many unforgivable, idiotic, irresponsible and hateful acts the police perpetrated </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">on innocent people caught on tape? My god yes. But, but, but- if rioters weren’t coming to the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">protests with fireworks, socks filled with batteries, the intent to make a scene, the inclination to </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">throw rocks and the strength to rip away barricades, I’d be on your side Mr. Colbert. Did you </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">watch the protest outside the gates of the White House on May 28th and 29th?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Can the protestors guarantee the peaceful protests won’t turn violent? No, they can’t. We </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">saw enough evidence of that the week of May 25th, etc. Curfews were ignored, buildings </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">were burned to the ground. What are police supposed to defend themselves with . . . queued-up </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">hugs and the ability to duck with regularity?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. This one, relatively speaking, falls under the heading of pa-lease- HBO Max removed “Gone with the Wind” from its streaming service due to its portrayal of black people,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> what’s next, book burning </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To Kill a Mockingbird</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, or </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Huckleberry Finn</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? Upon its return, at an unspecified date GWTW will be accompanied by “a discussion of its historical context.” Jim Henson made a career out of his inaccurate portrayal of a talking, singing, bike-pedaling amphibian who can sit erect and fall into extreme like with a pig? I made that joke before I caught wind of an article talking about cancelling a show called “Paw Patrol”- a cartoon, targeting 4-year-olds which portrays dog cops in a favorable light. Talk now is about banning cop shows altogether that are overrepresented portrayals of the police in a positive light. Should West Wing, Veep, or Madame Secretary be taken off of streaming services and network television because their competence doesn’t realistically depict the farce represented by the Trump presidency?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. Police portrayals: </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Check this quote out- from- </span><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/06/05/george-floyd-protests-should-we-cancel-cop-tv-shows-good/3145692001/" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cancel cop shows?</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Too often police are beacons of morality who never do wrong. Too often criminals are people of color, particularly Black men. The article makes several references to the CSI franchise. I’ve seen that goofy show enough to tell you they barely ever concluded without a </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">white</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> man in custody, admitting his guilt.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And this quote:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> “A January </span><a href="https://hollywood.colorofchange.org/crime-tv-report/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">report by advocacy group Color of Change</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> studied the effects of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">this kind of glorified portrayal of law enforcement. The study said “the crime TV genre – the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">main way that tens of millions of people learn to think about the criminal justice system – </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">advanced debunked ideas about crime, a false hero narrative about law enforcement, and </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">distorted representations about black people, other people of color and women. These </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">shows rendered racism invisible and dismissed any need for police accountability.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Episodes of “The Dukes of Hazzard” with unrealistic representations of rural Georgian cops </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">can probably stay I imagine. Still, that brand of mean-spirited incorrigible ruffian, almost </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">makes Roscoe P. Coltrane likable. Better pull that off the air too. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and “NYPD Blue”, out, “Hill Street Blues”, gone “Blue Bloods” . . . bye bye. In fact, let’s just </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ban the color blue altogether.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Or, more even-evenhandedly let’s leave the shows on the air, let art imitate life, let cop </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">dramas rip from the headlines about the treatment of black people, of white people, of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">non-green people, leave the shows on the air, do not further edit sensitive material, leave </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the scenes that are potentially offensive to people and precede each return to the show from </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">commercial breaks with a warning like the industry would before any show with violence, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">profane language, nudity, or gore. For example: “Due to the nature of the portrayal of the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">scenes and human interactions, racial stereotypes and socioeconomic factors featured in the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">upcoming content, viewer discretion is advised.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>7. </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plenty of sensible people,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> including a radio talk show host, (and I can see why, as I’m trying to pass myself off as sensible by referring to it), will allude to many of the racist maneuvers, as he did on the air, found in this article- </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">racial housing covenants, redlining, highway and infrastructure impediments, and other forms of racial segregation</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://www.minnpost.com/metro/2019/02/with-covenants-racism-was-written-into-minneapolis-housing-the-scars-are-still-visible/" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">racial housing covenants</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I responded on twitter to his research by telling him he wasn’t done yet- unless you’ve looked into the problems we’re overlooking. Who do you think funded those roads? Who voted on where to place them? Who wrote those racial housing covenants into those agreements? Poor or middle class white people, or influential, well-connected rich people?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Read this article about restrictive racial covenants and show me where the problem is- black v. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">white or green- </span><a href="https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/covenants_report.htm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">more racial covenants</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">. We have a representative republic for a government, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">which means that largely, candidates with the most money get elected. Those elections are </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">funded by lobbyist groups- “private deeds and developer plat maps are not similarly affected </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">by the Fourteenth Amendment.” Who is drawing those maps? Who normally falls into the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">classification of “developer” in the context of land ownership. Who would normally be involved </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in zoning ordinances? Elected politicians, realtors and/or property owners (i.e. people with </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">money), or lower and middle class white people? Read about </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Corrigan v. Buckley </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(1926), </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the National Housing Act of 1934, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Shelley v. Kramer </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(1948) and tell me that doesn’t </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">piss you off, unless of course you stand to lose something by agreeing, and by agreeing to </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">put your money where your mouth is.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Consider this nugget</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fffefe; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“ . . . according to the Code of Ethics for the National Association of Real Estate </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fffefe; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Boards that was enforced in Seattle in the early 1950’s, a realtor “should never be </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fffefe; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood a character of property or occupancy, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fffefe; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">members of any race or nationality, or any individuals whose presence will clearly </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fffefe; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">be detrimental to property values in that neighborhood.” As the “residential security </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fffefe; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">maps” illustrated, it was genuinely believed that the presence of racial minorities in </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fffefe; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Seattle neighborhoods would bring down real estate values. Therefore, realtors </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fffefe; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">encouraged racial segregation in order to maintain property values and sell housing.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">And on the other hand</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">- if I’m a middle class citizen in 1930, 1940 or 1970 and the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">neighborhood I’ve lived in for 15-20 years is getting run down and the property I’ve </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">invested thousands of dollars in is losing its cache, its value, its comfort level, its viability, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">or is no longer a safe place to live, I’d move too. If I got a new job and/or had a couple kids </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and the space/property I lived in when I was younger is no longer suitable to my economic </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">circumstances because of crime, drugs and general degradation, I’d move too. But, but, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">but, I’d move because I don’t want to be shot by a white or a black man and because I </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">don’t want to live right next to, or on top of, anyone, no matter their race. My parents </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">moved from Bloomington, MN (a first tier suburb of Minneapolis) in the early 1970s to </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Rosemount, a 3rd tier suburb of St. Paul. Rosemount borders a township still with fewer </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">than 200 residents according to the 2010 census. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Houses in these suburbs are going up so quickly (not just the construction, but the prices) </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and are so close together, they have virtually no yards, no space to breathe. I don’t like </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">feeling claustrophobic, paying for parking or having no garage. I don’t want to live right </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">next to, or on top of anyone, no matter what color they are. We moved from the last place, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in the same city we reside in now, because the white neighbors were a bunch of ignorant, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">psychotic hypocritical losers, and we lived on the corner of a busy street. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I like quiet, safety, comfort, trees, birds, space, no congestion and neighbor upgrades. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">You can’t get space in the city. In the city- black people’s vehicles aren’t the only ones </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">which make noise, and theirs aren’t the only guns which shoot bullets; blacks aren’t the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">only ones with a big city attitude, and also not the only ones whose opinions should be </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">heard on this topic.</span></div>
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obihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903727839090351466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-3144320379431558882020-06-18T20:36:00.000-05:002020-06-20T14:42:31.508-05:00Race and the Color of Money - Part I (Juneteenth)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Race and the Color of Money</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Part 1</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Juneteenth</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-d8d16c7c-7fff-9b4f-313f-1bcac260f737" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Usually I attempt to lighten the mood by being flippant, sarcastic and iconoclastic, while I’m attempting </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to be exhaustive. I don’t have the stomach for that considering the topic.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I have to start with this because this is a famous black man, (Dave Chapelle) whom I respect, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">with some excellent things to say about the recent riots and protests following the George Floyd </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">murder. </span><a href="https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/dave-chappelle-846-is-powerful-but-not-quite-perfect.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Chappelle 8:46</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> He’s </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">an all-time great not attempting to be funny, and he is acting more as </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">philosopher and historian than </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">as comedian. It is important, in a well-meaning perspective offering like </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">the below, to lead with someone </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">well more qualified to speak about the issue than I am, even if his</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">humility somewhat stifles what could </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">have been his message. This may be where Chappelle would say- </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">“get off my side.” Chappelle even </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">mentions several times how he does not need to specifically speak </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">about the problem (“Does anyone </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">give a [bleep] what Ja Rule thinks?”), because the streets have been </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">speaking. He’s the type of person </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">I would want to hear from, my iconoclastic comments below aside, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">because he doesn’t think he should </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">be the type of person speaking, not because he is black, but because </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">he is famous.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Now, I can’t possibly imagine what it is like to be black. I have no idea what it is like to be stopped for </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">some minor infraction because of my skin color. I have no chance to store a lifetime, or generations, of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">frustration inside of my mind, internalize most of it, and think of what I might do if others were oppressing </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">me still, still in 2020, perhaps with no hope of it getting any better after legislators, the media, white </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">community leaders, and law enforcement representatives decide to sit on their hands again, again, again. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">That frustrates me to no end as a white person; there isn’t a word for the amount of anger I’d be feeling if </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I were black. Life imitates art and just to keep my sanity- I think of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Eddie Murphy line from “Beverly H</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ills Cop”- “Disturbing the peace, I was thrown out of a window . . . what’s the charge for getting </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">thrown out of a moving car . . . jaywalkin!?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Many many people, almost everyone really, thinks the derivation of the George Floyd murder from May </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">25th, 2020, and thousands of like incidents is a black v. white problem. Don’t get me wrong, the differences </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">still at work in this country based on skin color are very combustibly obvious, because unless someone is </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">wearing pants, a hooded sweatshirt, mask, gloves and sunglasses, a person’s skin is like a beacon of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">obvious identification. However, saying the principal problem in this country is only a matter of skin color </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">is actually a pretty</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> laissez faire</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> (that isn’t French for “lazy”) way to think of the problem. This is true in the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">s</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">hort term, on the day of Mr. Floyd’s death, the May and June riots and protests, and more broadly, since </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">approximately 1619, the first recorded instance of black people held captive on American soil (Jamestown) </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to work as slaves. Solidarity has been a long time coming; not in every city and not consistently enough </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">for everyone’s liking, but it’s coming, and I don’t blame black people for not wanting to wait anymore. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">What isn’t coming any time soon is its </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">economic</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> solidarity equivalent. Not in relation to whites who have </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">money and blacks who don’t, but in terms of those who have capital M Money, actual absurd amounts of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">money, and everyone else, no matter their race.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The more deep-rooted and complex problem color in this country isn’t black and it isn’t white- those are </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">shades, and metaphorically speaking, they are just shadows of the larger, more imposing, yet less obvious </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">American problem color . . . the color green! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I know, I know, people who would actually read this, or hear about the point I’m trying to make, would say, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“what an absolute moron.” They’ll level with you, light cigarettes on stage and come off all pontifical, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">breezy and street and tell you, “that bastard’s crazy.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’m a white guy and have lived in the suburbs all my life. I’ve </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">known</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> very few black people. Just because </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’m white, doesn’t mean I’m taking any bows for criticizing white talk show hosts or New York city police </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">union chiefs, politicians, sports coaches or white executives trying to determine which police drama to </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ban from broadcast, cable, or syndicated television. I also don’t think I deserve any awards for praising </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Dave Chappelle. One of the recipients of Chappelle’s rant in his </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">8:46</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> performance, is Don Lemon, a black </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">host at CNN, and one is Candace Owens, a black social commentator. Chappelle lambastes Owens for </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a chronological reading of George Floyd’s rap sheet- </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtPfoEvNJ74" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Owens on Floyd</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">I’m with Chappelle on this one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">Why does something Floyd did in 2004 have anything to do with why he </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">should be begging for his life in 2020? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Still, the reason I don’t get into statistics and specifics about what percentage of violent crimes black </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">people contribute to, black on black crime, and the differences between perception and reality, which </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Owens does, (I knew someone would), is because it is not important at this time. We’re talking about </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">systemic racism, not just by cops. Let’s resolve the obvious systemic racism problem first and worry </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">about the B-topic, which Owens shares admirably, a little bit later. An armless man can’t plug two leaks </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in a canoe 8 feet apart unless he’s the starting center for an NBA team and is very very flexible. And who </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">would want to see that anyway. Owens can’t almost categorically deny there is a systemic racism issue </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">i</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">n the United States by any measure.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The color divide in this country is important to understand. The reason black people were taken from </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">their homeland and brought to America to be used and abused was for economic reasons. They provided </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">cheaper labor than indentured servants or hired workers. It was cheaper to use slaves to work in the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">cotton and tobacco fields, which were the commodities which kept the South in business. The labor </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“problem” was the disease. Slavery was the symptom, albeit one hell of a symptom, but what that free </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">labor equated to economically is the principal reason the country was almost torn apart during the Civil </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">War. Yes, I know, I know, why didn’t the slave traders invade Scandinavia or Quebec and bring them over </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">as slaves? It could be maybe because that civilization was more advanced by then, had a more evolved </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">social contract, arts and sciences and demonstrated wealth, and with that, power. Again, I’m not saying </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">we </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">only</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> have a color green problem- but that people are short-selling the economic component to </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">s</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">ocietal injustices. I can get to that more next time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Another thing which has escaped most people’s notice is that there have been tens of thousands of white </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">people </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">protesting arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder, rubbing potential asymptomatic COVID to COVID </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">uglies with </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">black people for the last couple weeks. With an educated guess, anyone care to wager on the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">net income </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">of the average white or black person protesting- peaceful or violent? Anyone care to guess </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">how many </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">green people were at ground zero of any of these protests? Name the city in the U.S. that had </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">commensurate representation, solidly in support of black lives matter tirades from those making over </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">$250,000 a year. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">You can’t. And I know this because there is not an effing thing going on in this country worth paying </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">attention to other than to make riots appointment television. Being appalled that the police, national </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">guard, mayors, governors and community leaders sacrificed gas stations, small businesses, police </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">precincts and entire city blocks to mobs throwing batteries, bottled water and cocktails made out of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">flammable liquid is an incident which will make the racial divide seem obvious, while we are oblivious that </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">we’ve not much advanced since John Jay, the first chief justice of the supreme court, stated that “those </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">who own the country ought to govern it.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The well-off, to me, are noticeably absent, in aggregate, from any peaceful or violent protest. They like </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">their economy right where it is. The only times they were pushed to act in their own self-interests (to hint </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">at Adam Smith) the only times they raised objections to the general tenor of this nation’s history, is when </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">they wanted to overthrow the British, so the rich American could supersede the rich Englishmen, or the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">South wanted to retain the economic status quo leading up to the Civil War. Do some research on the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">history of protests in this country dating back to its founding (read some Howard Zinn)- and be mindful </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of Martin Luther King’s quote gaining traction and relevance with every protest- “A riot is the language </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of the unheard.” The complaints made by Thomas Paine (Common Sense), Thomas Jefferson </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(Declaration of Independence), and any statements made by Washington, Hamilton, John Marshall, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Samuel Adams and countless other American aristocrats, made it clear that back during this nation’s </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">founding, being subjected to second class citizenry wasn't sustainable. The words “Taxation without </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Representation” ring any bells?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I know that during the protests there were white people holding up signs, burning buildings, chanting </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">supportive messages, breaking glass and throwing things at police and the national guard; I bet you there </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">weren’t many rich people doing it. There is no question that the disparity between white men and black </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">men gunned down, arrested, convicted and incarcerated on the streets is less than the disparity </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">between poor men, no matter their color, and rich men. The latter are safe in their office buildings, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">transacting fraud, money laundering, deceiving the public out of millions. If we had to choose- we’re fine </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">letting any number of people turn into Gordon Gekko as long as we keep Jean Valjean off the street. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’m not challenging the status quo opinion of this problem to be creative, to play devil’s advocate, or </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">even to offer a more sober version of non-humorous iconoclasm, but because there is ample evidence, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">if one is interested in using their eyes to read rather than just to see, and use their heads to think rather </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">than to shake them in negation at this prospect- that green people, as well as black and white, are part of </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the problem.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The result of the George Floyd incident is despicable, embarrassing and unrelenting. It pisses me off </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">beyond words to think that a human being could do that to another living being. Any person who could </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">pin someone’s neck to the ground with their knee while the victim is invoking the absence of their mother, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and the oxygen to remain conscious, and to have it caught on videotape, should be instantly imprisoned, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">their head rammed into a steel pole, and other crap I better not put in print. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The charges can come later. I don’t care about due process, innocent until proven guilty, or anything the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ridiculously outdated constitution does, or probably, doesn’t very generally state about criminality; nor do </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I care what any state’s Criminal Procedure handbook covers as it attempts to inoculate the allegedly </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">guilty against a mob of violently proactive amoral recidivists, moral entrepreneurs, hangmen, second </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">guessers and apoplectically-chronic apologizers.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">You guessed it, there are going to be 3 parts to this. When I’m gone, I want to make sure posterity had </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the opportunity to read some level-headed stuff and chose to do something else on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Juneteenth besides go to a home improvement store and bitch about how having to wear a mask is a violation of their constitutional rights</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Juneteenth (June 19th) is being recognized this year nationwide for the first time in our nation's history. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">date was recognized as the date the last state in the union, in 1865, recognized the emancipation </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">of all </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">slaves following Lincoln's proclamation two and a half years earlier.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">However, I think it is important to note, for all of the credit which Lincoln has historically gotten about that </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">act </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">of unity, it is overlooked, similar to our oversight where the color green is concerned that pressed by </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">Horace </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">Greely to take a clear position on the abolition of slavery, Lincoln responded with this:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; white-space: normal;">"...If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that...." </span></span><a href="https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/abraham-lincoln-papers/thinking3.html#:~:text=If%20I%20could%20save%20the,do%20that....%22">Lincoln freeing slaves</a><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px;">Those weren't the worst words Lincoln used in his time in the public spotlight </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;">to qualify his position on the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;">issue of slavery. Maybe its time to look into things which are a little less obvious when considering the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre;">problems we're facing.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
obihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903727839090351466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-75508851788642335252019-12-23T11:21:00.002-06:002020-02-25T19:54:55.438-06:00. . . TROS <div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's Wrong With:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>STAR WARS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>The Rise of Skywalker</u></b></div>
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The void of cable in my house in the last year has been filled with Sling, high definition broadcast television captured via the same broadband cable inputs that used to bring overpriced Comcast offerings and soon, Disney+, so that I can re-watch as many of the Star Wars movies as often, and whenever, I'd like.<br />
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One of the channels on this "high end" version of "cable", is called "Decades." The day after I saw <i>The Rise of Skywalker</i> (TROS), a mini-marathon of <i>Charlie's Angels</i>, a small screen contemporary of the original <i>Star Wars</i>, was playing on the aforementioned station. I tuned in for several episodes because I remember the show with fondness from my youth, and because Kate Jackson, Jacklyn Smith and Farah Fawcett are still not difficult to look at, like, at all. Farah was niptacular back then. Bosley was a lucky, lucky guy. <i>Charlie's Angels </i>was the original babe-watch, long before filming running in slow motion on the beach was in vogue.<br />
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Moving along. At the end of every episode of <i>Charlie's Angels</i>, the title character, voiced by John Forsythe, whose face is never seen in any of the episodes- (he's usually getting a back rub poolside or in his posh office), calls the beauties to congratulate them on the success of that episode's mission- of running in skimpy outfits from bad guys, probably future Stormtroopers, who can't shoot straight. While watching, I am reminded of all kinds of characters whose presence was important to certain programs despite their relative absence.<br />
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In <i>Home Improvement</i>, we never see the bottom half of Wilson's face, though he volunteers wisdom via historical anecdotes, which propels his tool man neighbor to almost immediately misappropriate that wisdom for comedic effect. In shows like <i>Cheers</i> and <i>Frasier</i>, we never meet Norm's wife Vera, nor Nyles' wife Maris; we never, and this is fine with me, see the <i>Friends</i>' ugly naked guy. Every TV generation (that's every 7-12 years), boasts a character whose presence is noteworthy despite their absence- the <i>Honeymooners</i>, <i>The Andy Griffith Show and The Mary Tyler Moore</i> show also support "missing" characters.<br />
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Unfortunately, the movie-watching public of the last three sequel episodes in the Star Wars franchise weren't treated to that kind of premeditation. The Emperor, whose absent presence, or before TROS, present absence, fixes a couple critical flaws from TLJ. Could it have been done better- yes, but we'll take it nonetheless.<br />
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There is a bonus coming (see my next post)- a criticism of criticism centered on reviews of TROS. Even I am aware of how long-winded I am, so I won't include it here.<br />
<br />
I've seen the movie once to date, so I'll be updating the below eventually.<br />
That was too much ado, here we go, the Star Wars DNA QA's view of TROS:<br />
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<b>1)</b> The words in the previewing synopsis text crawl were very well written. I remember thinking that whoever wrote them was channeling the word choices and tone of the best of them.<br />
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<b>2) </b>Nothing wrong with the opening action sequence of seeing the Millennium Falcon used to smuggle information and jump from one instance of hyperspace to another. Visually, the action sequences through most of the movie are magnificent, and there are plenty of them.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>3)</b> It would be nitpicking, but a quick montage of Ren's violent attempts to find Palpatine on multiple planets would be more appropriate than a misguided, fruitless endeavor of slaughtering dozens in a snowy forest. Still, something that has remained consistent with Ren is his uncontrollable rage. So this isn't as much out of character as it is limiting in scope- that is why it is only a "low".<br />
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<b>4) </b>I'm going to give Abrams a pass on a certain number of things because he had so much to fix from the misadventures and terrible decision-making of the last film.<br />
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<b>5) </b>Including Carrie Fisher, even at her supposed, pain-killer-infused worst, was a necessity. Abrams can't help that she passed away after <i>The Last Jedi</i>. She is the general/leader of the Resistance. Telling us she died off-screen, and not honorably in some kind of selfless sacrifice, would have been an unfaithful ending for Leia. We're not killing South Park's Kenny here. Fisher's Leia is the grand-daughter of strong female leads like Katherine Hepburn, and Bette Davis.<br />
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<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>6)</b> Including Dominic Monaghan (Charlie from <i>Lost</i>), is a mistake. If Abrams had a special favor he owed the actor, or the director lost a bet, give old Charlie a shave and a helmet, or turn him into an alien and give him the commendation for appearing in the film, in the credits. I've already written about Laura Dern's inclusion in the TLJ. Making this same mistake again is a higher severity because casting keeps doing it. I love Charlie, and <i>Lost</i> is one of my favorite shows of all time. But I don't like someone from contemporary television to appear in a timeless mythological space epic. Doing this kind of crap is like putting cookie monster in <i>The Matrix, or adding </i>Judd Nelson's John Bender, from <i>The Breakfast Club, </i>into <i>Frozen 2.</i><i> </i>Let's add <i>Seinfeld's</i> Kramer, dressed in floods and a hipster dufus Hawaiian bowling shirt into an episode of <i>Game of Thrones </i>and see if anyone notices, or not care when everyone does. Closed circuit to GOT show runners who put Ed Sheeran in an episode. It didn't work for them; making a similar decision definitely doesn't work here.<br />
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<b>7) </b>Rose is treated like Jar Jar. In <i>Attack of the Clones,</i> Jar Jar barely makes an appearance compared to his major player status in TPM. That ostracism was a welcome change; so was this one. I could do the Ewok dance, dance with an Ewok, hug an Ewok, or fornicate with one, in celebration. This is huge. Dub, Dub.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>8)</b> Could have just been wishful thinking, but it seemed like there were more aliens represented in the Resistance in the huddle of their makeshift forest base. There weren't <i>enough</i> aliens however, and still not enough of them in positions of influence (i.e. allowed to speak at logistic military meetings). Still, this is a low defect for under-utilizing the volume of systems, galaxies and planets at your disposal filled with freakish revolutionaries in terms of political leanings and physical appearance.<br />
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<b>9) </b>Comedy and Jokes were much, much better. This was not over the top contemporary humor. The one exception was when Chewie, Finn and Poe were all going to be executed. Finn and Poe make light of the moment by playing another note of a running gag before Hux shoots the troopers who were tasked with the aforementioned execution. This scene reminded me of the "hilarious" exchanges between Anakin and Padme, in the pit on Geonosis in AOTC.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>10)</b> Speaking of Hux. The fact that there was another level to the character = good. The idea that this was a bad guy selling out the bad guys rather than a conflicted guy making life for the good guys more difficult was a welcome change. However, his motivation, of simply wanting Ren to fail, isn't reason enough to do it. Only a low for the effort. If the creatives hadn't spent so much time in dizzying action sequences and had focused more on character development, this could have been an interesting subplot.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
<b>11)</b> Richard E. Grant, plays a somewhat alluded to Sith underling to the emperor, judging by the waxiness of his eyes. He was under-utilized. His is the type of character you can build on over the course of a couple of films. Since you had two different directors with two separate visions, one playing chicken with common sense and the franchise's lore and with that- wasting all kinds of screen time, leaving time for character development isn't possible- see #10 above.<br />
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<b>12) </b>Lando! Excellent. You just waited one movie too late. Also a nice touch to have him allude to the mission he and Luke were on together. That is a comforting thought to all of the nihilistic aloofness perpetuated by the lack of story development through the first two installments of this trilogy- Luke on an island throwing lightsabers over his shoulder, Han and Leia separated by time and resentment, all of the new cast barely sharing any screen time together.<br />
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<b>13) </b>Keri Russel/Zorii- I knew that voice from somewhere. The difference between her role and Monaghan's is that she's in costume. Felicity and Elizabeth Jennings (from <i>The Americans</i>) didn't just pop up on the screen. Monaghan is sporting the equivalent of the Darth Vader costume I wore for Halloween when I was 8; by the end of the night, the strap around the back of my head was ripping into the mask, doing a Mike Tyson impression on the top of my ear, and the cape looked like something that would do better to keep dust from falling on a jello mold than lend authenticity to the menacing guise of a candy beggar.<br />
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For a reason I'll get into later, I decided against giving this a low, but here's a hint- her character was believable because of the quickly touched upon back story between her and Poe. Also, she was allowed to act decisively for herself- giving Poe the medallion and deciding to stay on her planet. I think it was a mistake to not have her join the band out on a mission. In that way, she would have been like Lando, who significantly added to the dynamic of the group in the first trilogy.<br />
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<b>Note</b>: Like numbers 10 and 11 above, not having more of Keri Russell in the movie was a miss, even if it were only because we could see more of her running in tight pants which would have reminded me of <i>Charlie's Angels</i>.<br />
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<b>14) </b>New little droid- D/O and Cheech and Chong miniature guy . . . superb! And hilarious.<br />
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<b>15) </b>I mentioned the jokes, particularly at 3PO's expense earlier, but bringing up again under its own number because of how effectively they fit in with the characters and the story. Anthony Daniels, inside of that golden costume, is still hitting the right notes and brings one back to how amusingly high-maintenance he was in the originals.<br />
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<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>16) </b>Still no aliens in the First Order. Are members of the alien races all over the galaxy just more intelligent and less gullible than white supremacists? I guess that is a universal truth. I think I saw a black man or two among the leadership on First Order cruisers however. A step in the right direction- must be affirmative action. I'll take it, but leave this defect severity where it is. I can't believe how much the writer-directors are getting paid despite this oversight.<br />
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<b>17) </b>Jannah, the strong-willed, young lady trailing along with Finn is a welcome improvement in a role that would have been given to Rose if Rian Johnson had written the script. Nice call. I led off this review with a comment on presence; Jannah's got that.<br />
<br />
<b>Critical-Unconscionable</b><br />
<b>18) </b>Let's put more people on the Falcon, or at least trailing behind in other ships on the missions, so that we can have more Resistance fighters become casualties, making it more realistic. I'm thinking specifically of those instances when clumps of characters are running through hallways, not getting hit by hundreds of bullets. Given this late date, as often as this has been cited, and by how many people, particularly by this QA, this can't have any other severity, but critical. The movie should not have been released with this defect. The severity above critical would probably be "unconscionable." You just can't put a dozen good guys into all kinds of life-threatening situations, have them all come out unscathed (Jannah, and Finn running in the Lithosphere on a Star Destroyer with lasers fired all around them) and expect to be taken seriously as a film-maker. At this point in movie history, and in the franchise, I have no more disbelief to suspend.<br />
<br />
<b>Note: </b>Poe gets shot- that's something. But the creatives shepherding these movies to the screen should have learned something from <i>Rogue One- </i>simply, good characters can die and the story can be the better for it. I'm not advocating that Poe should die, but something more serious than a, let's be honest, off-target (because the troopers were probably aiming for his head) shot in the arm is in order. He should have gotten shot in the leg due to an incessant barrage of inaccurate shooting.<br />
<br />
As an enlightened member of the paying audience, a customer, it comes to that, and a QA by trade, if you stop giving the customer what they want, and what they think they are paying for, eventually that customer is going to spend their money somewhere else. I would have thought Disney had learned that with<i> Solo</i>. If I were Kathleen Kennedy, I'd have stopped them from adding my name as Executive Producer to the credits after the TFA backlash.<br />
<br />
<b>Critical</b><br />
<b>19)</b> Characters v Story. The characters lost . . . that is why you fail. How you sprinkled in the old cast was marginally well done. However, casting "The Dude" to stand in for Mark Hamill, was probably the wrong call. In fairness, you did a disservice to the new crew. For a story intent on featuring the dynamic of Rey, Finn, Chewie, C-3PO, BB-8, and Poe together, the story is busy, the visuals are overwhelming and the characters suffer because of it. You had something when Poe and Finn were playing Chewie on the monster chess board and in exchanges between the characters here and there, most notably when 3PO has his memory wiped by little Cheech, or little Chong. Linger- please god, not like the Cranberries, but roam a bit more, somewhat aimlessly, even if the new critical intelligentsia thinks it slows the pace of the movie a little. Abrams has proven he can do it, or at least sanction it being done, because he led the story and character development in the aforementioned <i>Lost</i>, for six seasons. There is richness, depth and value in that.<br />
<br />
<b><strike>High</strike> <strike>Severe</strike> Critical</b><br />
<b>20) </b>Do we need that many Star Destroyers to create the idea that the good guys are over matched from a numbers standpoint? Did we need 500 Star Destroyers on film? Couldn't we have had a more realistic number of Star Destroyers for our heroes to combat? I'm not buying, even after the Resistance brings in a galaxy's worth of gnat-sized ships to counter the Star Destroyer offensive, that the band of good guys stands much of a chance.<br />
<br />
The idea that all of the characters we are supposed to care about survived after being put in continual long-odds situations is "unbelievable"; and if it isn't clear, I'm using that word in the dictionary sense of "too improbable for belief" not its connotative sense- that of something being incredibly fortunate. I would have an easier time believing drinking feral cat urine with a turnip blood chaser could . . . I got nothin' . . . see, Star Wars creatives, that is what it looks like when you edit your own imagination rather than assume the masses will swallow their own incredulity (or the concoction I just invented), in silence.<br />
<br />
One more thing- what sense does it make for something indestructible through most of the firefight to suddenly be completely vulnerable just so the good guys can prevail? I just upped the severity to "severe."<br />
<br />
See, if you didn't have a screen's worth of Star Destroyers, the Resistance's victory wouldn't seem so implausible. Imagine stacking all kinds of ceramic bowls on the counter in a pile larger than the turtle throne Yertle sat upon, and asking a toddler to clean them without unstacking them. Given all that frustration, I upped the defect severity again. And yeah, I get that in this instance the reason all those Star Destroyer's were more vulnerable because the generator was taken down, but who does this- ties the fate of all that hardware to one generator? We've seen this ploy too often in this franchise to tolerate it any more.<br />
<br />
<b>High</b><br />
<b>21)</b> Knights of Ren. Their armor looks like what Oscar the grouch would put on before battling big bird. That's no inside joke at the size of Adam Driver's nose. Ren is able to stand on his own, almost, without the light saber. This is just another example of the villains not being utilized to their full potential so that the "hero", in this case Ren, can prevail via lazy storytelling. If the franchise wanted to subvert our expectations, give us villains, more consistently, (both Vader and Palpatine rank in the top 10 all time in movie history) capable of extending the skill set of the hero. Great villains make worthy heroes. The severity on this defect also could have been raised.<br />
<br />
<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>22)</b> Because science, and, and, and nature. Ren and Rey, both humans, who, word has it, breathe oxygen, stand feet and inches respectively from the edge of space in the hangar of some outpost space station. To compound this problem, Rey leaps, passing into space, defying gravity.<br />
<br />
No puny little human is successfully navigating to the Death Star for that distance, in those crafts/skiffs, with those waves. I think these characters have all watched <i>Castaway</i> a few too many times. The odds on two separate people making it to the Death Star (because Finn, not a Jedi, also makes it) alive given the natural impediment of a near tsunami are probably higher than C-3PO can calculate.<br />
<br />
<b>23) </b>Speaking of the Death Star. I think it was a master move to include it in the film, so that we could also say goodbye to it.<br />
<br />
<b>High</b><br />
<b>24)</b> Sentimentality. Too much music made this whole movie into a melodrama. We don't care as much about these characters; they know it and we know that they know it. This is the first time, and I'll wager the last time, that anyone would ever say that John Williams' talents were overused. The music never effing stopped. It was actually sickening. It was the worst case of mush since the last thirty minutes of the <i>Return of the King</i> (the final <i>Lord of the Rings</i> movie). By the end there, I was ready to take Frodo out myself.<br />
<br />
<b>25) </b>Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok- think Joe Pesci in the 2nd <i>Lethal Weapon</i> movie- I know what people are going to say. Dude, you can't have a problem with the science and nature violations and commend them on the mixed location interactions between Ren and Rey. In this third movie- Ren grabs a necklace from Rey's throat and she drops a lightsaber into his hands. Each time, Ren and Rey are miles or blocks distant. I don't see some of that interplay as too different than some of the time traveling stuff Abrams included in <i>Lost</i>. Also, it isn't like Abrams just made the dual spatial reality thing up in this movie. Unlike the Leia, being sucked into deep space and surviving sequence in TLJ, where it had never been established she was force-sensitive, it was perhaps assumed, Abrams' hand was actually made for him in the two earlier films that created the precedent of the two characters, Ren and Rey, connecting psychically, that force contact intensifying, and leading them up to its final use, into a physical manifestation and as a means to a Force Dyad partnership against Palpatine. Hell, this is one of the few things all three films have in common; I may as well give someone credit for it.<br />
<br />
<b>Severe- getting on to Critical</b><br />
<b>26) </b>Palpatine's minions. Do we need an arena full of Sith, or followers of the dark side of the Force, to bear witness to Palpatine's culminating rejuvenation? Do we buy that he would have that many followers or that many followers who could keep his existence a secret? What purpose do they actually serve? Do none of his acolytes have force powers allowing them to escape the fate of being buried in rubble? If none of them have the means of escape, what possible use could he have for them? Were they members of the clone army? Future Snokes? Force ghosted into the arena? The scene involving the confrontation between the Emperor, Ren and Rey would have made more sense if it was a private affair. Again, what do numbers and size actually mean. These are old, cliched devices and I would think that Abrams was above that kind of tripe.<br />
<br />
<b>Note: </b>I'm not penalizing Abrams for the missteps of Johnson's version of <i>The Last Jedi</i>. The notion of Palpatine as the overarching villain of these last three films was an idea that millions of fans could have come up with before the script for the first film, TFA, was underway.<br />
<br />
<b>High</b><br />
<b>27)</b> At this point, I'm just indiscriminately assigning defects to things, which is kind of how it felt when the creatives leading this movie assigned melodrama to the characters, action sequences to the story and serendipity to scientific and natural laws. We knew heading into this movie that this trilogy was a train wreck crossed with a dumpster fire. But my god did you people eff this up. Rey is a Palpatine. The Disney team hired "professionals" to write, storyboard, direct, consult upon, cast, score, act in and edit three films. They wasted one on a repeat of the original, and a second on butchering everything beloved about the entire franchise. The third could only correct so many missteps.<br />
<br />
Think what an entirely different group of professionals could have done with claws for hands and chimpanzee DNA, provided their midichlorian count was in a respectable range. That is an insult to chimpanzees and DNA, and believe it or not, whoever came up with the idea of midichlorians. This is a cumulative defect, one that considers the three films as a whole, because after the first movie we know Rey had a lineage question for the creatives to resolve.<br />
<br />
This is a "high" because Abrams underused Palpatine. Abrams cleaned up Johnson's mess about Snoke; cleaned up Luke tossing a lightsaber over his shoulder, Rey's lineage and even made a comment about Holdo.<br />
<br />
<b>Medium</b><br />
<b>28)</b> Ren and Rey kissing. C'mon. I'd rather watch Jar Jar and the Ewoks light each other on fire . . . see, at first, I was thinking of that happening sexually, then I got aroused when I considered them actually all lighting matches in one orgy of roasted amphibian and flaming bear midget fur.<br />
<br />
<b>29) </b>Two women kissing during the celebration following the First Order and Palpatine defeats. I don't have a problem with that, but I still wish the out of box thinking (ha!) extended to Lando fondling Mrs. Ackbar, or that it was two of Charlie's Angels in their prime, even if one of them was Shelly Hack.<br />
<br />
In fact, adding Farrah, in her prime, shot from the waste up, and on Hoth, into one of the scenes with Carrie Fisher, would have made a lot of sense . . . ok, not a lot of sense, but about as much sense as most anything else in the whole trilogy.<br />
<br />
<b>30) </b>Voices of Jedi past in the credits and as inspiration within the film for Rey's rise to defeat Palpatine and the title of the film. Magnificent!<br />
<br />
<br />
Before the good and bad accounting from above, I was about half way through the movie thinking, "I'm worn out on this stuff." I couldn't rate this movie, with any kind of letter grade. The only other movie I have never been able to rate besides this one- <i>The Passion of the Christ</i>- another movie that wore me out, about the resurrection of a supernatural being, not unlike the Emperor.<br />
<br />
I started out the article by hearkening back to old television shows whose creators imagined <i>real</i> fake spouses, neighbors and bosses and how measured, responsible, clever and creative that was and I'm disappointed that as many highly-compensated Disney employees couldn't consider a well-meaning, honorable, thoughtfully-planned and credibly-detailed set of sequels, well before the third <i>reel</i>.<br />
<br />
<br />obihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903727839090351466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-30422645531612184572019-12-28T21:37:00.000-06:002020-02-23T11:16:46.637-06:00. . . TROS Part II Criticism of Criticism (Bonus column)<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What's Wrong With</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">STAR WARS</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><u>Criticism</u></i> of The Rise of Skywalker</span></b></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have a compulsion to correct people on things; couple that with a mild case of ODD, that manifests itself most in a writing style that is vindictive, insecure and verbose and you have got to cut me some slack.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My intent with this column was to select all kinds of TROS reviews and counter low hanging fruit assertions that I thought were well off-base. I read 4-5 reviews and was struck by one in particular that I couldn't get away from. Now, I concede the reviewer, Scott Mendelson, a senior contributor for Forbes, is generally far more qualified than I am to write a movie review. But I believe his conclusion for TROS, and as I soon found, his assessment of a couple other Star Wars movies, is pretty out there. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The title of his review- "Star Wars: How the desire to erase 'Last Jedi' doomed 'Rise of Skywalker," not to mention some of his assertions, was a bit more than I could tolerate. In his byline, he boasts 30 years of experience in writing about film. With my superior math skills, assuming he's not as "gifted" a film critic, as Anakin was a Jedi, let's say he started when he was 15; that puts him in his mid 40s- not too far behind me. If he's giving himself credit for reviewing 1985's <i>Ghostbusters</i> as a pre-teen, and a hard-hitting comment in that review is something about how realistic Slimer looks . . . my bad.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yes, yes, everyone is entitled to their opinions. But I also think that mainstream criticism gets a bit too much credit, with its high-mindedness and its legitimacy. My takes are underground, cave-dwelling bastard children my own friends don't even pay attention to, because they think someone with a volcano full of interconnected touchstones bouncing around in his mind should be able to keep them under wraps or unveil them while in twitter-mode. Well, I can't, because, you know- that compulsion thingy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before I started writing the review for TROS, which I posted a few days ago, I meant to start it with a call-out to someone a bit more talented than the men behind <i>Charlie's Angels</i>, but it fits better here anyway. Alexander Pope published a 20 page poem in iambic pentameter "An Essay on Criticism" at the age of 21, which begins with this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'Tis hard to say if greater want of skill </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Appear in writing or in judging ill, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But of the two less dangerous is the offense </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To tire our patience than mislead our sense </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some few in that but numbers err in this, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A fool might once himself alone expose, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now one in verse makes many more in prose. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Go just alike, yet each believes his own </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In poets as true genius is but rare </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">True taste as seldom is the critic share </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Both must alike from Heaven derive their light, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">These born to judge as well as those to write </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Let such teach others who themselves excel, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And censure freely, who have written well </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But are not critics to their judgment too?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-1dec53f9-7fff-44d7-abc1-66238ac05bb6"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Brilliant! Genius! I don't throw either of those words around irresponsibly. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now, I'd be suffering from an extreme case of a lack of self-awareness if I didn't turn those words around on anything I've been critical of, not just my opinions on Star Wars. So, mindful of that, my purpose with this offering is to present the other side of the story, to the extent that whiners like me haven't made their true feelings known about the wreck into which this generation of writer-directors has turned this franchise. In short, I don't write for Forbes, but I too have been paying attention for decades to this franchise and if this review of a review goes unread by the masses, or by people I know, at least it exists, and it is their fault for not paying attention to it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mine is the reflexive protectionism of a child whose pride in family takes a hit when someone passes judgment on his mother. My "mother" in this case, is the original trilogy. Anyone claiming I've got a blind spot, and think I'm too willing to forgive the franchise any of its numerous missteps, would have a hard time proving that- as I've already written reviews of the original trilogy, and pulled no punches there.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">People short-sighted enough to contend that the below is a deluge of insecurity which proves some critic's point that a mass of people weaned on Star Wars have overreacted with their backlash is missing the whole story. I have done well more than rail against the creative overreaches; I've justified why I think that way, and often what I would have done instead. If that doesn't separate me from the convenient box, those like Mendelson would put all old-timer Star Wars addicts into, I can't help that. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This will be painfully obvious, but the below is a review of Mendelson's assertions, almost all of them are directly quoted from his December 18, 2019 review of TROS, followed by my rebuttal, and in some cases, an additional concession on my part.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-261f537d-7fff-c748-0f14-3608367b3bcd"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1) </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Last Jedi</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> didn’t retcon or undo anything from The Force Awakens”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Force Awakens</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> didn’t propose much of anything. When you haven’t started any ingredients in a stock pot for a soup, or even turned on the stove, the soup has no chance to burn.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2)</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “ . . . what exactly did fans think was going to be Luke’s reaction to a random nobody showing up on ‘exile Island’ with his old lightsaber?”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: not throw a Jedi’s weapon over the side of a cliff. And if Luke is as strong with the Force, he is capable of Force Ghosting, the person handing him a Jedi’s weapon, isn’t a nobody (meaning, he's psychically aware of who she is). If Rey is friendly and found him, perhaps she is a member of the resistance worth hearing out, and if an enemy who is that spatially close to him, maybe having a weapon isn’t a bad idea.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Abrams had no intentions of returning for an additional Star Wars movie, so by association- he could afford to not care about Snoke’s origin, Rey’s parentage, and the respective futures of Finn and Poe.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e0e659d-7fff-3c0e-4a7b-40a6e326f3ea"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: that doesn’t give the next writer-director the power to torch all that is holy and not suffer the consequences of having his reputation suffer. Just because Gary Glitter’s reputation suffered as much as his royalties since we found out he was a pedophile, doesn’t mean Rock and Roll Part I is better than Rock and Roll part II.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>4)</b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “What I was expecting, at worst, was a well-made and character-driven action fantasy that perhaps contained plot threads or story beats for which I didn’t care.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7f73ab39-7fff-6564-494d-54499f59716b"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: I knew not to expect that. I was hoping for that; "Hope is the last to die" is an Italian proverb that comes to mind for some reason. Unfortunately, both of us (Mendelson and me) were disappointed. As mentioned in my review- the characters lost.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>5)</b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “ . . . The Rise of Skywalker is a genuinely bad movie . . .”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-2ea89008-7fff-e9f2-a149-02f0f15581e8"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: It isn’t “bad”, but it isn’t good either. Since I was close to declaring TLJ a great movie if Johnson hadn't made some key mistakes, I can't be too high-minded.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">6)</span></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “The problem with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> isn’t just that it absolutely walks back a number of potent reveals and plot threads from the last movie . . .” </span></span></div>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-128cfa66-7fff-3d3e-4e52-3aeb55cf635d"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: Potent reveals? The writer-director revealing there was no plan for Snoke, has a revered Jedi toss his own weapon over his shoulder and over a cliff, which is symbolic that he has given up, are not “potent” reveals.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">7)</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “. . . but rather that the 142-minute movie spends almost its entire running time retconning its predecessor and adding painfully conventional ‘plot twists’ and patronizing reversals in the name of mollifying the fans who merely want to be reminded of the first three movies.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Think we covered most of this, but I’d made it clear with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Force Awakens</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that being significantly reminded of the first three movies (since TFA was </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in disguise) was not something I endorsed. Think of a long piece of music- playing a sequence of familiar notes, in different ranges, keeps one mindful and appreciative if there are slight variations, but not if it turns the composition into a completely different song. Beethoven’s Symphony Five transitioning into something from Pit Boss is not going to earn praise from people expecting to hear classical music for the whole concert.</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-8996263b-7fff-e744-5bbf-066756356439"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Concession</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: the plot twists were “conventional” and yes, they were also painful.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">8)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “It [TROS] inflicts additional damage to the legacy of the first six Star Wars movies.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-851da5f6-7fff-9a1d-62b1-d6335c50b4e4"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: Let’s keep the legacies of the original and prequel trilogies quite separate. Nevertheless, I’d still contend it does no damage to either. The writer-directors of all of them to date seem glaringly unable to rectify the missteps of their predecessors with a consistency that severely challenges my willing suspension of disbelief. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Note</b>- </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline;">The Empire Strikes Back</span><span style="font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline;">, the consensus best of the bunch, was written and directed by two different people, neither of whom was George Lucas. Maybe give that another shot.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">9)</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “It [TROS] undermines the previous two ‘episodes’ in the name of giving (some but not all) original-trilogy Star Wars fans a reassuring pat on the head.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-af6a60e7-7fff-533d-b31d-d85d183c5113"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: I would likely fall into both categories. As I admitted, I don’t go for melodrama or sentimentality, which is what we got with the returns of Han and Luke. I don’t have a problem with their returns, but I didn’t necessarily enjoy the treatments. I would also argue that Mendelson's ilk received a “pat on the head” two years previous which prompted him to compare </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Last Jedi</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Dark Knight </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in his 2017 review of the former. That line is as offensive as anything Rian Johnson did wrong with the script, tone, story or character motivations in TLJ. See </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2017/12/12/star-wars-the-last-jedi-review-the-force-is-incredibly-strong-with-this-one/#5f4bb4356189">Forbes Last Jedi review</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">10)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “It [TROS] even shies away from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Force Awakens’</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> darker real-world implications." </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d90efcc1-7fff-c13a-a276-ecfc4785aca6"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: This is a science fiction movie, supposedly set in the past, and nowhere near the universe we occupy. I don’t want it to have any real world implications, excepting those it violates which come from scientific and natural laws it hasn't previously established, for good reason, are worth violating.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">11)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “It is so concerned with character reveals . . .” </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-59bd822c-7fff-1a8f-243b-0f5c391e7524"></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Spending a combined five minutes on bringing back Han Solo and Luke Skywalker is not a pre-occupation worthy of complaint when you sanctioned two years previous in TLJ review- “Boyega [Finn] and Tran [Rose] make a fun odd couple, as their subplot offers a look at those living high on the hog while tyranny reigns.” A movie that features a ten minute romp on overweight camels racing through a casino, (a much bigger attempt at social commentary/real world implications than anything in TFA) is definitely a “concern.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">12)</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “. . . and ‘chase the MacGuffin’ plotting that it finds no time for any real character work.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: I thought a MacGuffin was either a Shakespearean character or a sandwich available at McDonalds for a limited time. Turns out that a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MacGuffin</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is this: an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance. A creation of Alfred Hitchock’s way back in 1939. There are more "MacGuffins" (writing, casting, editing, story development, plot) in the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>making</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of TROS than in the actual movie. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Concession</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: hard to disagree with the point, which I also already made multiple times, about how much the characters suffer because of the frantic nature of the plot.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">13)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “ . . . you have huge chunks of plot that are written and edited around deleted scenes of the late Carrie Fisher. That’s when things start to implode.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-39653ec0-7fff-a77a-bb1b-0040f34a1cee"></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: If a wax figure of Carrie Fisher were included in TROS and a one dimensional image of her Father Eddie dressed as a woman, with the voice of Bobcat Goldthwait was lip-synched out of a lip cut out, it would have been an improvement over any work Dern or Tran did in TLJ.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">14)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “ . . . resulting in some genuinely goofy filmmaking . . .”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9e7f1d62-7fff-0349-2c68-0904735a9319"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: That’s an opinion about any of these sequel movies and needs no context.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">15)</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “The Resistance immediately gets word that Palpatine is alive and has raised a world-killing army of super-ships, news that everyone takes pretty well.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Agreed. It is difficult to forgive the writer-director for so quickly glossing over the doom the Resistance should have collectively felt after learning this news, unless we are to assume that this is the second week or month living under such horror.</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-1a2b7956-7fff-68c3-8100-53b64c527259"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Concession</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: again with the world-killing mechanism? For the original boasting the line, spoken by Darth Vader: “the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force” everyone involved in story development aside from those responsible for </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Empire Strikes Back, </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which did not feature, nor refer, to a world-killing mechanism,</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> should be ashamed of themselves.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">16)</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Mendelson compares Palpatine to Hitler.</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-dffbaaf0-7fff-72e6-51dd-3ca85927ae0b"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Couldn’t he have gone with Lance Armstrong, Harvey Weinstein, Satan, or a general contractor about to rough in the plumbing of your fourth bathroom or frame in the utility room, so those of us not alive when Hitler was have a much more granular feeling of doom?</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">17)</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “. . . the filmmakers seem to think that the mere idea of Rey, Finn, Poe and Chewbacca on a journey together is in itself incredibly compelling.”</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-64ff4c01-7fff-da09-5fca-09bb9e0fab5b"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: It may have been compelling, though not incredibly so, if there were more dialogue and character development.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">18)</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: lesser movie franchises share something in common with Star Wars, so Star Wars is just as guilty of a tired plot device sin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Hey, when you’re trying to clean up red wine spilled deliberately all over the white carpeting hours before an interested buyer is coming over to check out the property, using corn starch and white out to hide the mess might be your, ahem, only hope.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">19)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “It’s not just that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rise of Skywalker</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> undoes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last Jedi</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s ‘it’s not your franchise anymore’ metaphors—aimed at a generation that grew up loving Star Wars . . .”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-aa456697-7fff-9fde-9030-78d245e1a4cc"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: Thankfully it undoes enough terribly irresponsible story telling and replaces it with mediocre. I’ll take it.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">20)</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “ . . . one cannot escape the fact that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rise of Skywalker</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has turned this entire new Star Wars trilogy from a kids’ franchise into one aimed at nostalgic adults yearning for a time when they believed they were the most important generation.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: What, because we don’t like a movie? Unless I was tasked with staying alive through dismal Colonial winters, firing muskets in Revolutionary or Civil Wars, or taking back European hills and farmlands for our contemporary allies, or our future generations, hedgerows and yards at a time, I learned a long time ago I wasn’t a member of an important generation. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-a026b644-7fff-21e7-3130-8fbab83a04f3" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mine is a problem of an overtaxed willing suspension of disbelief. When that psychological imperative, particularly when judging a science fiction story, has been purposefully (let alone accidentally) violated with as much gusto by the creative decisions and unwarranted goofiness Mendelson applauds, I side with an update to the thrill that is less about honoring the past than it is about, showing some respect, or at least, showing your disrespect in more meaningful, responsible, subtle, artistic and adult ways. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Hell, I have more suspended incredulity in reserve for the ridiculous scientific and natural law violations, horrible acting, strung out inconsistencies and nonsensical plot devices than for the decisions of trashing everything that made the earlier movies iconic. That said, if Johnson would have made five different decisions, of my choosing, given my trade and my Star Wars DNA, TLJ could have been saved- it could have been a great movie and it would have turned </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">The Force Awakens</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> into the black sheep of this three movie set.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">21)</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Rise of Skywalker</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is possibly worse than any prior Star Wars ‘episode’."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-0b69bebe-7fff-954a-8168-a3d24c83d837"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: C’mon, now you’re just trolling. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">The Phantom Menace</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> is almost unwatchable, aside from character introductions to R2 and 3PO, Liam Neeson, Ewan Mcgregor, and a few Darth Maul scenes.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">22)</span></b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “It ends a legendary franchise with a thud while denying this new trilogy its artistic reason for existence.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-65b3fe6f-7fff-f6a7-bcb5-8c00170b4d88"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">: TLJ largely ended the franchise with a thud; TROS, via the Emperor's return, does what it can to bring back any faith in the Star Wars universe for subsequent generations. The New Testament didn’t do any favors for the old, which still stands just fine by itself. </span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">23)</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “It represents the cultural theft of Star Wars from today’s kids by today’s arrested-development-stricken adults.”</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-ae03d3c7-7fff-6d08-2404-3188ed4e0e11"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: The “kids” of this generation got their movie when Abrams remade the original in TFA. And since Mendelson genuflected about both </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Phantom Menace</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (see his review on the 20</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> anniversary of TPM) and </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Last Jedi</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, how many movies, or parts of movies, must adult Star Wars connoisseurs concede to the world that brought them alive in the imagination department as children?</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">24)</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “ . . . the kids who grew up with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harry Potter</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Hunger Games</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the MCU [Marvel Comics Universe] have embraced harsh truths and challenging narratives.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: I’m sorry, but again, comparing any of those universes to Star Wars just isn’t going to work. Fine, yes, cause us to embrace harsh truths and encounter challenging narratives, but hire people who can demonstrate they are capable of doing that. </span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b6ff7619-7fff-aa3b-2cdc-355bc515be68"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One more here- how have fans of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harry Potter</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and MCU embraced harsh truths? Harry beat Voldemort. Snape died, but so did Obi-Wan (in the original). In </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Avengers: End Game</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, all of the good guys who were killed in </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Infinity War</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> were resurrected, or they will be. If you think we've seen the last of Captain America on film, think again.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">25)</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Assertion</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “ . . . now yesterday’s geeks who have taken over pop culture feel entitled to have the kid-friendly franchises aimed at them as well.”</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b7066942-7fff-f277-69de-0cb9a82b1397"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rebuttal</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Disagree. Hire people qualified to tell compelling stories and develop meaningful characters, who say memorable things and we wouldn’t have this chasm of opinion between what is good and what is horrific. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It isn’t the audience paying to see these movies that has the problem; it is the people making them. The reason adults aren’t going to see movies aimed at adults anymore is because there are too many movies, and yet still too few good ones worth the price. Oh, and our entertainment dollars are spent on services such as cable, Netflix, Sling, Dish Network, Apple TV, and Disney+, etc. Those didn’t exist thirty years ago. There is plenty of material for adults to consume to trouble with most of the tripe playing in movie theaters these days. When we do plunk down $10, $12, $20 expecting, at least, competence, and get trash, why would we keep doing it again and again.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Full disclosure- I was fortunate enough to watch this movie, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Rise of Skywalker</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, with some friends I’ve been going to see Star Wars movies with since TPM, and my teenage son. On my right was a boy, whose mom flanked him on the other side, who wasn’t much older than I was when I saw the original. In the second half of the movie, some old standbys make appearances- Han, Luke, Ewoks and Jawas, that the kid noticeably appreciated. He likely has no real sense of how impactful those characters are to adults who first encountered them two generations ago. But he had some idea, as I saw he and his mother show the bond they had developed (looking at each other, clasping hands, raising arms) every time a character made famous by other episodes in the saga came up on the screen. Undoubtedly, she had made him aware of how important those characters were to her, and he was probably excited she got to see them one last time as well.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-8944a491-7fff-fbef-08b1-60b4a4fb408b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">26)</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Assertion</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Mendelson made a special point in his TPM re-review to state that kids are still on playgrounds playing Star Wars. "The Phantom Menace' At 20: In Defense of a Merely Okay 'Star Wars' Movie", May 20, 2019-</span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/05/20/star-wars-episode-i-phantom-menace-george-lucas-natalie-portman-liam-neeson-last-ledi/#4722f8031be8" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: blue; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Forbes Rise of Skywalker review</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Rebuttal</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Well, it ain’t because of TPM. Oh yes, it would be fun to sit around the swing set discussing no-confidence votes and midichlorian counts, pretend to jabber like a racist amphibian, caricaturizing himself and pretend to wear regal gowns that light up when visibly plugged into an electrical outlet. All kinds of impactful dialogue could be recited- “you believe it is this . . . boy?” “now there are two of them,” and “Are you an angel”? Gah!</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When considering which movie to show my son as an introduction to Star Wars when he was 6, the original was the only option. There was no way I was showing him TPM first. I actually wanted him to enjoy the movie, so he would watch the others. You don’t go all in at the poker table on five unsuited, non-consecutive cards when there is a lot at stake; you go all in with your four-of-a-kind (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) and follow that up with the royal flush (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Empire Strikes Back</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>27)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Assertion</b>: " . . . as a gateway drug that successfully ensnared an entire generation of young kids and turned them into Star Wars junkies . . ."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Rebuttal</b>: If you think TPM is a gateway drug that brought a new generation of kids on board the Star Wars freight train- ok, but that gateway drug is crystal meth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>28)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Assertion</b>: ". . . it [<i>The Phantom Menace</i>] is an unqualified success."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Rebuttal</b>: TPM was not, and remains, unsuccessful, excepting by the box office it claimed from a Star Wars starved world. TPM is an unqualified success in the same way that Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Part I is. Went back to the well there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">29)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Assertion</b>: "You don't hear them complaining that 'Jar Jar sucks!' "</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Rebuttal</b>: Too . . . many . . . options . . . "give it time" and "your hearing sucks" are just the first two that come to mind.</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-31016314-7fff-7090-ebf2-ca3afabff2b1"><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>30)</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Assertio</span>n</b>: "You don't hear them protesting that "George Lucas raped my childhood!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Rebuttal</b>: Then they don't know any better. And, "raped"? That's a little strong. I should have led with that in the rebuttal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">31)</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Assertion</b>: "For a generation of kids who came of age 20 years ago, </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Phantom Menace</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Attack of the Clones</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revenge of the Sith</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ARE their childhood."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Rebuttal</b>: And that is great. I care about whether someone thinks <i>The Phantom Menace</i> is a good movie, or that <i>The Rise of Skywalker</i> is a bad one as much as I care about when people think they've found religion. Good for you, if you want to deceive yourself, but don't try to convince me if I have very well-conceived, consistently thoughtful and resolute reasons for not believing, while not writing for a nationally syndicated column in a well-respected newspaper, magazine, or online source of entertainment or information.</span></span></div>
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<br />obihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11903727839090351466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-12569495902975485812018-01-03T21:26:00.000-06:002019-09-28T07:55:18.879-05:00. . . TLJ<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><b>What's wrong with:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><b>STAR WARS</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><u><b>The Last Jedi</b></u></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 16px;">I read a review of <i>The Last Jedi </i>a couple weeks ago that was pretty in line with my overall thoughts.</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">So much so, that I complemented the writer (Todd VanDerWerff of Vox.com), telling him that his was so good, and I was so amenable to the verdict, he had saved me from wasting the time.</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">After stewing about the treatment of the movie for a week and a half, I decided not to abstain; so here is yet another critique, for no one’s edification but mine.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/12/18/16791844/star-wars-last-jedi-backlash-controversy"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The Last Jedi fan backlash</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“The ‘backlash’ against Star Wars: The
Last Jedi, explained”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Todd VanDerWerff, Dec. 19, 2017<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VanDerWerff starts by highlighting the
general differences between fan and critic scores of other movies according to
Rotten Tomatoes; he alludes to box office numbers, as a way of communicating
<i>The Last Jedi</i>’s mass appeal as compared to movies that preceded it in the
franchise, or movies released at this point in the year, and narrows the focus,
first to the difference in Rotten Tomatoes scores for <i>The Last Jedi</i> (TLJ)
between fans and critics, and narrows it still more to the reasons why there is
some pointed criticism, by fans, about the contents of <u>TLJ</u>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VanDerWerff’s jumping off point was
derived from scores of twitter-active fans (think radioactive) whose opinions
about the movie’s content and treatment differed considerably from those of
film critics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He moved on to theories
about what has shaped the disappointment, and how he prefixed that exploration is
wonderful- that “it’s impossible and irresponsible to boil down their anger to
any one cause.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would only replace the
word ‘anger’ with the word ‘disappointment.’ To be clear- my “disappointment”,
which I know I share with some friends and acquaintances, and apparently tens
of millions of fans, is not that the movie was terrible- far from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite the length of the protest below- they
made a very good movie, but were close to making a great one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yep, someone might logically ask- “so what
did you like about the movie?” seeing the volume of demerits below- and my
answer is going to be much shorter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is the way of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People can
agree on 90% of things, but spend two hours debating about the 10% of things on which they
disagree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ll summarize the writer’s call-outs
and then expand on things with my own thoughts as a quality assurance
specialist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider each letter under
“Me” as a defect, a bug that someone in story development, writing, producing
or directing should fix so that the story/functionality can be more successfully released.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">A “release”, in software/website development
parlance, is what the introduction of lower environment functionality is called
when it is graduated to an environment where customers would interact with it
(click on links, dropdowns, radio buttons, navigating through various screens,
running searches, etc.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the software
or website testing reveals too many defects/bugs that are determined to be
high, and would negatively impact the release, the release is delayed until
they are fixed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next to each letter
below is the severity of the defect that would negatively impact the release
(low, medium, high, severe, critical).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes
the defects are known before the release, and sometimes the project team doesn’t
know about the defects until after the release, when the customers are complaining about the issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a critical defect is uncovered, and not fixed, before the release, there isn’t a
release.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Releases can be delayed for days, sometimes months, even years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on the
defect severities below, maybe Disney should have decided to release the movie
in May of 2018. If they had hired a Quality Assurance Analyst, it certainly would have been delayed until these issues were fixed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1) Too much
progressivism:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VanDerWerff</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Refers to the
all-female Ghostbusters remake;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Comments on
prevalent tweets and user reviews that complain about too many female
characters- “while its most evil characters are white men with complexes about
being given what they think they deserve.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">c.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">this movie being
a hand-off from baby boomers to millenials- with their racial diversity (this
movie stars a young white woman, a black man, Latino man and woman of Asian
descent).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two main bad guys are white.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Me</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(<u>medium</u>) Don’t mind at all that there are
female characters</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> as long as more of
them are strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fisher’s Princess Leia
is iconically strong-spirited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my
major complaints about <i>The Force Awakens</i> (TFA) was that they portrayed her as weak; they left her to fret over the loss of her son (Kylo Ren) to the dark
side. She stayed back so that a white male (Han Solo) could take action. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Revisionist criticism of Cowboy and
Indian movies has focused on the demonizing of Native Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While <u>Dances with Wolves</u> was lauded
for softening the touch of one Native American tribe (the Sioux) it was knocked
for still treating the other (the Pawnee) as savages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In TFA, you introduced Rey, a powerful woman,
and retained a weak one- a doddering Leia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
least in TLJ, Leia fires a weapon, uses the force to rescue herself from the
vacuum of space (I’ll get back to this below), and delivers lines right up
there with any of those from the first trilogy- “walking carpet”,
“nerf-herder”, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(high) Rose-</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">
I want to treat this one here and recognize her as a woman first, rather than
as a minority. Needing to qualify that seems inappropriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I don’t
like the Rose character because an inclusion of an Asian woman seems forced,
not by itself of course, but when you consider <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> of the progressive influx (in c. above).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She didn’t act the part well; she isn’t
dynamic, memorable, or intriguing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
she isn’t those things as a character, not as a woman, and not as a minority
woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have the same criticism of the
boy who played Anakin in <i>The Phantom Menace</i> (TPM).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He, as a young white male- was no Haley Joel
Osment (from <i>The Sixth Sense</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yeah, I get that my
justification sounds a bit like- I have black friends- I’m no racist, when I
cut on a white person; I'm anticipating that response, not afraid of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doubling
down- Hayden Christiansen wasn’t much better in <i>Attack of the Clones</i>
(AOTC)- psst. Also a white guy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Note:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I plan on writing a more far-reaching
criticism of this point when I write a piece on my issues with all things Star
Wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several references to that
threat/promise below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you hated the thoroughness,
length and diligence of this one, don’t bother with that one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">c.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(severe) Laura Dern- she’s white</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t like
her in this movie either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She delivers
her lines, much like most of the cast in the first 2 installments of the second
trilogy (including Samuel L. Jackson and Natalie Portman) as if she had a
paralyzed larynx).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having someone that
familiar show up in that role in the middle of a Star Wars movie is like
putting Sam Malone, from Cheers, in the middle of a WW II battlefield, which is
what Spielberg did in <i>Saving Private Ryan</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I blame whoever made the decision to cast
Dern.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Note: </span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Moana,
Mulan, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Tiana, Merida are all minority princesses to grace
the Disney screen, replacing the white ones we’d seen dating back to Snow
White.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The precedent to branch out is
just fine, but much like criticisms below and in the Star Wars companion piece
I’ll get to (the writers and directors of these last two movies in this, the third trilogy, are woefully inadequate in the self-awareness department) . . . my next point-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">d.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(high) Underrepresentation of inter-galactic aliens in
positions of power</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- aside from Ackbar, Yoda and Jabba, what aliens have ever been in power in the Star Wars universe?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And Yoda and Jabba were only either informally (Yoda- Jedi master) or regionally (Jabba a scummy power-broker). They weren't sanctioned, reputable generals, captains, commodores, lords or admirals. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> The Disney executives did a lot of hand-wringing to make sure that more women and
minorities were included in these movies, and after 30 years in real, and
galaxy, life, you didn’t think to put a character that could resemble Bossk in
Captain Phasma’s role, no one like Hammerhead as General Hux, and no female
version of a Bib Fortuna-like creature rather than Dern?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That would have been much more interesting,
more compelling, would have employed dozens of creative staff making masks and
costumes, and would have sold more toys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, you gave the job to a giant white woman dressed up in sci-fi
goth/mirror-like armor (Phasma), a tightly-wound pasty red-head (Hux) and a
second-generation white actress from the Dern family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Note</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">: it
would have cost them much more to produce a movie with all of those roles
changed to aliens, but it isn’t like Disney is hurting for money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Note II</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">: I
read another column somewhere about there being another Ackbar-like general in
a position of power who was killed in TLJ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The i</span>ncrease by 1, the number of aliens in positions of power on either
side of the war, doesn’t disprove my point when the score is Humans 45, Aliens 3.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> 2) Jokes and
contemporaneous material:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VanDerWerff-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Identifies
excessive, and sometimes unsuccessful, attempts at levity as a “nitpicky”
complaint- provides some examples<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The jokes are too
modern and were unfavorably compared to joke attempts in the prequel trilogies.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Me</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(medium) You can’t have Finn fall off of a lab table.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t come
to a Star Wars movie hoping to find Kramer from Seinfeld bounding into Jerry's apartment, Dick Van Dyke
tripping over an ottoman, Roscoe P. Coltrane crashing into a bale of hay, or
Chevy Chase falling onto a christmas tree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(severe) Modern jokes</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- If you’re going to TPM and AOTC (Jar Jar Binks,
etc.) to justify how some of that humor didn’t play well, you’re cherry
picking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I don’t go to a movie,
set in a galaxy far-far away in order to escape so that I can <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">catch</i> a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not</b>-ha-ha funny reference to something best left to trashy cartoons
like South Park, or overrated ones like Family Guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unless the final act of this series, that may
be fifty years from now, considering all the material they could cull, is that
we find out all of the planets in the Star Wars universe were created from
Earth’s explosion, and the Statue of Liberty, or Lincoln Memorial, are
half-buried or bastardized by time or gorillas, (I’m alluding to <i>Planet of
the Apes</i>) there is no reason to force comedy into a film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s leave this as a
relished fictional world and not something degraded to the point that you
consider casting Taylor Swift as the love interest to a bounty hunter, in “Boba
Fett, a Star Wars Story”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leave that
tripe to the youtube generation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">c.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(low) My favorite novelist is Charles Dickens.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wrote 800
page novels in the center of dismal Victorian times- dismal, at least for the
working class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He made the conscious
decision to interject a multitude of comic relief characters, I think, to the
detriment of the subject matter, and tone of the novels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thinking the treatment of the subject matter
in a still well-respected epic (novel or film) is “nitpicky” borders on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">irresponsible</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">d.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(critical)</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> Here's an understatement-<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> DNA is unique</b>, so too are
people’s senses of humor, and their respect for their sense of humor, and right
to an opinion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Kids are going to like the comedy in TLJ more than adults. My 12-year-old liked the movie more than I did, and liked <i>Rogue One</i> less than I did. </span>It takes someone with
Star Wars DNA to tell you what kind of jokes work, and what kind don’t,
especially in a middle installment, intended to veer darker and more complex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> When my son gets older, he'll probably like <i>Rogue One</i> more because it is a more adult movie. I do not have the confidence VanDerWerff does that in time we will soften toward TLJ as we did for <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>; ESB is not juvenile, but TLJ definitely trends that way.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I know it when I see it”, and “doing
the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” are the
accepted, but not dictionary definitions, of obscenity and insanity,
respectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The former is from the
Supreme Court (<i>Miller v. California</i> from 1973) and the latter is from
Einstein.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both are well overused, so I
might as well join the party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.75in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.75in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Given my life-long
passion for the Star Wars franchise, I feel entitled to protect it from people
who don’t know what the hell they’re doing, even if that includes its creator,
George Lucas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What those heavily
involved in the franchise have been doing now, since the Ewok-invasion second
half of ROTJ, is use horrific judgment to decide on things vital to this
franchise’s existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With my Star Wars
DNA, and the brain of a quality assurance specialist, I am uniquely qualified
to question the decision-making of creative types with input on decisions where
this franchise is concerned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
appreciated a great many scenes, characters, words and actions I have seen
transpire on film, but those people keep making the same mistakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To borrow a line from Yoda- “that is why, you
fail.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ok, so not so much fail, as you could have had a more successful, less defect-intense release, according to those with Star Wars DNA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.75in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1.75in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’ll get to more of this in the larger critique of all things Star
Wars, but in the meantime, let’s move onto #3 from DerWerff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">3) TLJ isn’t
interested in fan theories:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VanDerWerff</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Canon and
non-canon characters, events, histories and goings on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Force Awakens
set-ups are treated as very unimportant in TLJ<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Who is Snoke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Rey’s parents<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Me</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo8; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(low)</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> I don’t care about fan theories. I just watched a
video from a guy who said Snoke isn’t dead, but is just force-ghost projecting
(like Luke did) himself into those scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was quite a bit more to his theory than that, and that
presenter alludes to having inside information that may be less of a theory
than most of the speculation out there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do have one thing to say about that theory- it better flipping be
true; because that would be way cool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">There are
so many books, comics, cartoons, shows, sites, magazines, media, dorks, bloggers
and losers speculating on what might happen here and there and tie this
artifact to that symbol that no movie franchise, let alone a single movie,
could ever deliver on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: .25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I watched
a ten minute video on the history of Darth Maul- from his childhood, to his
padawanship with Palpatine, to his resurrection from being cut in half in TPM
and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was left for dead,
escaped, recovered, reborn, deceived, double-crossed and partnered with so many
different characters (some of which have never, and may never, appear in a Star
Wars film) it was dizzying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keeping all
the people happy who have nothing better to do than watch and re-watch and link
to those videos, and create some of their own, is impossible. The youtuber
chronicling Maul’s history went from comic to movie to cartoon to comic to
cartoon to comic to cartoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people
might want to hold those who assume control of delivering on the Star Wars
cannon, even if we agree on what that is, accountable for all of their
missteps; I just want to hold them accountable on the most egregious of them;
given my passion for Star Wars, tactical spirit and reasonable perspective, I
know I am uniquely qualified.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo8; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(critical) Snoke I</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- the video I watched on him was fascinating, but we may only be
waiting 2 years to be disappointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
(the Snoke background) is the biggest thing Johnson, as writer and director,
simply has to start to deliver on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
cannot introduce a character of that magnitude, both physically and
spiritually, and not invest some movie minutes on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">If he’s so ancient, majestic and powerful, where was
he during the events in the original trilogy- only 30-40 years previous, where
was he during the events in the prequel trilogy, only 60-70 years
previous?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell me you haven’t learned
your lesson from creating a powerful and intriguing character only to dispatch him in less
than 20 minutes of screen time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of
Darth Maul here, and for that matter- Boba Fett and General Grievous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Tell me you didn’t spend 20 minutes filming the sequel
to the pod race from TPM by trolling rich people in a casino, forsaking the
time you could have spent treating the subject with a seriousness it deserved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Snoke II</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- my
idea, and this is why they need to hire me as their QA, is even more way cooler
than the theory presented in the Snoke video I watched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if Snoke is the character Palpatine
tells Anakin the story about in <i>Revenge of the Sith </i>(ROTS)?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if Darth Plagueis abdicated some of his power to the Emperor . . . what if the Emperor was
Darth Plagueis’ apprentice, the apprentice who killed Plagueis in his sleep
after being taught everything Plagueis knew?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What is more preferable- that Snoke, this giant, enigmatic, all-knowing Sith lord, was
killed by his apprentice (Ren) after the former had said he could surmise (revealing that as yet another plot hole or self-awareness violation on the part of the writer/director) all
of Ren’s intentions or that he (Snoke) unifies, potentially, all three trilogies?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 90.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Rey’s origin</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- sure, it would have been great if Rey were Obi Wan’s
granddaughter, but the idea that she is a nobody works for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The notion there are others, like stable-boys
looking into the stars, or could be others we haven’t met yet, is actually
smart; eff mytachlorians right- anyone have a problem with that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least they were consistent
about this in the movie, as has been pointed out by plenty of youtube posts highlighting
all of the little destructions Johnson and all the minions of those with a say,
(albeit too often speaking in a language I can’t understand as this whole
column I’m writing is meant to specifically call out) have been clear they’re
weeding out- “time for the Jedi to die”, Yoda appearing and telling Luke to let
the past go (hint to those uber-fans out there), Ren’s comments to Rey about
ditching the Sith and Jedi, killing the past, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Plenty of self-awareness, but not enough.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 90.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: 17.25pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The theme of this movie, as rendered against all of
the expectations, comparing TLJ to all that came before it, and hopes of those
plopping $8-$20 (often more than once) to see it, is <b>nihilism</b>. Be nihilistic, forsake the fans, turn our expectations around, but hire
someone with the perspective, the Star Wars DNA, to truly sanction the decisions you’re
making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 90.75pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: 17.25pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">You just can’t get that many things wrong (per above)
and expect your rational customers to ignore the defects, to overlook the quality of the product being delivered. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 17.25pt;"><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 17.25pt;">Note</b><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 17.25pt;">: </span><u style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 17.25pt;">Rogue One</u><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 17.25pt;"> (RO)
was a GREAT movie! and </span><i style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 17.25pt;">Revenge of the Sith</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 17.25pt;"> was a little better than TLJ. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 17.25pt;">TFA was pretty much Star Wars redux, and TLJ has a
subtle number of nods to TESB- think of the battle on the salt planet, with the
Rebels poised amid canons, fighting from trenches, on white footing, against
AT-ATs as a distraction so the good guys can evacuate.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Note:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> as a fan, I don’t want to know, or determine, what
goes into a Star Wars movie, because I want to be surprised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But being surprised and being consistently
disappointed are different emotions, just as Hoth and Tatooine are different
biomes.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">4) Individual
plot lines don’t make sense:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VanDerWerff-<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo9; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Benicio Del Toro<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Rey’s training-
the film’s pacing (days and hours)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">c.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The Casino
scene(s)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">d.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Plot holes and
storytelling choices- pieces that don’t fit<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Me-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(medium) They completely wasted Del Toro</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a
terrible character, but I have a feeling they left entire scenes of his out of
the movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This subplot was a failure,
and rushed. It would have been appropriate if Lando had come out of
the prison shadows to be the code breaker. I read something about how that idea
was entertained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if your attention
is divided among too many things- keeping continuity issues out of the movie,
jamming pratfalls and jokes into it, casting globally appealing characters, not
saving screen time for stellar character explorations or the inclusion of revered
throwbacks, you can't develop a character like Del Toro. We, like Yoda, want the impossible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(critical) Timeline</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has been going on since
at least <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>RO cured the “why would a planet killer have a communicable
self-destruct mechanism” problem, but there is an awful lot of work to do here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Luke goes
to Dagobah and learns to become a Jedi, but that isn’t going to happen in a
half day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Han, Leia and company go to
Cloud City for what seems like a few hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The feel is that they had enough time to
change clothes, slam a Manhattan (or a Bespin), and talk about the weather
stored inside all of those cumulus clouds, before they are greeted by Vader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The timeline doesn’t work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These days, that is referred to as a
continuity problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">Unless a future movie in the franchise turns Jedi time into a thing that transcends actual time and 1 hour = 2 days on Dagobah, you can't take Luke's training seriously.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I didn’t realize it
when I was 10 watching ESB, but my fandom doesn’t preclude me from revisiting
my former appreciation of the film and reevaluating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not one to ignore faults in people,
myself, movies, books, political parties, facts, etc., just because something’s
long-standing, and overall mythic score, is high.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">c.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(severe) Just as in real life- time spent in a casino
is a complete waste of time . . . and money.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there’s one thing I can say
about the events filmed in the casino- at least it isn’t the pod race
from TPM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> High praise. </span>All of the social injustice
and class struggle commentary is forced, unless the next director picks it up
(think continuity) doesn’t start writing the next movie before the previous one
is released (see below) and actually skillfully delivers on that story point.
Addressing class struggle in a Star Wars movie is probably not a good idea,
unless you can do it more meaningfully than having space camels run through a
set of obnoxiously rich gamblers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Considering all of the other struggles you’re having as writers,
directors, casting directors, executive producers, and story developers,
introducing a class struggle is well out of your league.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">d.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(severe) Storytelling choices</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- If you’ve missed all of my other mentions of a
column I haven’t written yet, this will be the most obvious one- there is
nothing in this movie that compares to the deficiency in TPM or AOTC . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and I already mentioned the midgets in bear
costumes from the original trilogy right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VanDerWerff
thinks it rare in this film that a plot hole or storytelling choice doesn’t
have a payoff . . . if I only have to wait two years to be proven wrong- I’m
your man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m assuming he’s referring to
Dern’s character running into the enemy ship at light speed when she could have
done it much earlier; Leia cascading through space and back to the safety of a ship; bombs <i>dropping</i>, via gravity, from one ship onto another in space,
or ships running out of gas, which if they were made to move faster by the
First Order would have burned more gas, and the First Order in “hot pursuit”,
(another nod to Roscoe P. Coltrane) would have been rid of the Resistance
sooner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">5) Character
journeys aren’t as expected:</span></b></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VanDerWerff</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Most of his in-depth and
conciliatory review is tied directly to points 2-4 directly above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that, so is mine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">(high)</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> His
summary in this section- that ESB in 1980 wasn’t compared favorably to Star
Wars, that ROTJ was initially celebrated, and that “The Force Awakens was
attacked for being too slavish to the old Star Wars movies; The Last Jedi is
being attacked for not being slavish enough.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, and like the force, something must bring that imbalance into
perspective so they don’t make both types (or either type) of mistake in the
next installment, so that they make a great movie instead of just a very good
one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Other than the casino, the
wasted use of Del Toro, and ridiculous sentimentality as played out between
Rose and Finn, Leia has the most interesting journey- back into the safety of a
ship after having been sucked out of another one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look, that scene is probably going to feel a
little goofy regardless, but this is a big problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">creative group </i>that gets along so well- (see snippets of an interview with TLJ director) didn’t shoot
that idea down?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And who failed to come
up with the idea that in order for Leia to solve that big of a problem (certain
death) we had to at least have hints she could use the force?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Filmmakers learn to use foreshadowing,
flashback, different viewpoints, hell . . . <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">TECHNIQUES</b> to tell stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have traditionally had very little of that in any of these films; ironically, this movie
actually does do that- to very good effect (Luke and Ren’s conflicting stories
about the latter’s training).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is time
for those at Disney to start hiring people capable of doing more of these things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lucas wasn’t capable of using any techniques
of storytelling at a director’s disposal besides the screen wipe, and so far
only one of his incumbents has been able to break from stories told in linear
time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Software is developed for users, for
customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Star Wars franchise is
likely to not have to worry about having enough customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Normally, however, you deliver functionality desired
by customers, functionality that meets the needs of those who pay for it. An
e-commerce, or health care customer, expects a certain level of quality; the
company releasing something should take pride in delivering as good a product
as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given the 3 critical and 4 severe defects, this release should have been delayed by five months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the quality assurance business, the sooner
a defect is uncovered, the less costly it is to fix.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next time, Disney, director Johnson, Mr.
Director Abrams, run some of your ideas by a QA with Star Wars DNA, and deliver the great movie
you’re so close to releasing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Appendix</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">An interview of Rian Johnson,
writer-director of The Last Jedi, from Alissa Wilkinson (December 18, 2017)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/12/18/16786428/star-wars-last-jedi-interview-rian-johnson-ram-bergman"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Last Jedi director interview</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #4c4e4d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rian Johnson<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #4c4e4d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Well, it is, but it
isn’t. We were working off of <i>The Force Awakens</i>, but it’s not like
there was a blueprint for what happens after <i>The Force Awakens</i>.
There wasn’t at all. It was literally just me reading the script, and then
thinking, what happens next?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #4c4e4d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I moved to San
Francisco when I was breaking the story so I could come in twice a week and
just run all my ideas by the folks at Lucasfilm. They have a group of really
cool folks that they call the “story group,” kind of a creative development
group of folks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #4c4e4d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; color: #4c4e4d; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But their role was not really to police me or to guide me
into anything. They were a sounding board. If I had come to something that I
thought was kind of out there, or the question was, “Can I do this in <em>Star
Wars</em>?” I would put those doubts in front of them, and nine times out of 10
their response would be, “Wow, that is really different and weird. Go for it.
Do that.” They were there to protect me from self-editing more than to edit me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebuttal-<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There should have been a
blueprint- not in the way Abrams used Star Wars as a blueprint of how to make a
21<sup>st</sup> century version of the original, but a blueprint, a treatment,
a jumping off point, so that someone in that “creative” group could have called
out to you- “nooooo” like Luke did when he found out his father was Darth
Vader, when you made some of the decisions you did about comedy, plot lines,
ignoring story arcs, casting decisions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Alissa Wilkinson<o:p></o:p></h4>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
There has to be a
lot of expectations you come in with when you’re a fan yourself.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p> </o:p></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Rian Johnson<o:p></o:p></h4>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially when your job is to make a good movie, and making a good movie means
drama, and drama means throwing roadblocks in the way of the easy answers and
the expectations. That means in some ways you're going to be butting up against
your own instincts as to what you as a fan want. You have to defy wish
fulfillment in order to tell a good story — especially to tell a good second
act of a story, which is what the middle chapter basically is. It was absolutely
something we had to keep in mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rebuttal<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Had he just watched <i>The Phantom Menace</i> and wanted to one-up the pod race?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That isn’t dramatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His goal should have been to make a great
movie- then imagine all the criticisms he could have anticipated and self-corrected
without a QA guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That creative folks
group- they have a project manager?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This isn’t about wish
fulfillment- I probably wouldn’t have thought about crashing one ship into
another at light speed- brilliant- and the lightsaber Snoke “killing” awesome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thing is, you can have some wish fulfillment
<i>and</i> tell a <b>great</b> story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">. . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #4c4e4d;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Alissa Wilkinson<o:p></o:p></h4>
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Did you find
yourself delving into fan theories?<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p> </o:p></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Rian Johnson<o:p></o:p></h4>
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Well, I find I was
kind of lucky: I wrote the script while J.J. [Abrams] was shooting <em>The
Force Awakens</em>. I wrote it before the movie was out there. I didn’t really
have any fan theories in my head while writing it, which I think was ultimately
a healthy thing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Rebuttal</b>-<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No, it wasn’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p> </o:p></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Alissa Wilkinson<o:p></o:p></h4>
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I can imagine you
might be tempted to change things if you were reading them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<o:p> </o:p></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Rian Johnson<o:p></o:p></h4>
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Yeah. Who knows. </div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>Rebuttal-</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You have to know things, have to
know what not to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My feeling on these
creative folks is basically how I think of the NCAA tournament selection committee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People who shouldn’t have the
power to decide what teams get into the postseason tournament, and which
don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The creative folks shouldn’t
determine what gets into the movie (sentimentality, juvenile humor, plot holes, rushed multi-culturalism, pod races) and what does not (important character backgrounds, self-awareness) when they continually make such critical mistakes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
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mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
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font-family:Cambria;
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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
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p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle
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margin-bottom:0in;
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margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
line-height:107%;
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mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast
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mso-style-type:export-only;
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margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:8.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;
mso-add-space:auto;
line-height:107%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
span.Heading4Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 4 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-locked:yes;
mso-style-link:"Heading 4";
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:bold;}
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mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
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mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:445127760;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-1005415966 1765279960 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
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{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
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{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
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{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
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{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l1
{mso-list-id:471753797;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:578566254 -464880944 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l1:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l1:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l1:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l2
{mso-list-id:630983521;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-702611558 10273178 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l2:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l2:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
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mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
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margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l2:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l3
{mso-list-id:824400308;
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@list l3:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
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mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l3:level4
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mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
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mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l3:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l4
{mso-list-id:842670525;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:982277224 -612878066 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l4:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l4:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l4:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l5
{mso-list-id:857625477;
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mso-list-template-ids:1772752850 634681994 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l5:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l5:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l5:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l6
{mso-list-id:1222213045;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:888074236 2116087536 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l6:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l6:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l6:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l6:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l6:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l6:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l6:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l6:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l6:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l7
{mso-list-id:1848014229;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-581122198 67698705 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l7:level1
{mso-level-text:"%1\)";
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l7:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
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text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l7:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l7:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l8
{mso-list-id:1891107994;
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mso-list-template-ids:477803788 1692191820 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l8:level1
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l8:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l8:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
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mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l8:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l8:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
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margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l8:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l8:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l8:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l8:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l9
{mso-list-id:2031643391;
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mso-list-template-ids:593292450 -1210409664 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;}
@list l9:level1
{mso-level-number-format:bullet;
mso-level-text:-;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;}
@list l9:level2
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<br />
Above, I stopped short of writing that hundreds of thousands of fans are complete nutbags; in defense of Johnson, or others who might sign up to write or direct a Star Wars movie, why would they do so if they were beholden to fulfilling every fan's wish posted on the internet. I'm a fan, but a realistic one. My complaints are presented with perspective, with references and concessions. Your Star Wars die-hard wants to treat the franchise like Darth Vader treated the rest of the galaxy, as a vicious emissary for an evil dictator. I'd rather partner with creative types and not be associated with losers whose life's work revolves around tearing other people down; I would rather not be connected to a radical arm of a legitimate branch of criticism. William Penn wrote: "Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers."<br />
<br />
I am opposing the track that Abrams and Johnson (and the yes men they appealed to) are on; but the defense the uber-fan mounts on social media has well more heat than is required. That said, your answer, as the director of basically any film to a question about the greater direction- cannot flipping be- "who knows."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-46210817423870694882018-03-13T18:07:00.001-05:002019-09-28T06:46:00.370-05:00. . . TPM<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's wrong with:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>STAR WARS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u><b>The Phantom Menace</b></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>Note: </b>When I posted the review of <i>The Last Jedi</i>, I treated its release like a software development release, and its errors as defects a Quality Assurance (QA) specialist might uncover in the course of testing. I assigned severities to each defect to indicate how egregious those issues are. I'll continue the theme with this offering. For a description of what I mean, see TLJ post. In brief- low, medium, high, severe and critical are the designations.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve been mulling around the idea of cataloging the various
Star Wars movie shortcomings since <i>Attack of the Clones</i> came out- #bucketlist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve finally committed to keep track because
the list of offenses is getting long and eventually time will get short.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In most cultures, the aural tradition of
storytelling yielded to written stories, an improvement nine times out of ten. Surely
this is that other time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People’s opinions about how successfully the various
creative types who have helmed the Star Wars movie franchise have
achieved the objectives of entertaining the audience while telling impactful
stories can vary greatly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the Star
Wars fan is just looking for thrills, tolerable story arcs and crazy looking
aliens, as they’re transported to another world, then they’re probably
transfixed with what they’ve seen over the last 5 installments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, if the fan is looking for puzzle
pieces, meaning and adult story telling, well, those fans have been, and it
appears given social media comments, and director interviews (of J. J. Abrams
and Rian Johnson), will continue to be, supremely disappointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since I don’t think the objectives of entertainment and
meaning need to be mutually exclusive, I’m going to write critically and expect
more from the franchise than what we’ve been dealing with the last 19 years,
and sometimes dating back to the original trilogy- to satisfy those apologists
who blanket statement die-hards who are somewhat incapable of recognizing our
own genuflection upon the original trilogy, by dismissing our perspective.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Start at the
beginning.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I started watching
the movies with my then 6-year-old, there was no question I was going to start
with the original, the one I saw in theaters when <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I </i>was 6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was not a
chance I was going to unleash <i>The Phantom Menace</i> (TPM) on him, and sour
him on the whole series. The reasons I didn’t are detailed below.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If they preserved only the Darth Maul scenes and added them
to <i>Attack of the Clones</i> (AOTC), and then burned everything else in TPM,
they could dive deeper into more interesting subject matter (i.e. how A.
Skywalker becomes D. Vader). Sure, it is a little more complicated than that. Below
is a sample outline for the prequel trilogy, with the key being Anakin’s age(s)
within that movie- since we’ve been told that was the organizing principle
behind the first six movies- Lucas' original plan, that the story arc was more about Darth Vader than Luke Skywalker.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>The Phantom Menace
(new outline)</u></b><u>: <o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Show Annakin at 10 yrs. old for half the movie- but show him
as a petulant, serious kid, not someone who jumps off a counter saying
“yippee”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this first half, you would
have no time for Jar Jar; insert 1-2 involved political discussions, written
and directed by someone else, cut the rest of the movie, retaining only the Darth
Maul material, adding more of it, and just don’t have him cut in half quite
yet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(Severe) The Pod Race</b> . .
. burn the hell out of that business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nightmare
25 minutes; nightmare!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I watched
the deleted scenes, I laughed out loud when Lucas and those responsible for
editing and pace belabored the cut of an additional 8-10 minutes of the set-up
of the pod race. Hitler and his generals took less time to figure out how to
invade Poland; the actual invasion of Poland took less time . . . and still would
have if the Germans were blind, and had used just the idea of pod racers as
their only means of transportation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The interviews featuring virtual nail-biting, and an utter
absence of self-awareness on the parts of Lucas and his minions, who perhaps
were brainwashed into agreeing with him, both in terms of what he left out of
the movie, but more importantly, what he decided to include, are comical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that sentence I left the verb so far away
from the subject that it was hard to read, and that is what makes TPM so hard
to watch- the subject (Anakin Skywalker) is so far away from any demonstrable,
character-developing action. In short, we don’t need 1/6<sup>th</sup> of the
movie (the length of the pod race sequence) to see how quick Anakin’s reflexes
are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>The Last Starfighter </i>was
able to show how gifted Alex Rogan was in ¼ of the screen time over a couple of
scenes, and did it even more effectively than TPM. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>High</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Besides, if this isn’t Anakin’s first pod race, even if he’s
never finished one- wouldn’t the entire population of pod racing attendees (who
paid/invested to get into the stadium, and those who couldn’t get tickets, as it
was packed) suspect he had Jedi qualities? Wattu knows Qui-Gon is a Jedi, and
knows some of the features (decision-making control), but conveniently forgets
that when it is time to bet Anakin’s servitude on a roll of a chance die (which
a Jedi could manipulate into a favorable outcome). Just another in a long list
of questionable decisions that helps advance the story at the cost of
discriminating people taking it seriously.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second half of TPM would show Annakin at 20 years old,
we’d get half of the first half of AOTC here. We’d ditch the Pod Race
equivalent of Anakin and Obi-Wan traipsing through the sky chasing after Zed, the
bounty hunter, and replace it with a new action scene. The only part of that whole sequence we'd retain from AOTC is when Kenobi, while using Jedi mind tricks, is giving the space nerd a hard time about death sticks, and the nature of the nerd's existence- "you want to go home and rethink your life." Brilliant.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So many movies and movie genres, (science fiction,
adventure, comedy, romantic comedy, mystery, adventure) make use of plenty of
film making techniques that play with time, deal with pace- foreshadowing,
flashbacks, etc.; those techniques are almost completely absent in the Star
Wars cannon. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Godfather Part II</i> showed us two distinctly
different ages of Vito Corleone;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Inception</i> gave us 1, 2 or maybe 3 levels of
storytelling;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Memento</i> has 15-20 scenes shown in reverse order while
black and white scenes are shown chronologically;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Vantage Point </i>told the same story from different
character points of view;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Big</i> shows a boy one night and a grown man the next
morning;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade</i> shows a teenage
Indiana for the first 15 minutes of the movie and seamlessly transitions to our
familiar hero as an adult;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A dozen super hero movies show a snippet of the character as a
child (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider Man), or an old recorded tape of
the hero’s father speaking about something crucial to the audience’s
understanding of the hero (Iron Man) as a force to be reckoned with. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>(Critical)</b> A. Skywalker- I’ll use this point to mention the biggest single problem
with TPM. First, if the kid you hired can’t deliver the lines with some level
of gravitas, even for a 10-year old, someone else should have been hired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Haley Joel Osment, with Bruce Willis’ help,
carried <i>The Sixth Sense</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
don’t have a great movie without Osment performing so well; TPM should never
have been released because of many things, and it starts with Jake Lloyd’s
horrendous performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His facial
expressions and mannerisms show the complete amateur that he was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He twists his wrist in a scene as if begging
for this to be the take that is acceptable enough so he can move on and take a
swig from his juice box.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, at 10, I
wouldn’t have been able to act well enough to pass as Anakin Skywalker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 47 I can still only convince my 7-year old
that they’re out of toys at Target. It is true- I cannot act; just as true- I don't need to be Olivier to notice that someone else can't either.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Someone hired to play an angry genius needs to deliver on emotion,
someone who can show anger, fear, someone who can show there has been
suffering, loneliness, ambition, even at 10, is required. I would wager that philosophers,
artists, inventors, authors and the vast majority of athletes who showed above
average, superior and identifiable talents in their future areas of
expertise came upon them naturally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These humans didn’t fall down and hit their heads, weren’t struck by lightning, or granted a
wish to succeed by a genie in a bottle. They showed definite signs of their
genius when they were 13, 10, even 6. Mozart was writing quality
music at 5, Leonardo did not start painting, and thinking of airplanes,
bicycles, Vitruvian Man and Mona Lisa only at 50 years old. Anyone think that
the idea of the personal computer only started hatching inside Bill Gates’
brain when he was college-aged?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
building blocks were there; there were synapses, wiring, associations, building
of ideas well before they were manifest. Wordsworth’s “The child is father to
the man” is very telling.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last paragraph I mentioned something about talents. There
are average, above average and spectacular talents in all walks of life. Everyone's kid is destined to be a tremendous success, cure cancer or become a pro baseball player. We all know someone who is wicked smart, very musical, or incredibly athletic. Those people are in the 10% of the population; people like Steven Hawking, Marvin Gaye, and Michael Jordan are in the .001%. These people are geniuses- if not intellectually, then in the manipulation and arrangement of musical instruments, or voices, or they've got impeccable hand-eye coordination, leaping ability or are incomparable interpreters of time and space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> There are v</span>ery, very, very few geniuses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
I don’t think Freud is a genius.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think Edison is a genius.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Einstein? Yes; Michelangelo? Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The latter made marble look like cloth.
Anakin Skywalker was meant to be a genius; he was supposedly immaculately
conceived, with talents, as recognized by anyone who ran into him, after he got
off Tatooine, and by some while he was on it, as a genius with abilities surpassing any of those that had come
before. Is there even a chance, that with that origin, that specter of the
possible, and the idea he was a lonely slave, that the genius mixed with the
desperateness doesn’t make for one compelling little man? Anakin was Mozart
mixed with Tiger Woods and Lucas has him jumping off of tables saying “yippee”.
No! Lucas . . . is no genius.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Note:</b> I was going
to continue with the rough outlines of <i>Attack of the Clones</i> and <i>Revenge
of the Sith,</i> but I’ll tackle those in their turn after I’ve re-watched each
of those movies.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is hard to build a list of the most egregious mistakes
authored by those in charge of creating, maintaining, or contributing to the
Star Wars universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should I track them
by severity, chronologically, by category?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is that list, beyond the terrible treatment of Darth Vader’s youth,
restricted, for the purposes of this summary, to TPM.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Severe)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>1) </b>In the history of Hollywood there have been
hundreds of films that range from between tolerable and majestic, without much
in the way of action, and are rather carried by what happens in a courtroom (<i>12
Angry Men</i>), a diner, a bar, a library (<i>The Breakfast Club</i>), a living room
(<i>Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf</i>), a </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">hot
tub</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">, for christ’s sake.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Since the
action thing didn’t really happen in TPM, the responsibility fell on the
dialogue. There was nothing redeeming about the dialogue in TPM.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Epic fail. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Severe)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>2) </b>I’ve seen book title jackets with two names on
the cover and thought, it took two people to write something this
horrible?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">This is applicable to Nute
Gunray and the other amphibian. I would rather the writer of the movie give
rise to less gullible allies. We need villains we can at least respect, and find
creative types inventive enough to legitimize the story, to move the story along (more on this below) despite how intelligent
those characters are, good or evil.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Severe)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>3) </b>If I were an amphibian, and learn, or suspect, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan, are Jedi, why in the world would I open the door to a room they're trapped in, which is filling with poisonous gas? Opening that door is their only means of escape?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">This is clumsy
storytelling, and the first in the prequel trilogy that makes us roll our eyes
in disgust. In order to get the weight of how formidable the Jedi are, you need
villains with some intelligence to overcome. Having two morons open that door is exactly the same mistake as having two losers not blow up the space pod in the original.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">4) Pathetic
droids</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">- I don’t know why this one bothers me. If this were a list in
severity order, it would appear lower than the number preceding it. The
amphibians have any intelligence at all? Historically, like in the real world,
have there been shadow governments like that that paid for and “led” such
incompetent soldiers?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The droid army is
the most ridiculous set of “warriors” I’ve seen on film. Sure, Palpatine
planned it that way, but who is trusting the servitude of pylons like those to
defeat anything more advanced than an army of dust specks? Would any <i>reasonable</i>
amphibian pin his advancement chances on sticks with legs; I would have demanded
Palpatine provide a destroyer droid army, (the rolling guys with force fields)
at twice the price and half the number- you know, to keep costs down. Surely
Palpatine gets the concept of planned obsolescence. There are frogs collecting in the void of the egress window behind me who look more capable of recognizing they made a mistake hopping down there and when I went to rescue one of them last week it screamed in terror that I might be hurting it. At least it was conscious of its own mortality.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Severe)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">5) Written
dialogue and verbal delivery.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> I think that only Ewan McGregor, among the
cast, avoided sounding like a robot, and he had the benefit of an English
accent. That said, he was as good a choice for Obi-Wan as Chris Pine was for
Captain Kirk from the Star Trek reboot.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>6) </b>I think I heard the line- </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“battle-hardened federation army”</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> spoken by someone. The droids are
“battle-hardened” in the same way that President Trump is </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">qualified</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> to be CEO of the United States.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Critical)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>7) </b>Jar Jar. Jesus H.</span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">If time travel were a thing, in addition to attempting to prevent the rise of Hitler and keeping John Wilkes Booth from assassinating Lincoln, a trip to Lucas' office at Skywalker ranch to extract the idea of Jar Jar out of his head, by any means necessary, would be an additional use of such a machine.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>8) </b>Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon emerge from the watery
descent to Gungan City in three layers of wool clothing without being
completely drenched. Apparently we stopped spraying Scotch-Guard on new furniture, but its back (or still there) and better than ever in the galaxy far far away?</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>9) </b>One of the cadre of meaningless eunuchs points
out that communication has been disrupted, but somehow those unable to push a
message through to Coruscant are unable to come to the same conclusion.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>10) </b>Qui-Gon
is unable to use the force to sense a giant fish about to devour the escape sub
Obi-Wan is piloting. That force sensitive ability is really hit or miss. “How
convenient!” closed-circuit to the church lady. </span>Also, the sub surfaces in the
middle of a city that is supposed to be occupied by tens of thousands of
“battle-hardened” federation troops.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>11) </b>As Padme,
or the queen, is overlooking the invasion of Coruscant, my son pointed out
there is a chord plugged into a wall socket illuminating the bulbs at the
bottom of the dress.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>12) </b>Did Han
Solo’s command of </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“never tell me the
odds”</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> get applied retroactively, and en masse, and served as a directive
borrowed, and implemented, by the federation leader amphibians? With an army of
droids occupying the city, the ratio of federation droid “soldiers” guarding
the rebel prisoners is 1 to 1; there were more twigs, with a far greater
capacity to guard prisoners, on Charlie Brown’s christmas tree.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>13) </b>In the
fighter hanger there were 10-15 droids keeping tabs on 20 (hopefully trained in
combat) fighter pilots, who were not restrained.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Again, if you make both the heroes and the
villains prevail against worthy adversaries, the onlookers will have more
respect for both.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>14) </b>When the
ship gets through the blockade, no ships follow it. They’ve done their job by
picking off 3 astromech droids and making a hero of R2.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(High)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>15) </b>Those
that can get over how little Darth Maul is actually on screen, might bring up
the excruciatingly painful length of the movie due to the political scenes.
Often enough, when there is something that takes a lot of time and people can’t
invest in it, I would loan them some money and ask them to get an attention
span- but holy jesus there are some ridiculously long scenes; and you thought
making it through this rendering of the movie itself was torturous.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Maul is on screen no more than 15-18 minutes.
Misusing Maul like that is equivalent to filming an Incredible Hulk movie where
he only ever appears as David Banner, and until the recent iteration of Avengers movies with Mark Ruffolo playing Banner, Maul was a much, much better character. Apologies to Bill Bixby, Edward Norton, and Eric Bana and Lou Ferrigno.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>16) </b>Qui-Gon </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">senses a force disturbance</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> on the
outskirts of Tatooine but somehow not on board the federation ship when he’s
acting as an ambassador hoping to negotiate to prevent a war. His temporary
oversight advances the story to the benefit of people not intelligent enough to
notice.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">17) Don’t want to draw attention</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">, but ahhhh
. . . an iguana, droid and a petite girl heading into a haven of scum, is only
going to draw that attention.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Severe)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>18) </b>Before he
leaves, Qui-Gon tells Obi-Wan: “don’t let them send any transmissions.” The
head of security and Obi-Wan are out looking around at the Tatooine wasteland,
when head of security tells Obi-Wan we’re “receiving a message from home.”</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">You either need to make it clear that it is
Maul trying to trick them, or Obi-Wan in a panic that someone aboard the ship
would actually pick up the phone. If it is the former, is no one on the ship
wise enough to check the caller ID? These people wouldn’t get it if someone wanted
to bet them on the result of coin flipping- “ok, so, we agree right, we’re
betting $100- heads I win, tails you lose.” Instincts be damned, we must
clumsily advance the plot. If I were on the run from the authorities, I’d avoid
using the ATM, disable the "find my Iphone" feature, and wouldn’t buy plane tickets with my Discover card- you know,
because- technology.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>19) </b>We’ve
seen almost </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">no evidence the boy has Jedi
reflexes</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">20) Immaculately conceived?</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> Disbelief
suspended- if hundreds upon hundreds of millions of people keep inheriting this
fallacy generation after generation and think it true in this real world, who
am I to question the use of it in something I know is fiction. Moving on- this
is a science fiction movie, but for a franchise that relies so heavily on an
unseen spirit world with an archive of invisible actions (force jumping,
electricity shooting from fingers, manipulating objects to make them hurl
across the screen), perceptions, instincts made available to them, you decide
that a blood test will tell you that your Jesus-Mozart has arrived.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(High)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>21) </b>the pod
race- even 3PO makes a comment about the duration- </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“he has to complete two more circuits- oh dear.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exactly.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Something tells me, after watching the interviews from the bonus
content, that my point here would be lost on Lucas, et al.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">At least 3PO gets it.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>22) </b>Too much mopey sentimentality and another
“yippee”. #shakingmyhead SMH for the kids out there.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>23) </b>They need
proof of army occupation? Video surveillance, holograms, com-links, hyperspace,
two dozen force sensitive Jedi sitting around . . . the technology and the
means don’t seem to be lacking.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">You
can’t pretend something doesn’t exist when it isn’t convenient to the story.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Medium for now)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>24) </b>First inklings
that Sith are involved- a mystery that lasts at least 10 years. Force sensitive
beings that have no clue that significant evil is afoot? Wayne Campbell: “no
whay”.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">There is no excuse to make the
Jedi so conveniently ignorant, except that it keeps what the creatives think
are precious plot points intact.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>25) </b>Somehow
the rebels know the Gungins and Naboo are allies but not that Coriscant is
occupied. Technology improved a lot in 10 minutes of screen time, and since we
know there is only one way to tell a Star Wars story, straight through,
reconciling this convenience is not possible.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>26) </b>Rebel
soldiers decide to engage in firefights in the middle of the street, or in the
middle of the hanger, not behind a wall, or a stack of boxes. Droid “soldiers”
programmatically march and engage in rows like British soldiers; if I’m
Palpatine, and looking to take over the galaxy, I’m thinking I would need to
sell it more; if I’m a “rebel” I’m thinking I should find a place to hide as I
fire my weapon at walking twigs.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(None)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>27) </b>3 words- </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">double bladed lightsaber</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">. And the
creative people and story development folks allow it to remain double-bladed
for an appropriate amount of time. Usually, when they find something that
doesn’t work they accentuate it, and when something works they kill it
(Grievous, Boba Fett, Darth Maul) and not in a way that would hint they have
any idea about what they’re doing.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Low)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>28) </b>Anakin
pilots a spaceship- so this is what the 25 minute pod race was for- so we could
see him accidentally choose all the right buttons to fire a canon, get a ship
off the ground, move it forward, and eventually bring down a miniature space
station. Here again Lucas exchanged wow, for huh.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(None)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>29) </b>Excellent
use of the series of timed force fields to create suspense for the three
combatant lightsaber duel.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(what's the point?)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>30) </b>Jar Jar
again.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Mother of god.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Yeah, someone would need to have found
religion to even tolerate that character rather than wanting to kill it. He is
Chaplin-esque; in an adventure, sci-fi, war movie- not a complement. Wait, I
meant Kramer-esque (Kramer from Seinfeld, a brilliant character from a
situation comedy)- still not a complement.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(High)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>31) </b>Maul
waits until Obi-Wan cuts him in half. Maul has shown that he’s too quick to die
with the move Obi-Wan put on him. It wasn’t because Maul was tired- Kenobi was
the one hanging from a protrusion down some vertical shaft supporting all of
his body weight just before his leap up.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Severe)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>32) </b>The
entire Jedi council objects to Qui-Gon training Anakin.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">No one diligent, mindful and experienced
master of a religion is going to agree to that, let alone two dozen of them
when they all sense what A. Skywalker could turn into. The Jedi needed to
listen to their actuary (a professional who assesses risk for a living).
Further, the collective Jedi especially wouldn’t relent because the more
qualified teacher has died and turns over young Skywalker to Obi-Wan, who would
have just passed the Jedi master trials?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">To use Obi-Wan’s words- “I don’t think so.”</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The deleted
scenes</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(None- they removed more pod race material)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>33) </b>“relevant material”, “screen time is precious”
and “pod race did go on quite a while” are words that actually came out of
Lucas’ mouth. The pod race isn’t the car chase scene from </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><i>The French
Connection</i></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">, hell, it isn’t the car chase scene from </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><i>Toy Story</i></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The only good thing you can actually say
about the pod race is that it didn’t upset the mounting tension, excitement or
momentum the movie was producing, because there already wasn’t any of that; but
if there had been any, the pod race definitely would have killed it.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br />
<b>(None)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>34) </b>Took a </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Jar Jar scene out</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">That was the second best decision you made
(to the creation and inclusion of Darth Maul). Unfortunately, you only made
the</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">decision to cut a Jar Jar scene out
one time.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>(Critical)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">35) Greedo</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">: The deleted scenes for TPM were
mostly horrific, with one exception.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Lucas
and company should have included the deleted scene in the movie that shows a
young Greedo and Anakin rolling around in the sand fighting.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">It is foreshadowing for Greedo’s end, and
shows your main character willing to violently mix it up. It would have needed more
context. What was the fight about? Hinting at a violent end for the main
character of six movies, making us believe his transition to the dark side has
another layer because the genius was always shown to be petulant, selfish,
whiny and above all, alone, would have been wise. Lucas “didn’t think it was essential to showing his
character.”</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>There was nothing included
in the movie that was more essential than that.</b></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
To use Jar Jar’s words- “my give up.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-55823723169286961792018-03-25T08:07:00.002-05:002019-09-21T06:38:22.858-05:00. . . AOTC<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">What's wrong with:</span></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">STAR WARS</span></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Attack of the Clones</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-a47632eb-7fff-6084-5d60-fd00de729352" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">In an effort to avoid the irony of this ‘What’s Wrong With (WWW)’ being just as long as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The Phantom </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Menace</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">’s, despite </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Attack of the Clones</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> being a better movie, I’ll leave out the credentials I was going </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to include which make me qualified to deliver an opinion on anything, let alone, on the most successful </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie franchise in the history of film. So, let’s pretend I don’t have any qualifications. This puts me </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in line with just about any fan who has called into a sports radio talk show and communicated a </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">viewpoint on the merits of instant replay in major league baseball and the limitations of the current </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">college football playoff system.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I saw the original, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Star Wars</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">, in the theater in 1977. And I love the franchise, still. Isn’t that enough </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">reason for anyone coming across these criticisms to conclude that I have a vested interest, like a </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">parent to a child, in getting the best out of them? Probably not. Anyone so thoroughly tackling the</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> topic of the demerits of Star Wars better be wearing a “Come at me Bro” T-shirt. Course, when the </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">probable audience of such an ornate dispute numbers in the single digits, I won’t bother. The world is </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">filled with people who just complain about things, who have questions, but no answers, and find faults </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">without fixes. I’m telling them what went wrong, and often, how it could have been better.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’ve got Star Wars DNA with analytical and creative brain synapses constantly at odds. I majored in </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">English and minored in Writing. I've written my share of papers with theses and themes, have over </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a decade of paid formal experience in fault finding, and pedaled a lifetime of un-quarantined opinions, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">sometimes volcanic in their expression, and exclusively effusive in length. I’m surely, critics of criticism </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">might say, one of those guys who thinks they should be calling plays on the sidelines for an NFL team, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">but who either can’t spit out a coherent thought on live radio, or regurgitates the same blather everyone </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">else is pedaling. No number of listed “qualifications” would be good enough for some people. So, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">moving on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Attack of the Clones (revamped rough new outline):</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Going with the theory I established last time out, where we scrap almost all of the TPM except </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">for the Darth Maul material, we will eventually have enough total film time to shoot a whole, additional, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and thankfully, a different movie. It would be like what Sam Kinison should have done, if he'd watched </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">his Live from Las Vegas show, filmed during a few months where he was coke free- the drug, not the </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">soda. He should have seen he had not written any jokes, was just bitching about things that he didn't </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">make funny, and tried it all over again.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Sure we’d find a way to have the introductions to C-3PO (being built by a young Anakin) and R2-D2 </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(making a name for himself by fixing the shield on the escape cruiser leaving Coruscant). We’d retain </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a short scene where the two droids first meet each other.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">AOTC would feature a slightly older version of Anakin (from the end of TPM) for the first half of the </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie and a still older version later in the second half of AOTC.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’d trim or ditch much of the pod race part II- zooming around in a city chasing after a bounty hunter </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">was not at all compelling. More on that below.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Do we need 20 minutes of screen time devoted to Mr. Skywalker and Ms. Amidala finding each other </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">attractive? Two scenes of 5 total minutes can show you people falling in love; romantic comedies </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">are able to achieve this consistently. By the time those movies are 20 minutes in, we’re convinced </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the leading man and lady are meant for each other. Given what we already knew about Skywalker’s </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">antics and progeny, there was little work to do here. Have those who’ve helmed Star Wars movies </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ever heard of a montage? There is an excellent use of a montage in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The Theory of Everything</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">, </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">showing the audience the passage of time from a wedding to the birth of a second child, a time </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">covering an estimated 3-4 years in just a minute or two on film. We only needed to be convinced </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the future Darth Vader was infatuated in a span covering 1-4 days, which should have been revealed </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">on film in no more than 3-4 minutes of screen time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The list of issues for AOTC, again preceded by a QA’s defect severity, signaling how distasteful </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and damaging the error should have appeared to those in creative control, and how much it should </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">have, and has, impacted the release and appreciation of the film:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Medium</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">1) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I start to wonder, why are several thousand solar systems at odds, and leaving the republic? </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">What is the actual plot of all of Star Wars? A power hungry chancellor, emperor, Sith lord wants to </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">control the entire galaxy/known universe? What in the hell for? Because of a trade dispute? That </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">gets the ball rolling? That isn’t enough. At least with Hitler, the events of his youth, he was a soldier </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in Germany’s loss of World War I, Versailles Treaty punishments, and his belief that Aryans were </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">good and Jews, blacks, communism and democracy were bad, gave him motivation; he was a </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">nationalist, a racist and he had a warped idea about the weak and the strong; he wanted to take </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">revenge and was insecure. Anakin’s motivations are clear, and the justifications for his actions are </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">too. The emperor’s are not; he didn’t want riches, adoration, a valuable supply of a rare natural </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">resource (food, water or vibranium), to win back the love of a maiden, to punish a rival, or to capture </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a valuable amulet that is the key to a longer life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">High</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">2) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">7 Jedi sit around and find that the dark side clouds everything. The mystical, intuitive, cultured, </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">diligent, experienced and engaged masters of their craft, have for ten years been suspecting evil is </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">afoot and are collectively unable to suspect anyone of anything. Very convenient plot device. You </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">either don’t have three movies without this convenience, or you have to work harder to make the </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">plot more interesting, to give it more depth; guess which option Lucas chose.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Severe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">3) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Yoda is shown with a suspecting face when Palpatine states that the senator should be </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">guarded for her safety and has no inkling about the chancellor, his tone of voice, never questions </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Palpatine’s intentions, nor challenges Palpatine’s suggestions. The way Palpatine speaks doesn’t </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">cause a wizard with 700+ years of experience to deduce that he should commune with his thoughts </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and have Palpatine watched sooner than he did?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Low</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">4) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Jar Jar- holy hell. Only a low because he is mostly invisible in the movie- too bad that isn’t true </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of Jar Jar's screen time in TPM.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Low</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">5) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The race to catch the bounty hunter Jango Fett hired is 8 minutes of another version of the pod </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">race. Obi-Wan falls and Anakin jumps, and we’re supposed to believe they can each land safely </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">on a vehicle traveling at 50-80 miles per hour while tens of thousands of flying vehicles are </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">criss-crossing the sky at different levels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">6) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Obi-Wan’s lines- “why do I get the feeling you’re going to be the death of me?” spoken to the </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">future Mr. Darth Vader, shows the ability, in this instance, of being self-aware. That is the style of </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">humor that captures what the original trilogy had, which TPM and AOTC have sorely lacked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">7)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> Kenobi’s two lines to the nerd in the bar- “You don’t want to sell me death sticks” and “you want to </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">go home and rethink your life” are brilliantly reflexive, off-hand and well-placed. McGregor was an </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">excellent choice to play Obi-Wan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Severe- because of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">number</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> of Jedi (1) sent to protect Padme, if she’s worth protecting </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">you don’t just send one (to keep the peace)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">8) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Why send one Jedi to watch a senator who has just survived an attempt on her life. Those </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">other Jedi masters have to take their Kowakian monkey-lizards to the vet? Run their younglings </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to parsec-management classes? or just have some serious sitting around to do? This is an </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">unforgivable plot detail that doesn’t belong in a movie meant to attract the imaginations of any </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie-goer over the age of twelve.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Severe- because of the one Jedi they </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">did</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> send. That isn’t a job for a Padawan and not for </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">that one in particular</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">9) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Further, since the Jedi council has reservations about Anakin’s fear, anger and hate, </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">reservations that wouldn’t have been impeded from consciousness by the dark side, at least </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">not yet, considering he was 10 when they first met Anakin, why wouldn’t they send two or three </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">other Jedi along with Anakin, or even more reasonable, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">instead</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> of Anakin? Obi-Wan is wisely </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">against the idea of him watching her. More on this in the deleted scenes section below.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Medium- (high if you believe you can film another movie by saving the time I’ve proposed)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">10)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">To go back to the run time, believability and motivation aspects of the movie- we don’t need </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">all of this to make the final cut to show two main characters falling in love-</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">2 minutes on a transport taking Anakin and Padme to her planet</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">b)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">30 seconds walking over a bridge</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">c)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">3 minutes talking about politics</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">d)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">3 minutes talking and the kiss on the balcony</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">e)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">4 minutes riding some giant pig creature, a picnic and talking about politics</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">f)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">4 minutes in a darkened room fireside about how they could keep it secret</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">g)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 6.999999999999999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">4 minutes about his dreams (which they had to include because of what he does to acquire his mother from the Sand People and the motivation and justification for what happens in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Revenge of the Sith</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">). This is what was missing from TPM.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">That is an estimated 20 minutes of screen time spent on a love story when no more than 5 </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">minutes were needed. See #24.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Low- if they’d shown any ability to think outside the box, this would be a high</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">11) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Darth Maul should have been cloned, especially after you found out that he existed, that the </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">clones of Jango Fett couldn’t shoot straight, and that you could make the clones less independent </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">than the original host. Having 50, 90 (200 thousand?) Darth Mauls running around would have </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">blown our minds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Note</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">: the problem of Stormtroopers not shooting straight might come up again, but I’ll save that one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Low- admittedly nitpicky- if I’m testing in an agile scrum methodology, this is probably the </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">defect I instant message to a developer and forget about because of all these other defects</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">12) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">If I learned about the existence of a clone army that no one else on my side knew about, I would </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">fake having to relieve myself so I could warn them, rather than do it out in a heavy rainstorm. His robes </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">would take on water like nobody's business.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Medium</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">13) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">We just accept that the Jedi are collectively blind about the dark side? Yoda: “blind we are.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">15) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">If he was having such horrible premonitions, why wouldn’t Anakin have gone back sooner for </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">his mother? At least we got a scene that shows Anakin’s fear and anger. His line is well-placed: “Why </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">did she have to die?” Foreshadowing the deal he makes with the Emperor. I’ll let this one slide.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Low</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">16) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The droid army is the “finest army in the galaxy” . . . ahhhhh, sure, as long as it is the only army </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in the galaxy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">17) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Jar Jar proposes that the Supreme Chancellor should be granted emergency powers and the first </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">thing out of the Emperor’s mouth is that he will “create a grand army of the republic.” When the good </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">guys find out the army is tens of thousands of grown men who know how to fight . . . er, know how to </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">fire a weap . . . ah, can hold a weapon, all those Jedi are in such a fog about how to determine who is </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">behind it that they do nothing between the end of the arena scene and the start of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Revenge of the Sith</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">18) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Conveyor belt scene is an excellent action sequence. R2 is full of devices (jet propulsion). Any </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">chance he has a personal computer or Dictaphone to help with the script?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Low</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">19) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Really? Really? You’re chained to a stone pillar in front of a few </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">thousand man-sized flying reptiles with giant killer beasts heading your way. Of course you have a </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">bad feeling. This is where I started thinking the Spidey-sense was more powerful than a Jedi’s knowledge </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of the force. #saddened</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">20) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Very, very well done arena fight scene on a grand scale, in part because you sacrificed some Jedi. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Perhaps the good guys are only safe when running around in the hallways of space stations.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Medium- for the totality of its smarm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">21)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> Disgusting exchange with Anakin and Padme in the hull of the chariot:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“You call this a diplomatic solution?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“No, I call it aggressive negotiations.” Followed by a couple of toothy grins. Who does that? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Mr. Lucas, I implore you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Low</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">22) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">A little disappointed in Obi-Wan’s heart/will- he appears to let a couple of flesh wounds sideline </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">him for the rest of the fight with Dooku.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Severe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">23) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Lucas: “the Jedi seem weak if they know something and can’t do anything about it.” Well, the </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Jedi seem just as weak because they have no clue who is behind all of the manipulations. Guess </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">where I would propose to spend all of the time from the scenes I advised should be cut from the first </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">two movies? Get the Jedi involved in chasing down the mystery enshrouding their political struggle. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This gives them all something to do besides sitting around for ten years meditating on the same </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">problem which definitely also makes them look weak, not to mention lazy.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">24) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">They deleted a scene in which Obi-Wan tells Mace Windu that Anakin has an emotional </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">connection to Padme and that he should not have been given the assignment to watch her, that he’s </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">arrogant. Windu blows him off, dismissing Obi-Wan’s wisdom even though Kenobi’s opinion should </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">matter more considering how much he is respected, and that he has at least ten years of interactions </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">with Anakin on which to base his opinions. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Lucas and team decide to leave the scene where Yoda, Obi-Wan and Windu, slowly walk through a </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ship hanger, talking about matters not nearly as relevant, but delete the scene where Anakin’s state of </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">mind and attitude are concerned. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Having a character as important as Obi-Wan giving his informed </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">opinion on the mental state of his very powerful and irrational charge (and a character in which </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Lucas has admitted is the centerpiece of six films) is something you cannot delete from the film.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Infamous for computer-generating characters into the movies, the powers that be could have just </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">glued a floating Yoda into it, ran the better scene another minute or two longer to include anything of </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">value and call it good. It appears the mistakes in judgment on what to put in, and what to leave out, in </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the new trilogy (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The Force Awakens</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The Last Jedi</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">) are the mistake-laden descendants from earlier </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movies.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">One last thing- Lucas, justifying another cut of a non-essential scene, stated that he “got really hard </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">nosed about the length of the film”. No, no you didn’t. A movie's length should not be the prime </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">deterrent determining scene inclusions and exclusions. If a scene is well written, well acted, placed </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in the right sequence, is relevant to the story, true to the character and compelling, put the damn thing </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in. I don't believe the "better" scene I reference above was all of those things, but it certainly hit more </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of those marks than the one Lucas left in.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Barbara Streisand, W.C. Fields, Pinocchio and Cyrano de Bergerac are famous for their </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">hard noses, well, famous for their big noses anyway; George Lucas, it could be argued, is, one, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">not hard-nosed, and two, is about as famous now for the decline of Star Wars as he is for its rise. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">More on that in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Return of the Jedi </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(WWW).</span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-81308684916181854812018-04-12T21:31:00.002-05:002019-09-17T18:55:13.527-05:00. . . ROTS<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's wrong with:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>STAR WARS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u><b>Revenge of the Sith</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u><br /></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Low, Medium, High, Severe, Critical defects mentioned as
before.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Defect breakdown:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Critical (3), Severe (2), High (2), Medium (4), Low (3)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There is a decrease in the total number of
defects: TPM (33), AOTC (18) and ROTS (14). However, the number of Critical
defects is about the same. That may be because my expectations are coming into
play. I expect the movies to be better,
and they are, but I’m probably judging them based on their potential best
version of themselves (like a dog show or a gymnastics routine) rather than
comparing them against each other as one would the combatants in a singing
competition, or trying to decide which four teams make it into the college
football playoffs.</span><!--EndFragment-->
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Note</b>: I have not idea what is happening with the formatting. I write in word and copy and paste into blogger. Amateurish- sure, but I can only focus on doing QA on Star Wars movies, unreasonable formatting rules that make no sense- I can't deal with that right now.</span><br />
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</div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Low</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>1) </b>Obi-Wan (again):</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Again?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I forget where it was in
the movie- either while he and Anakin were recklessly flying amid hundreds of
other fighter planes, cruising in between dozens of other destroyers, all with dozens
of cannons of their own, or when they were about to fight Dooku for a second
time, an encounter he either knew was in the offing, or deeply suspected.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Hopefully, an enhanced force sensation isn’t
merely akin to </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">déjà vu</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Medium</b> (this will
be escalated to a high eventually)<br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>2) </b>Speaking of the odds.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Two small ships amid all that chaos mentioned
in #1 above?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I picture what happens
inside the autoimmune system of a person suffering from Leukemia.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Eventually that red blood cell is going to be
earmarked for destruction.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Or, I think
of my dad’s theory on the mileage of a car- the more inclement weather you’re
driving in, the more miles you put on a vehicle, the more likely it is that things
are eventually going to go horribly wrong. Horribly wrong means that a major character's entire ship explodes, not that his astromech droid is shot in the head.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
Movies like <i>Taken</i>, with Liam Neeson,
who did not play a Jedi (at least not in that movie), nor a super hero, nor a
cyborg made of liquid metal, a zombie, an alien prescribed with a bullet immunity,
a devil from a transcendental locale, etc. would receive a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>Critical</b></i> defect for this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m unwilling to suspend my disbelief while watching a human being
suffer relatively few injuries given the total number of times he puts himself
at risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jedi are special, lucky,
fortunate, destined to prevail, that is why this is only a medium.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
Wouldn’t just one bullet, (outside of Order
66) among the thousands fired in the prequels alone, have hit a Jedi in the
side, in the hand, in the knee? If anyone points out that some Jedi die on Geonosis or Luke is shot in the hand on Jabba's skiff . . . you are the worst kind of Star Wars apologists, in that, you exist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Critical (cumulative
error)</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>3) </b>After surviving the dangerous flight to the ship
where Palpatine is being held “prisoner” and plowing through 50-60 droids that
never should have been mass-produced, like the DVDs of any Adam Sandler movie after
</span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Happy Gilmore</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">, Kenobi and Skywalker fight Dooku for </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">maybe</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> four minutes.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Four
minutes!</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Four? Maybe.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
240 seconds of antagonism from a character
who was formidable in your last movie, but is completely expendable in this
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who does this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, you barely used Grievous, Maul was on
screen for fewer than 20 minutes, Boba Fett had no more than three lines in two
original trilogy movies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, and
yet, you let midgets in bear costumes . . . . ggggahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . . <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Low</b><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>4) </b>Anakin is poised to cut off Dooku’s head and is
urged to do so by Palpatine, to the apparent shock of Dooku, and without Anakin
recognizing Dooku’s crestfallen reaction.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
At this point, my expectations of the
creator of the franchise, for the nuance of recognizable non-verbal
communication, is almost non-existent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
gave this a low because I’ve been beaten down by how simplistic the franchise’s
creator has made many of these characters.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>5) </b>I’ll give a pass to Anakin’s crash landing of
the large ship that needed only a token bath while entering the planet’s
atmosphere.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I’m not an engineer,
astronomer or scientist, so I don’t really know how those particular metal
panels entering a planet’s atmosphere would be treated by the compressed planet
air, depending on its denseness, blah, blah, blah.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">N/A<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’m watching this as an issue, rather than
as a defect- for now)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b>6) </b>Anakin doesn’t know Padme is pregnant; she isn’t
showing enough when they’re reunited after the abbreviated
Dooku duel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If she had a significant
bump, he would have physically felt it so we know she couldn’t have been far
along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And apparently, it never occurred
to Lucas, or other convincing creative-types, to provide a Jedi with an ability
to sense the possibility that he impregnated his wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This comment itself is just
foreshadowing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The viewer has no idea
how long it has been since they had last seen each other.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">tracking<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b>7) </b>It appears to be later that same night and Padme
is wearing something sexy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She can’t be
more than 3-4 months pregnant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My wife
is an obstetrics nurse with 15 years of experience, so I asked her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’ve fathered three children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To use a line my dad had used liberally: “I
can’t make this shit up.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b>8) </b>The Skywalkers talk about the dream Anakin had
about Padme and its similarity with those he had about his mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A necessary scene to aid in the motivation
and insecurity of the Darth-to-be.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b>9) </b>Likewise, good discussion between Kenobi and
Skywalker about the chancellor’s move to power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would have been more
necessary in the second installment of the prequel, but better late than never.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>10) </b>I had
noted, and will again, about how none of the Jedi are <i>active</i> keepers of the peace.
They sit around and pontificate.
They could be more active and still fail the republic, and if their
activity and failure were filmed, and someone else wrote the dialogue and the
treatment, it would have improved the movie.
And I want to reiterate, by not wasting all that time on the first
movie, as already detailed, there would have been time for it. It isn’t like Lucas didn’t know he was making
three movies. I want to give a shout out
(“is it legal”) to Lucas for coming up with the “genius” idea of sending Yoda
to Kashyyyk to aid the Wookies. Also
wise to add Chewbacca to the mix. We saw
a much younger Boba Fett in AOTC and a much younger Greedo in TPM, that
establish who each of those minor characters are when they are young. Cancel that, Greedo’s scene with young Anakin
was prominently removed from the finished product because someone who turns
into a bounty hunter and another who turns into a Sith lord, has no place in a
140 minute movie about pod-racing and politics, and doesn’t reveal any
character traits, per the franchise creator.
My bad.</span><!--EndFragment-->
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<b>11) </b>Obi-Wan
informs Anakin the Jedi council wants him to report on the chancellor’s
dealings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, should have happened a
movie earlier, or not at all, since the Jedi should have taken a more active
role in the politics, should have realized they needed to be more active, yeah,
ahh, ahem, jeez.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> <b>12) </b></span></span>“It’s
very dangerous to put them together.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
don’t even remember whether this was Obi-Wan or Windu who came to this
realization, in reference to having Anakin spy on Palpatine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, in Kenobi/Windu’s defense, it isn’t like
there’s a precedent in putting Anakin in a situation where he is alone together
with someone he shouldn’t be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or is
there?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Note</b>: This was 6 items in a row (7-12) I’ve listed that aren’t
necessarily defects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they were, they
couldn’t be anything less than High because of not having it occur to a council
filled with capable, experienced, instinctive and premonition-laden super
heroes, for all intents and purposes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Retest<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> <b>13)</b> </span></span>The
camera angles and the clothing make the job of the viewer more difficult in
attempting to determine how pregnant Padme is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Trust me, this is pretty important or I wouldn’t keep watching it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, Natalie Portman isn’t
unattractive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Continuing to put her in
clothing that makes her look good, and not pregnant . . . I’m not complaining.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> <b>14)</b> </span></span>Great Dialogue!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anakin and Palpatine in the booth at the play
talking about all who gain power are afraid to lose it and the tragedy of Darth
Plagueis who could create life and keep those he cared for from dying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was delivered with quality!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I was currently writing episode nine, it
would occur to me, with all that Star Wars DNA coursing through my veins, to
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stole Plagueis’ power and “killed” him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">High</b><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>15)</b> Not one
of the thousands of soldiers on the planet where Grievous is hiding, makes sure
a Jedi Knight gets back into his ship and flies away? Not one. How conveeeeenient (have I used a Church Lady
reference in one of these WWW yet?) So,
not only can the enemy not hit anything (other than Luke’s mechanical hand on
Jabba’s skiff) with all those laser blasts spread across so many movies, but
not one of them can watch an enemy get in his friggin ship. I’m incredulous. Also, Kenobi can’t turn invisible, and while
he’s got the agility of a Jedi, he’s not getting 100 yards away from his ship,
concealing his physical presence, without one of Grievous’ soldiers noticing. If he assumes they aren’t watching . . .
Again, Kenobi would come off as a better hero if the villains weren’t made so,
in the words of my son, so “thick”.
Thick means, slow, obtuse and stupid.</span></div>
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If only
Rian Johnson had come up with the idea for a Jedi to be able to force ghost
project three Star Wars movies sooner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We would have seen a multi-generational creative hand-off from one
person who started to eff with our movies to another one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I w</span>ant to be clear, force ghost- brilliant
idea; I’ve already enumerated Johnson’s not brilliant ones in the critique of <i>The
Last Jedi</i>.</div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">High</b><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>16)</b>
Obi-Wan arrives by himself and starts fighting a very qualified opponent
(Grievous) amid said opponent’s, reported, posse of thousands with no back up
until after the fight is well under way.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Again, never mind the odds.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Sure,
I believe Grievous made it clear, no random laser blast should be fired at
Kenobi, that Grievous would take care of the Jedi scum himself.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">But it isn’t like the enemy would hit
anything if they fired at the hero ten thousand times- so it doesn't matter what Grievous might have told them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Severe</b>
(because these types of mistakes have started to add up)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> <b> 17)</b><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grievous,
a character who can capably wield four lightsabers at a time, is only allowed
to do so for less than a minute of screen time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here, you have a villain capable of making Kenobi look like a better
hero, and you wasted the opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Really, there are no jobs for a guy like me at ILM, the Skywalker ranch, or Disney Star Wars?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I added a ScrumMaster certification to the
cadre of other roles I am already performing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe I could go in and do some light dusting and fix some of the story
issues like Matt Damon effectively did when he solved a math equation on the
blackboard of a college where he was polishing floors in <i>Good Will Hunting</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> <b>18)</b><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Windu- “I
sense a plot to destroy the Jedi.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
didn’t I put a severity on this defect?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What’s the point. If <i>sense</i> is just another word for having added up all of the obvious clues you should have been tracking for the last ten years (of actual time) and six hours (of screen time), then that is just the dim-witted use of the five senses that the overwhelming majority of the rest of the humans on <i>this</i> planet can lay claim to.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Critical<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -22.5pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> <b>19)</b><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->It takes Palpatine 12 seconds to take down 3 of
the 4 Jedi that came to arrest him. I have so much here:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> a)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Palpatine is a great villain; he’s the devil in
a space robe, but the acting, fight scene choreography is horrible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple of the Jedi are in a death pose
before the Emperor’s saber even penetrates them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Jedi and the Emperor would appear more
formidable if you didn’t have 3 super heroes killed in seconds of screen time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> b)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->What is wrong with having arms and legs cut
off?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These Jedi have been sitting around
so long, perhaps they’re out of practice?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In all their years of fighting, or sitting around, the first time they
suffer damage, it is critical damage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thinking outside the box happens all the time in my world; in the land
of the Star Wars creative types, not as much.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> c)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->four Jedi to take down a villain that was able
to fool them for 10-15 years? I’d have brought eight.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> d)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Lucas overburdened these movies with politics
and while Palpatine knows he’s being watched and the Jedi now know who he is,
you went from 0 (not suspecting a thing about Palpatine’s plot) to 60, coming
to arrest him with the threat of violence if he didn’t step down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wouldn’t the request to have Palpatine step
down be more reasonable, if made, and refused by him, inside of the hallowed
stadium of the senate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if not . . <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> e)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Why not record the exchange of the Jedi <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">calmly</i> requesting the Emperor to let go
of the emergency powers previously granted him, like the massacre of the
younglings inside the Jedi temple was recorded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Seriously, technology exists in this world and theirs. I continue to
marvel at how child-like Lucas must have supposed his audience to be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <b>20) </b></span>I read
some criticism about Anakin’s reaction to Windu’s threats to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Palpatine. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And how Anakin should have done this and
wouldn’t have done that, even after he had become Darth Vader, not just in
name, but once he was locked inside his cage of a suit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I disagree, because we see how indecisive
Anakin has been, how lost, confused, and angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He feels entitled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He probably
still sees himself as a slave and so probably fees inferior, and has a desire to
prove himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is Anakin’s
unpredictability that makes it very difficult to complain about what he did or
didn’t do, and why. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, I can expect that
out of a human being and a character, not out of a writer and a director.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Darth Vader’s rampage scene at the end of <i>Rogue
One</i> is made possible, believable and awesome because of the incompleteness,
insecurity, and fear of uncertainty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sure, the actor doesn’t always do the best job of bringing that across,
but I’m not sure a critic can zero in on trying to fit Darth Vader’s
motivations and reasoning into a template.</span><br />
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<b>Medium<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b>21)<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b>We speak
infrequently in the software development world about getting the business what
they must have, need and what, to them, would be nice to have. This complaint falls into the latter
grouping. A “nice to have” is something
that would save people time, a convenience, something that makes a website
easier to control, gets the business some reports, gives them another method to
achieve something, find more information, etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
So, Order 66. When I was reading rough story outlines years
before ROTS came out, one of the subplots was the hunting down and destroying
of the Jedi. Obi-Wan said as much in
Star Wars. That would have been wicked, or
boss, or wicked-boss. Since so many of
the Jedi were already killed by Order 66, that couldn’t happen. No research, tracking, covert operations, no
intrigue, no showing off the Sith v. Jedi in ways never explored, as I’ve
specified. Disappointed. If you borrow
the feel of the hunt from the 1982 <u>Blade Runner</u> and migrate it to Star
Wars . . . I’d have rather watched that than pod-racing, hover pods in the
galactic senate, Gungan city warriors and a droid army occupation. The only occupation the droid army is qualified
for is a thumb war with C-3PO to see who can act as the pimp for Rosie the
cleaning lady robot from the Jetsons.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b>22)</b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]--> When
Padme is leaving to go after Anakin- “3PO will look after me.” My dog, before we owned him, did a better job
of looking after me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<b>Defect severity
coming shortly<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b>23)</b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Padme’s
pregnancy is more noticeable than it has been the whole film, because of the
clothes she’s wearing. It isn’t because
she’s that much further along. Lucas was incapable of telling a story except by taking 2-3 day snippets out of the lives
of the characters and laying all his cards on the table. Maybe, maybe 2 weeks passes between the
events following Palpatine’s rescue and the Obi-Wan v. Anakin battle on the
hell planet. But that expansive passage of time would have been something Lucas has never been able to capture realistically in five other attempts. I can't buy it here either.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Medium<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b>24)</b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]--> Plenty of
physics issues on the duel between Mr. Kenobi and Mr. Skywalker. Anakin standing on a hunk of metal that
likely couldn’t support his weight and couldn’t resist the lava river that
would have melted it to nothing- that kind of stuff. That’s low hanging fruit- another software
development term for fixing a small problem quickly. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Low<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b>25)</b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>The
Mustafar battle is too long. Take off
3-4 minutes and add those to the fight scene between Palpatine and four Jedi .
. . just sayin’.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Medium<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b>26)</b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> How could
Yoda not have been ready for whatever Sidious was going to throw at him? He’s showing up to the lair of a devil who,
Yoda has to assume, already defeated four other Jedi (three of them in about 12
seconds).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Critical<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b>27)</b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b> </b> </span>Padme
delivers <i>two</i> healthy 6-9 pound
children when she’s still only an estimated 4-6 months pregnant after not
showing much of anything for the majority of a movie that probably spans the
length of, by the most liberal measure- 2 weeks. Lucas has no idea how to deal with pacing, or
continuity, or biology. In fairness, he’s probably not into realism, or accurately portraying the passage of time. Yep,
the story is geared toward 6-12 year old boys, so presenting a woman with child
wasn’t a focus, but c’mon. He made the
same mistake in <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>, which I’ll get to, and Rian
Johnson glaringly makes it in <i>The Last Jedi</i>, which I’ve addressed already. Stop it, just stop it. Write the outline of your story and think
about when these events happen in time.
Unless Padme is actually some kind of alien-reptile from the movie
<i>Species</i>, whose gestation period is tracked in hours or days, don’t bring that
kind of time-math into a movie you put in front of a paying audience.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
My wife said that only tall women would have
a chance to be 4-5 months pregnant without noticeably showing. Natalie Portman is not 6-2. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Severe<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b>28)</b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>He has to
get this stuff right. Uncle Owen looks <i>maybe</i> 30 at the end of this movie. He’s at least 60 at the beginning of Star Wars,
the next time we see him. By my math,
that’s 30 years. Obi-Wan is about 35
when he brings Luke to the Lars’.
Obi-Wan is at least 65 in Star Wars.
Unless Star Wars or Jedi time is different, none of that makes
sense. Luke is not only 20 at the beginning
of Star Wars.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> <b> 29)</b><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>None of
the deleted scenes should have made it into the movie, even the one that shows
Yoda landing on Dagobah.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst">
Unfortunately, this WWW installment was
about as long as the one for <i>Attack of the Clones</i>, while <i>Revenge of
the Sith</i> is a much better movie. In
my opinion, it was demoted to the 4<sup>th</sup> best following <i>Rogue One</i>’s
2016 release. Since 4-5 of the points
made above concerned things that were well done, and another 5 were used to
track the Critical error of Padme’s pregnancy, there might appear to be as many
defects as AOTC, though there aren’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
Another reminder- anyone who accidentally
has read this at all, or this far, might question the assessment of Padme’s
pregnancy (critical) and the ages of characters involved in the transfer of
Luke to Tatooine (severe) as being a bit too pedantic in nature. Tough.
Those things are killers in the whole continuity, consistency, technical
delivery/execution of the story. You
cannot sit down to write a story that is meant to fit together with revered and
respected series portions and get that timing wrong. This is akin to having a battle scene in a
movie about World War II in 18<sup>th</sup> century California or putting 7
stars on the helmet of a 4-star general.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">
So, in the words of my 13 year old son, and
my father, who passed away in 2016- stop being so thick, and do a better job of
making this shit up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-82833432100545831922018-04-28T17:52:00.000-05:002019-09-16T07:11:26.856-05:00. . . RO<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's wrong with:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>STAR WARS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u><b>Rogue One</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The question, "What's wrong?" from the title of these articles is implied. The answer in this case, with <i>Rogue One</i> the subject matter . . . not much.<br />
<br />
8 total defects- Low (3), Medium (2), High (2), Severe (1). That's it.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Damn, that was a good movie. If you can remove the nostalgia, the heartwarming-familiar-comfortability factors, the first glimpsed spark of a revolutionary story playing out among the stars, which form our child-like approval of the original trilogy, especially from </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Empire Strikes Back</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ESB</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, an argument can be made that </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rogue One</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is the best Star Wars movie. Though </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Return of the King</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, (the third, and least, of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lord of the Rings</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> movies) won an academy award for best picture, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rogue One</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is better.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Here is why:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
1) Chris Wietz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll, Gary Whitta and Gareth Edwards!!! Bravo!<br />
writer writer story story director<br />
<br />
Conversations with meaning, intensity, action, self-awareness, story development, character development with motivations, conflicted emotions, transformations. Wow.<br />
PS- hell, <i>conversations</i> with <b>inflection</b>.<br />
<br />
<b>Low</b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2) That said, there are things I don't get. Krennic and some </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fancy</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Stormtroopers land the shuttle 500 yards from the Erso home. Not sure why. Sure, Galen Erso is the architect of the most dangerous weapon in the universe, so maybe Krennic fears Erso could have wired a boobie trap; a brief line from Krennic could have anticipated this defect: "Galen, what a warm welcome. We're expected? We walked all this way to spare my shuttle damage by your hand; we know it wouldn't have been the first time, don't we?"</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-da87344f-7fff-60f0-29c6-cd781641ae93" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">N/A- not applicable to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rogue One</span></span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3) So, Krennic tells Erso: you're a "hard man to find Galen." No doubt that is true. What I doubt is that both Luke and Leia would have been as hard to find. Darth Vader didn't know there were two children, which you would think could double his chances of finding one of them. What is interesting is how Krennic can be punished for the trouble Erso could cause while employed by the empire and yet, Vader hasn't been able to find his heirs for 20-30 years and we could assume Vader and the Emperor would have been aware Vader's offspring would be even more dangerous. This probably comes down to talent versus trouble. Krennic isn't ruthlessly talented, like Vader is. Since Vader can force choke his enemies and Krennic just looks presentable in off-white clothing, Vader gets to keep his job and Krennic loses his, not to mention his life.</span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Medium</b><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-11b81605-7fff-3643-09ee-157efeb677fd"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-11b81605-7fff-3643-09ee-157efeb677fd"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4) Since Krennic knew there was a child hiding away, he dispatches those </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fancy</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Stormtroopers to "look" for him, or her. The Stormtroopers are seen walking into a cave turning half way around and leaving. They looked for a threat to them less diligently than my daughters look for their easter baskets, that have reduced coloring and additive-sensitive jelly beans and ever decreasing amounts of chocolate, and this is before I invoke the dad tax (i.e. where I eat some of their chocolate because I am a paternal war-lord).</span></span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-11b81605-7fff-3643-09ee-157efeb677fd">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">True, we can't add twenty minutes to the movie showing villains looking under bed sheets and opening closet doors, but I sense the Stormtroopers, like so many of their predecessors and, more so, their peers (as we'll find out in the next movie), didn't/can't do their jobs. In defense of those Stormtroopers, caves are a very predictable place for people to hide, so, why bother looking right? No style points for Jyn. And since the whole series of stories is set a long time ago in a galaxy far away, </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Godfather Part II</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> hadn't been filmed, so the assembled Star Wars denizens didn't have the luxury of art imitating life courtesy of the scenes where a ten year old boy escapes so he can one day exact his revenge against an Italian Don who deprived this young boy of his father. In short, not looking hard enough to find a child you acknowledge is enough of a threat to start looking for in the first place, and is a risk threatening your success is a problem. In software development, the whole reason you do quality assurance is to avoid risk.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5) The writers, story folks and director did an excellent job of introducing the characters. I always compare movies like </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rogue One</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Wizard of Oz</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. There is a magnetic situation, or character, that requires other/secondary characters to be introduced in such a way that makes the story compelling. Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion on the way to Oz. C-3PO and R2-D2 pick up Luke, Obi-Wan, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Princess Leia. In RO it is Cassian, K2-SO, Jyn, Bodhi, Chirrut and Baze. See </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Fellowship of the Ring</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for another good example.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6) Tarkin looks much younger than he did in the original that is set the day of, or the day after, the events shown in </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rogue One</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I didn't actually know this was a computer generated person while watching the movie. I'm pretty dim, and also, nice job creative group. I watched the bonus features. The amount of time and money spent to get things like Tarkin, and a youthful Carrie Fischer, remotely close to the originals might be mindful of watching brain surgery, if I knew anything about either brain surgery, or the painstaking technical expertise required to bring two old dead people to life.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7) Those writing scripts and directing in a vacuum, or a silo, should take a look at the script for RO. The humor is understated, sparse, effective and natural, not forced, elaborate and Vaudevillian. Nice job K-2SO; magnificent, superb, exemplary (see #1 above)- there aren't enough superlatives for how well those people nailed the script.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8) Most any argument not featuring lunatics, morons or children is complicated. I love how RO was able to show us that there are competing viewpoints. That Cassian's views aren't Jyn's, Chirrut Imwe (blind guy/Donnie Yen) or Saw Gerrera's brings an adultness to this movie, both in intention and execution. One scene, showing all of the different leaders voicing their opinions about whether to go to war against the republic, is better done than anything in the cavernous senate of the prequel movies, with one exception, the fight between the Emperor and Yoda. Loyalties, laws, villains and heroes are far more complicated than we are led to believe by 90% of the big budget Hollywood movies, including any of </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rogue One's</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 7 predecessors.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here the dialogue is better, the conflict is portrayed with much better aptitude, and so the audience is more invested. The urgency is real, and the ability of the writers, story people and director to bring that urgency to life, makes it even easier, sadly, to see the flaws of the inferior movies.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9) "placed a weakness." Brilliant. This solves the major hole of the minor hole that seemed to be left so conveniently exposed. It was awfully convenient for there to be this one small weakness so that a battle station that large could be destroyed so cleanly.</span></span></div>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<b>Low</b><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-99f61ada-7fff-a50c-1d0c-a3d27c405e22"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10) Ahhh, I don't know about being able to communicate at light speed. If you're going the speed of light, wouldn't the ability to communicate because the speed of sound travels quite a bit slower, suffer a major hit? Cassian and whatever general he's conversing with, would be unintelligible. Maybe I'm writing out of school, but the speed of light is over 300 million meters per second faster than the speed of sound. Sure, someone will think, "so, you're willing to take for granted that solid objects can move at the speed of light, but that they can't speak while doing so." T</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ouché</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. And the answer to that . . . is yes, yes I am.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<b>Low</b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11) Only one man- Galen Erso knows about the flaw he's implanted. I would imagine that Krennic, Tarkin, Vader, Emperor, etc. would have been keeping pretty good tabs on a space station meant to keep the power on the side of the Empire. And we know that the funding of the Empire isn't without limits- they could have paid a couple of scientists enough money to look over Erso's shoulder. Remember when the Emperor cut costs by shutting down the robot soldiers he used as pawns in episodes 1-3? Do we think that only one man (Erso) would be able to keep such a big secret with only friendly scientists who all agreed with him on his team? We can tell the Empire powers that be don't trust Erso. I've worked on a lot of teams, and usually there is at least one blowhard, malcontent, slacker or a-hole ruining the vibe or the project team's progress because they're difficult; in this case, one of those overpaid spies meant to watch Erso, is that person. I know it is just a two+ hour movie so they can't show G. Erso hiding his secret flaw under bed sheets and behind closet doors. It is because the creatives who worked on this movie did so many things well that this is only a low, and I imagine that if questioned under oath, they would have a legitimate justification.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-167327c0-7fff-1132-61aa-9b8140468e4d" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12) We go to so many planets in RO to see the anxiety, the impact of the Empire on the rest of the known universe- Jedha, Eadu, Lah'mu, Scarif, Yavin 4. Somehow, Naboo, Coruscant, Geonosis, and Kamino aren't in the same league. Granted, we see a universe at war in RO rather than outlets as stages for skirmishes. Let's see what Edwards, the writers and those in charge of the story for RO could do for the events as portrayed in the prequels.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">13) Fairly subtle looks from a blind man, contemplating the intentions, demeanor, words and actions of Cassian. Chirrut, nor his buddy, Baze Malbus, would ever have been allowed to notice any of that in the prequels.</span></span></div>
<br />
<b>Severe</b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">14) the cast- a white woman, 2 Latin men, 2 Chinese men, Mon Mothma/another white woman. Galen and Krennic, Tarkin = all white men, a black man (Saw Gerrera), a couple more white generals on the Republic side and Admiral Raddus, an Admiral Ackbar stand in/Mon Calamari. So, one alien in a position of power in the whole film. What is this, Major League Baseball before Jackie Robinson? It took baseball roughly 100 years to integrate black players into the sport at a professional level. We're 41 years into Star Wars and there are precious few aliens representing all of the identified and prospective planets in the Star Wars universe. Pretty short-sighted.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-c866ac05-7fff-a921-d2f1-d135ce76cca9" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are aliens fighting with the Rebellion, but have these people never heard of the Intergalactic Rooney Rule? (Note: the Rooney Rule is an NFL Affirmative Action-like mandate that requires franchises to at least interview prospective minority coaches and general managers). Both the rebels and the empire are species racists (speecists). Finding a species minority fighting on the side of the Empire is more rare than Rian Johnson, the writer and director of TLJ, admitting he made any mistakes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I remember an interview shortly before George W. Bush's 2nd term was coming to a close. The interviewer asked if there were any mistakes he made during his presidency. Ol' G.W. couldn't come up with one. Boy are we in for a treat, when Johnson doubles down on the obvious mistakes of his last offering when he gets three times the chances in an upcoming trilogy where he has creative control. Oh boy. I've already found 7 defects and I haven't even started looking at his requirements, that is, if he even comes up with requirements. Requirements are prescriptions for key pieces of functionality that a software development team is directed to successfully deliver to the business people who are paying for them. Requirements identify where a text box should display and where a drop down selection field should appear.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I read that Abrams admitted he made at least one mistake when he didn't think to have Leia (wife, or lover) and Chewbacca (best friend) console each also after Han's death in TFA; the former, Leia, bypassed the latter, Chewie so that we see two human's grieve (Leia and Rey), rather than including a Wookie/alien in the commiseration; what's the problem, did Chewie not show enough despair with his groan as the door on Hoth seemed to seal Han's fate? This admission leaves me somewhat hopeful, with Abrams at the helm for episode IX.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-48565f3c-7fff-de2d-c6ee-3dc753c397c0" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">15) Jedha, home of the Jedi- the same crystals that power lightsabers, beget the destruction caused by the Death Star. This is the kind of juxtaposition, the kind of irony that is always a good component of successful movies.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">16) An enemy (G. Erso) who Krennic was looking for for a long time, lies inert on a platform. Do you go back and finish him or get to the safety of your bitchin' ride? Maybe you don't make it off if you elect to do the former. I can see this either way.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">17) Vader! Just the right amount.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">18) References are made to "the Jedi", the Clone Wars and Princess Leia. So, it is possible to tie events and people from all sets of movies together in an artistic and meaningful way. This is similar to Yoda and the original recording of Princess Leia's plea for Obi-Wan making appearances in TLJ. I don't think that paying homage to other movies should be an exception, or a rule, unless you're going to do right by it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">19) The predictable line, this time about to be spoken by a droid: "I've got a bad feeling . . ." is interrupted. They even got that right, which shows a self-awareness missing from the two completed new trilogy movies.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">20) And here, good guys die.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">21) I think it is important to leave that line by itself. In defense of the creative types leading the trilogy movies, it is easier to kill off all of the main characters when you know there aren't two more movies in the planning stages. Yes, theoretically, there would be planning, where the writers and directors speak to each other about which ways the events might take the characters, which characters die, which ones have </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">meaningful</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> back stories, which ones have </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">actual</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> back stories, which directors know what a back story is, which actors can act, which ones aren't aliens, which ones are ulta-multicultural, etc. RO has a different feel. Instead of Rogue ONE, it is very much the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ROGUE</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> one. It being to this point the only stand-alone, it is Rogue in that way, and its merits may well keep it so, if it is compared to most of the completed movies to date.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Problem with this is that in franchises where 3 to 4 to 7 movies were made, it is almost always the first that is groundbreaking, inventive, fresh and different. It gains the benefit, like a revolution, of sneaking up on people, shocking them into a level of awareness of possibilities, and unlike a revolution, an appreciation, depending on what side you're on, that its sequels/counter-revolutions can't reach. That is why it has been so disappointing to see </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Phantom Menace</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Force Awakens</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> fail on so many levels. The promise of a new way of looking at things became, in the case of TPM, too much politicizing, a weak script and horrible directing, and in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Force Awakens</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the wholesale theft of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">' whole story.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">22) When the rebel ships start flying over the palm trees and beaches of Skariff, my friends in the theater and my son and I, all start looking at each other, with smiles and nonverbals where we're telling each other, "hell, yes! They're doing it." They got it right. Because of what had already taken place in the movie, and the promise of things to come, they have done a great job of converting a well written script and a tremendous story onto film.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">23) K-2SO: "Your behavior, Jyn Erso, is continually unexpected." That is a complement. In fairness and worthy of commendation, it could have been said of Anakin Skywalker, or Padme, Han Solo, Princess Leia or R2-D2, or Kylo Ren. The writers, directors, story people and other creative people can deliver an unpredictable masterpiece, and </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rogue One</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is proof of that.</span></span><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>High</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">24) Admiral Raddus, another rare example of an alien in a position of leadership. Defect level of high, not because they have an alien in a leadership position, but because the aliens in positions of power across all of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> films have few peers with comparable DNA (i.e. alien DNA). This exception points out the faults with the general rule, to which all of the creatives seem oblivious.</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-18de269a-7fff-4153-41e0-3d0301bdeaaa"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">25) Chirrut Imwe's (blind Donnie Yen), brave and deliberate march through bullets to help free up the method that will enable the transfer of plans of the Death Star flaw, reminds me of the scene from </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dances with Wolves</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> where an unarmed Costner rides with arms flung back, christ-like, begging to be put out of his misery. The motivations are different, the risks are certainly different, as Chirrut was more valuable to the effort alive, and Costner really had no motive other than to die, but the willingness to sacrifice their lives is the same.</span></span></span><br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">26) It doesn't occur to Darth Vader, who eliminates 15-20 rebels in the hall of a Star Destroyer, to use the force to spirit away a small disk from the hands of mortals playing the most famous fictional version of a relay race we've seen on film. Considering how full of vengeance he was just shown to be, I'm surprised.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">27) RO is a war movie. So, when all of the main characters are dead at the end of it, in order to deliver the stolen plans for a planet killer to those who can prevent the Death Star from performing its designed purpose, I'm pleased that the toll paid is the ultimate sacrifice for all of them. The first time we watch </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saving Private Ryan</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> we don't know all the names of the 8 men dispatched to the fields, farmhouses and villages of France to find the last of four brothers fighting in WWII. We don't know the tens and hundreds of thousands and millions of names of men and women who sacrificed their lives to take hills, to capture forts, overrun trenches and bunkers, stop tanks, sink ships and outmaneuver enemy fighter pilots spanning a coup<span style="font-family: inherit;">le hundre</span>d years of American history. They were unselfish, brave, anonymous soldiers who died for their time, and for those who would come after them.</span></span></div>
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<b><u>Bonus Features</u></b><br />
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<b>High</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Doug Chiang, an artist and film designer on RO, stated that John Knoll, the writer/story resource who </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">came up with the idea of RO, told him to come up with 2 aliens to include in the small band of rebels </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">that would steal the Death Star plans. 2 Latino and 2 Chinese men, 1 robot and one English woman. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">No aliens.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Someone speaks these words- "diverse group of characters" in reference to the small brand of rebels. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Again, 5 human beings and 1 robot, in a world so supremely populated with freaks, is another miss. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I begin to wonder if the creatives are politicians, who minored in film, who keep repeating the same </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">things to themselves with the idea they're practicing stomaching the delusion they'll eventually try to </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">feed to other people. Mr. Abrams and Mr. Johnson- take note.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">All of the characters die. That was worthy of repetition if only because then Jyn and Cassian's love, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">isn't a subplot featured in the sequel. Very, very few movies in the history of film avoid touching upon </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the idea that two characters are in love, whether that is unrequited, forbidden, realized, animal magnetism, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">seeking, desperate, or fulfilling love. Tiresome. Other than two people holding each other about to be </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">annihilated, there isn't the hint of a love story. The movie is the better for it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This last part should feel like the scene from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">My Cousin Vinny,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> where Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">is explaining to Vinny LaGuardia (Joe Pesci) about a little baby dear's prospective reaction to the coat </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Vinny is wearing when he shoots the doe in the head:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-6203dc02-7fff-8a9c-b1e6-cde1f0aa1cae" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I watched bonus vignettes where actors spoke about the grueling, but rewarding physical demands of </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">filming the movie; how excited actors were to be working on a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Star Wars</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"> film; how enthralled the creative </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">group was to have a hand in shaping the events of the story; how thrilled the set designers, prop design, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">costume and makeup people were about the perfect details of aging clothing, stucco walls in a battle-worn </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">city; how all that work . . . BAM!!! doesn't mean SHIT if the writer, director, and creative story development </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">team don't have a god-damned idea about how to logically AND emotionally treat the subject matter, nor </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">how to show a diverse set of characters dealing with tragic events in productive or nihilistic, rewarding </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and mythical ways.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I have to imagine that all the supporting staff, hair, makeup, set design, actors, artists, may have worked </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">just as hard on the prequel movies, and the sequel trilogy movies, and there efforts are in vain because the </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">more noticeable parts (the script, direction, story and acting) screwed up the audience's overall appreciation.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">So, I gotta ask ya, (channeling Miss Vito) if you're sittin' there ready to appreciate all of that hard work, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">would you care what the self-important, oblivious, over-confident creative types who can't admit their </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">mistakes </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre;">are wearin'!?</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-46378968894860506772018-05-14T18:47:00.004-05:002019-09-14T09:00:05.886-05:00. . . NH<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's Wrong With:</b><br />
<b>STAR WARS </b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>A New Hope</u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b>
17 total defects: Minor (2); Medium (5); High (4); Severe (4); Critical (2)<br />
<b><br /></b></div>
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My dad brought me to watch the original in the summer of 1977. From the age of 6 until I was 13, every birthday, christmas, easter, etc. brought more ships, playsets, and action figures. I was Darth Vader one Halloween. I got baseball gloves, hockey sticks, football cards and basketballs too, but the most consistent presents had Star Wars all over them. It all started with what is still one of the best movies of all time.<br />
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Unfortunately, little kids grow up and read a lot, technology advances, time passes and expectations rise. I've learned how to look at things with a more critical eye since 1977. Despite the lifelong impression the first three movies made on me, even the original could have been better.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>High</b><br />
1) 20 total shots fired from both sides of two very helpless droids who bumble from one side of a hallway to another and escape unscathed.<b> It's possible this might come up again. In the software development arena, we call this defect clustering. </b>The troopers do manage to hit plenty of Rebel soldiers. That is why this particular defect is only a high.<br />
<br />
A version of that first defect could be the sub-sub title of the movie: <i>Star Wars, A New Hope, or (the good guys run in hallways with shots fired all around and escape unscathed)</i>.<br />
<br />
<b>Severe</b><br />
2) If there is going to be any story at all, one moron has to tell a subordinate: "Hold your fire, there's no life forms." Blowing shit up is cool. Making the mistake of holding fire because some scanner cannot detect life forms is liable to get you force-choked to death. Is the Empire short on funds for ammunition? Do soldiers not want to explosively scatter an escape pod into thousands of pieces? Are those in positions of power in this fictional world not aware of the significance of robots or droids? Astromech droids, protocol droids and droids with hundreds of other talents, or programmed utility, are everywhere. I've half a mind to give this a critical designation. If I only had half a mind, it would have told my finger to press a button to blow up the escape pod.<br />
<br />
I want to make this very clear. Don't advance the story, mr. director, writer, screenwriter, or author because you're too lazy to come up with a plausible alternative which is more realistic, or is more likely considering the mentality/motivations of the being you're giving breath to. Spending ninety minutes of screen time showing us how advanced a species is only to destroy their credibility, and yours, by allowing a non exhaustion-induced, terribly inconsistent decision to be made, considering the hero-worship you expected the audience to grant these characters you've created, is an insult to certain audience members who aren't even looking for flaws in logic or execution, but who won't ignore flaws once the attack of nonsense has commenced.<br />
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3) I consider R2-D2's mobile limitations in Star Wars and ESB. And I weigh them against the jet propelled, oil spurting wizardry of the R2 from the prequels and wonder what happened. Where did all R2's gadgets go? Sure, the going theory has been that because the special effects technology has advanced so much in the last 20-30 years since the original, the ships that have appeared more advanced were made in a time when both the rebels and the empire had more to spend on new ships. At any rate, you have to cut set designers and special effects artists some slack- they were using the equivalent of scotch tape and toilet paper rolls to cobble together sets. Judging the originals retroactively isn't fair.<br />
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4) Comedy from droids and Tunisian hoods, otherwise known as Jawas. Again, that is the kind of understated humor writers and directors of the newest trilogy have yet to nail.<br />
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<b>High </b>(mostly for getting something so easy to get right, so wrong)<br />
5) Alec Guinness was 62 while filming <i>Star Wars</i>, 3 years younger than Mark Hamill was for TLJ. Uncle Owen is in that neighborhood, both in terms of age and even more literally, as he lived on the same 120 degree, dry, desert-infested planet Luke and Obi-Wan had. Assume that Tatooine's conditions made all of them look 10 years older than they actually were, only then would the timeline of <i>Star Wars</i> taking place 20 years after ROTS make any sense.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
6) Luke is the whiny son, of a whiny father, and uncle to a whiny nephew. I'd prefer an insecurity and impatience more on the quiet side. I think of River Phoenix. If the movie was 10 years later, that's the kind of Luke that would have been preferable. Equal opportunity critic. White men, white woman, Asian women, little kids, old men, aliens, short-sighted directors . . . anyone can come up short- and all of these are just opinions.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
7) C-3PO says something to Luke about the hologram of the princess- that she's a person of some importance, a passenger on our last ship. While on that last ship, he said something about "no saving the princess this time." He isn't wise enough to downplay the importance of R2's message by lying to a stranger/Luke about the plans carried by his little buddy. And since he's fluent in 6 million forms of communication, forgetting who the princess is from the time they're jettisoned from Tantive V until the time Luke is charged with cleaning them up, isn't likely. There was no need for these two lines to be at odds, except it is a screenwriting mistake.<br />
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8) Obi-Wan Kenobi! My favorite character played brilliantly by Alec Guinness. His wisdom is otherworldly, he's respectable, calm, confident, and intuitive. He took out Darth Maul, General Grievous, and made Darth Vader the imposing figure he was. There would be no reason for Vader to be in the iconic black helmet and cape, and he wouldn't have the distinctive, pervasive and frightening breathing without Kenobi. With apologies to Mickey (Rocky), Gandolf, Jiminy Cricket, Gordon Gekko, Mr. Miyagi, Socrates, Sigmund Freud, Morpheus, Professor X, Ezra Pound, Dumbledore, and Master Splinter, Obi-Wan is the best real, or imagined, mentor of all time.<br />
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9) Obi-Wan doesn't recognize R2, after 3 prequel movies. This is a retroactive mistake. Granted, there are likely tens of thousands of astromech droids like R2; given Obi-Wan's established talents in the areas of sensory perception, intuitiveness, I don't believe Obi-Wan would have forgotten R2's contributions. But I can't give this a defect. This is a bigger problem from a story arch, and consistency point of view, than anything in Obi-Wan's history lesson imparted to Luke about his father or the Jedi.<br />
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10) Love this- Luke and Obi-Wan talking about <i>Ben</i> Kenobi: "Of course I know him, he's me." To the extent I can effectively write cryptic dialogue, or fictional interactions between characters, this kind of subterfuge was an inspiration, even when I was 6.<br />
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11) Plenty of people point to all of the conflicting disinformation Obi-Wan gives to Luke about Vader as a WTF set of tidbits. But if you watch Guinness closely, he delivers the lines with a nonverbal, subtextual expertise, and an uncomfortableness, as if sparing Luke the truth, that is pretty brilliant. This allows what Kenobi doesn't say, and how he doesn't say it, to minimize what the majority of people think are contradictions. Lucas just didn't have the total plan in place when he wrote that dialogue- not a mistake. There are too many other concerns, and I only list it to prove I'm paying attention.<br />
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<b>High </b>(for an opportunity missed)<br />
12) Staying on that exact conversation for this next one- Obi-Wan tells Luke that Vader hunted down and destroyed the Jedi Knights. As I mentioned in another WWW, this would have made for an intriguing subplot in one of the films, could have taken an hour of screen time to do right, if someone else besides Lucas had written the script and directed the movie. With all of that screen time saved from episodes I and II, as referenced in the other WWWs, the battles between Sith and Jedi, and throw bounty hunters in there as well, would have been much better subject matter than monotonously delivered lines about blockades, no confidence votes, and trade disputes.<br />
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<b>Critical</b><br />
13) "these blast points too accurate for Sand People; only imperial Stormtroopers are so precise." I'm not sure, if during the events of <i>Star Wars</i>, the Empire's crop of Stormtroopers are still being cloned from the original host (Jango Fett); nor do I know if Obi-Wan has received erroneous reports of the accuracy of Stormtroopers from the occasional visitant to Tatooine. Perhaps Obi-Wan is misremembering that the vintage of trooper he fought alongside, from the Clone Wars, was accurate weighed against the fact that those troopers would have had a harder time fighting against a band of armless cartoon midgets than the droid army. Any way you slice it, his statement is hogwash and the rest of the movie is proof of that. Stormtroopers fire on Han, Luke, Leia and company a thousand times and don't hit them in the leg, arm, hand, or back.<br />
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14) Obi-Wan, about Mos Eisley- "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." The only time this line could be more appropriately placed is if I said it to my former neighbors as we drove away from those bitches for the better neighborhood in which we currently reside. Excellent line.<br />
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<b>Medium </b>(only a medium because Lucas wasn't pretending to be multi-cultural- those who inherited the franchise- Abrams and Johnson, the other creatives and casting have prided themselves on it for some reason and are unaware they're failing at it)<br />
15) Beating a dead horse, which, by the way, wouldn't be a bad idea for an alien creature that could have been featured in the cantina. Seeing the cadre of patrons, the total alienness of them all, no one could convince me that while all those freaks are imbibing, others of their race, aren't making laws, inventing, teaching, wisely investing, or writing scholarly articles that would open up pathways to leadership in the galaxy on the side of the empire or the rebellion.<br />
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16) Who the hell cares who shot first, Han or Greedo? In the original, Greedo didn't appear to fire at all. It wouldn't surprise me though, that in the original, Greedo fired first and missed; maybe he grew up with a clone trooper and Jango Fett taught them both to hunt. See #1 and a few of those which follow.<br />
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<b>Severe</b><br />
17) Stormtroopers looking for the droids in the sandy avenues of Mos Eisley: "Door is locked, move onto the next one." If I ever lost my keys in a Death Star full of Stormtroopers I would be supremely screwed. If I lost my keys in an empty bowl sitting at a kitchen table, where all the seats were occupied by Stormtroopers, I would also be screwed.<br />
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18) Star Destroyers- nothing that big could move that fast chasing the Millennium Falcon and if it could, why would you need a Death Star? Money to burn I guess.<br />
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19) "You've taken your first step into a larger world." Obi-Wan is the perfect mentor, the epitome of the old wizard. He's a better version of Gandalf and Gandalf is pretty awesome.<br />
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20) If Chewie had kicked in auxiliary power the first time Han asked, maybe they wouldn't have been sucked into the Death Star.<br />
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<b>See defect #17</b><br />
21) Go figure, the Stormtroopers sent aboard the Falcon to look for stowaways, can't find anyone, probably after an exhaustive search of 21 seconds.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
22) How do the brainiacs who advised a scanning party be sent aboard the Falcon for a more detailed search, have only 2 Stormtroopers flank the ramp to the falcon. Also, no one among a room full of "experienced" officers watch a ship potentially carrying cargo (a droid) with information that might help the enemy blow up the space station they're currently occupying. Maybe an inter-office communique didn't go out to everyone on the Death Star alerting them all to the potential danger. I wrote that last line in anticipation of anyone who would counter the one which preceded it. Do you think Lucas would have anticipated this while writing the script? One line from Vader or Tarkin about not telling the minions about the risk of staying could also have eliminated this issue.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Minor</b><br />
23) Per Tarkin, the Princess was to be terminated immediately. Apparently, immediately doesn't mean the same thing in our world as it does in theirs. If I'm Tarkin, I'm not letting chores like taking out the garbage, or signing pardons, distract me from putting an enemy leader to death. Its always possible Vader told Tarkin about his plan to track the Millennium Falcon to the rebel base and gave order 132 to all the Stormtroopers.<br />
<b>Note:</b> Imagine that order 132 is a made up command, ala Order 66, where the troopers are prevented from killing the heroes, allowing them to escape, so that their ship can be tracked. Of course, if you wanted to prevent the heroes from getting the plans to the rebels, couldn't you, since a tracking device has been planted on the ship, just put a detonator on there, set to explode once the Delorean hits 88 miles per hour, or hits hyperspace, whichever occurs first?<br />
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24) Garbage compactor- there were a few things in there that could have been brought to the recycling center.<br />
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25) A second- "I've got a bad feeling about this." This is where it all started, before we got tired of it.<br />
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<b>Severe</b><br />
26) One trooper is told to stand guard in the room R2 and 3PO are occupying. He's only told to stand guard there because of the droids, droids believed to have ridden in a ship (the Falcon) that's serial number matches that of a ship that departed from a planet where those droids were tracked. 3PO tells the trooper they are going to leave and the very responsible, potentially trained soldier, lets them. These are droids that Vader has been tracking since the escape pod shot out of Tantive V onto Tatooine. Communication seems to be a huge problem with the Empire. No wonder aliens don't fight on their side, since the willingness to communicate in English has been such a problem.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
27) After R2 shuts down the trash compactor, wouldn't everyone on the Death Star know that the disturbance in the detention ward should be a location to which a swarm of support should be sent? I don't want to turn into one of those guys who just makes crap up, but the only way the heroes are able to get out of the compactor and take their time putting on fashionable belts outfitted with all kinds of useful gadgets is because Tarkin and Vader are allowing them to escape from the Death Star. Here too, I'm probably thinking more about these character's motivations than the man who wrote them into existence.<br />
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28) We've learned the suits the Stormtroopers wear don't provide them any safety against bullets. We also learn, when Obi-Wan distracts two of them with a noise so they look away from his direction, it appears the troopers can't see a thing peripherally. Anyone could explain this away by saying, now, that if a Jedi can force ghost themselves onto another planet, they could move unnoticed 25 yards on some scaffolding after shutting down a tractor beam. Besides, if the troopers had seen Obi-Wan, what would they have done? Fired their weapons and hit him?<br />
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See #s 1, 13, 17, 21-23, and 26 for general Stormtrooper incompetence. "<i>General</i> Stormtrooper" would probably be a good idea. Of course, being king of the idiots is hardly a promotion, unless you are too incompetent to realize it. My dad, in reference to an ex-girlfriend: "I was too stupid to know how stupid she was."<br />
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<b>already gave this one a critical - see #13</b><br />
29) Mindful of Obi-Wan's comment about the accuracy of Imperial Stormtroopers, the heroes run all over the Death Star, teeming with Stormtroopers, on different levels, open doors, swinging across expanses, and not one of them gets hit in the back, leg, stomach, hand, or shoulder.<br />
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<b>Severe</b><br />
30) How a pilot/pirate as galactically experienced as Han Solo would think that his ship wasn't being tracked, after he and his "cocky" new buddy Luke only had to take out 4 Tie-Fighters is something only a 6-year-old watching the movie for the first time would accept. Send your heroes to another planet and have them send the plans to the military base another way. This is a military operation; the Rebels blew up <i>two</i> Death Stars. I wonder how both the Empire and the Rebellion would have done against the Japanese, the Germans, or in Mogadishu, or hell, against the British marching in single file columns wearing bright red coats. The two sides, the Rebels and Empire, <i>might</i> be ready to play a game of Risk, if their part of playing the game means they listen as the first sentence of the rules is acted out by puppets.<br />
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<b>High</b><br />
31) It took 30 minutes for the Death Star to orbit one planet to get to the moon on which the rebel base resides. This is a planet-sized base that just traveled at light speed. If someone thinks the reason it is taking the Death Star so long is because the Empire is sneaking up on the Rebels and doesn't want to alert the rebels to their presence . . . if the rebels don't have military safeguards in place enough to be warned of something that big coming into range . . . see #30.<br />
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32) Wait, did someone just call the fat X-Wing pilot "Porkins"?<br />
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33) Vader decides to leave the supposedly impregnable confines of the Death Star for a much more vulnerable one-manned star-fighter. For 33 years I thought this was a tremendous flaw, and the only reason Lucas had Vader leave the safety of an immense space station was so that there would be a sequel. The best man at my wedding and I differed on this point. He thought that given Vader's pilot skills, his hubris, his assertiveness, his talents and confidence, Vader would think he could thwart the efforts of upstarts attacking this massive base.<br />
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However, I was watching an Indianapolis Colts v. New England Patriots football game in 2009. The Pats coach, Bill Belichick, who I had often compared to Darth Vader, leader of the cheating Patriot Empire, made a decision to go for it on 4th down and 2 from their own 28 with 2 minutes to play and a 34-28 lead. Peyton Manning had driven the Colts up and down the field in that game, even when they didn't score. Most every coach, most every time, would decide on the safe and comfortable decision to punt the ball and make the Colts go 80 yards for the touchdown. I could write another couple paragraphs about the game itself, but the focus is the film.<br />
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The next thing I did on that Sunday night was phone my friend, to apologize for doubting him and conceding that he was right all those years. I had seen a cocky, talented, wild-card of a human being, despite how hateable he is, make a real-life decision akin to Vader's. Belichick and Vader both took the riskier option; both ultimately failed. In this case, Vader's "gamble" saved his life and Belichick's cost the Patriots a game.<br />
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34) Nice hall-of-fame yellow jacket Luke. Yikes.<br />
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<b>Deleted Scenes-</b> nothing I've seen that was left out of the movie should have been included.<br />
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<b>Special Edition:</b><br />
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35) Much clearer color picture, clear definition. Darks are darker, brighter whites, deeper colors, more variation, much more appealing. Still. The original is dark, grainy, rough, like Michael Jackson's nose <i>before</i> all the surgeries, and raw, like Jackson's nose <i>after</i> repeated surgeries. The continued "enhancements" took as much away from the nose, er, film, as were added. Too much care can be taken that it ruins a child. Lucas was like a helicopter parent. Part of <i>Rogue One</i>'s appeal, you can see it in the bonus features, is the ability of the set creation/designers who aged Jedha, made it lived in, wrecked it, gave it character. <i>Star Wars </i>lost some of it's character because of the enhanced color and sound.<br />
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36) Enhanced Dewback scene- one is seen walking, where they only stood in the original, and there are just more of them. No problems with this.<br />
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37) The scene where Luke looks at two suns in frustration, is better in the special edition. The disparity in the color from one sun and the other is more pronounced. And the close up on Luke's face is an improvement.<br />
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<b>Minor</b><br />
38) A better perspective of the size of Mos Eisley, with more animals and ships. Not a fan. It's too clean and too comical after Obi-Wan has just spoken his line about scum and villainy.<br />
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39) Greedo fires, but since I don't care who fired first, like Obi-Wan mind-effs the Stormtroopers, we're going to "move along".<br />
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<b>Critical- (is there a defect severity above critical?)</b><br />
40) Jabba. I'd rather Lucas just put Jesus Christ or Thor in this movie. It wouldn't have been as awkward or ill-placed.<br />
a) "Han my boy."<br />
b) Han negotiates the interest percentage down to 15%<br />
c) Han says- "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being."<br />
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This scene was a more glaring inclusion than the omission from TPM where Anakin, a future Sith Lord, wrestles around with Greedo, a future bounty hunter. It enhances nothing. Lucas should have learned from the hundreds of horror movies and his peer's (Spielberg's) minimalist use of the slasher/shark (Jaws)- see "e)" below. We heard about Jabba, or the bounty on Han's head, for two movies and the payoff was worth it. Lucas had this knowledge from 1983 to 1997 and still couldn't keep himself from the terrible decision to make Jabba look like a weakling, running his own errands.<br />
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d) The capper is when Han circles behind Jabba, who was originally a human, in the deleted scenes, and steps on Jabba's tail. This causes Jabba to yelp and make a ridiculously uncomfortable face. Between this scene in Star Wars and those in ROTJ, Jabba probably put on 400 pounds.<br />
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e) I'm aware that Spielberg had a dearth of funding for Jaws and elected to not show the shark because it either didn't work as well as he had hoped and/or he was working on a budget. The point is that not having enough money to throw at a problem is sometimes a good thing. The government has all kinds of problems like that.<br />
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Han's situation, and Jabba's imposing presence, are things I would much rather Lucas had alluded to as a back story for a couple of films rather than adding Jabba as an afterthought and having him treated as a dupe and a push over.<br />
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In the intro. paragraph to <i>Rogue One</i>, I wrote that it might be the best of the films, if you could remove the childish fascination from the original trilogy. The verdict on that is another case of the heart versus the head. In my world, you can't beat nostalgia. Despite the fact that <i>Star Wars</i> has double the issues, it also has the best lines and perhaps my favorite film character of all time (right up there with Cool Hand Luke)- Obi-Wan Kenobi. Verdict = once again, a child's imagination beats a man's logic; <i>Star Wars</i> over <i>Rogue One</i>.<br />
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<b>Next up:</b> The <i>best</i> of the Star Wars movies- from an adult's perspective.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-63866691609939300642018-05-27T16:16:00.000-05:002019-09-10T20:31:45.191-05:00. . . ESB<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's wrong with:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>STAR WARS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>The Empire Strikes Back</u></b></div>
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<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
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ESB is in the conversation with <i>The Godfather Part II, Aliens, The Dark Knight,</i> and <i>The Bourne Supremacy</i>, as sequels that were better than the originals when the originals were very good. Sorry, <i>Wrath of Khan</i>, that first Star Trek movie was too low a bar to clear.</div>
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I bought a Time, special edition magazine for $15 last year, subtitled, "40 Years of the Force." In it, were chronicled the laborious results of Lucas' writing process, original reviews of all the movies to date, tidbits and factoids about the characters, and the actors who portrayed them, and about Abrams, the new director of TFA. I had seen it written that the reviews for ESB were negative. The review written by Gerald Clarke for the May 19, 1980 Time magazine was not:</div>
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"Sequels of giant hits, like children who follow . . . always have an unfair burden. They are not examined on their own merits but in relationship to the picture everyone loved. In many ways Lucas and director Irvin Kershner have overcome that handicap. <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i> is a more polished and in some ways, a richer film. But to imitate Yoda's way of speaking, and to answer the obvious question, as much fun it is not."</div>
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That does not seem like an indictment of ESB. Plenty of others I have read are even more welcoming to the achievements of episode V. Others are not, but those tweets, twits, and other social media respondents, or article writers, like one I used to base my review of TLJ, make it seem like those, like myself, who pretend their youth is being destroyed by these new installments, would have you believe that ESB was just as widely panned as TFA and TLJ. </div>
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The biggest difference in the responses to any movie, let alone one so revered, from 40 years ago and today, is that I don't need to be employed by Time Magazine or Entertainment Weekly, or be famous, for my opinion to matter. For it to be read, is another matter entirely. The ironic thing is that those who are paid to review movies, and have the outlet (articles published online, or that still appear in newspapers or magazines), ridicule those who don't have that outlet. Those who do have the outlet, suppose their view is more legitimate, valued, well-written and their opinions matter more. None of that is necessarily true. Don't get me wrong, there are complete goofballs out there and all of those who are, are incapable of recognizing it, just as those who are paid to watch and write about movies, are incapable of realizing how overvalued their contributions to criticism might be.<br />
<br />
On with the defect worthy, and redeeming material from ESB. I've got only this breakdown:<br />
Low (3), Medium (1), High (3), Serious (0), Critical (1)- that's 8, the same number as Rogue One.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
1) The special edition Wampa scenes were excellent additions. Showing the Wampa eating something with blood dripping from its face, within its lair, more of its approach to get Luke who has awoken. All very good adds and better than anything that was "enhanced" about the SE version of <i>A New Hope</i>.</div>
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2) Solo holding C-3PO's words shut is funny. The humor again in this film is understated, natural and comfortable.</div>
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3) The dialogue with Han and Leia talking about their feelings makes us imagine months of sexual tension in just a couple minutes.</div>
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<b>Low</b></div>
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4) Again, why wouldn't the Empire hire aliens? Another set of white guys/a soon to be force-choked to death Admiral, dismiss a potential lead before Vader weighs in on the probability of Hoth being the site of the rebel base. This is a low here, whereas it is a more serious defect in the newer films because the creators of the original trilogy didn't advertise how multi-cultural they were going to be, how hip with the overall "orientation" of the cast they were going to be. If you tell people how outside of the box you're going to think, and the people paying attention discover you've only progressed to thinking inside of a larger box, who do you think you're fooling?</div>
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5) Vader kills Admiral someone or other because he came out of light speed too close to Hoth. A scene or two earlier, the rebels had already started the evacuation. The admiral's mistakes were cumulative. This is the straw that broke the camel's back.</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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6) Luke's scars from the Wampa attack. He is recovering sitting in some comfortable loose clothing hours after a giant, albino sasquatch clawed him across the face, and is now without a scrape. Either the medics the rebels have on their payroll are miracle workers, medicine has advanced to heal wounds more quickly, or Luke is part Wolverine (of X-Men fame). This only gets a high because of the benefit of the doubt, that Luke's dipping into the container of liquid, helped aid his face. This is only the third famous full immersion of a human into a vat of water. Letterman donned a suit adorned with thousands of Alka-Seltzer tablets, and I'm sure there is footage somewhere of Linda Carter or Farah Fawcett emerging from a dunk tank from Battle of the Network Stars in the late 70s or early 80s. Damn, this deplorable research. Guess I'll have to go look.</div>
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7) The Imperial Walkers . . . set down to conveniently march toward the trenches where the rebels happen to have set up their defense, are recognized through binoculars as Imperial Walkers- so the rebels are familiar, by name, with the armored beast marching toward them. But it takes the snow speeder pilots five minutes of attacking them to determine the armor is too strong and so change to harpoons and cables taking them by the legs. The Imperial Walkers are the Rob Gronkowskis of <i>Star Wars</i>. Only way this isn't an issue is if the soldiers in the trenches have no way of communicating with the pilots or all of the pilots have never seen the walkers. Both are unlikely.</div>
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<b>High (for 7 and 8 combined)</b></div>
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8) Once the walkers are on the ground, the strong armor is pierced, causing a walker to explode, something that couldn't happen when they were operational. Again, if this was a thing, those in the trenches would need to aim for the head, or the speeders would have defeated the walkers by shooting them in the head. This is pretty clumsy thinking on the part of both the person who wrote the story and the scriptwriters, Lucas and two credited writers Brackett and Kasden. Three people in charge of the story fail to catch this. Sloppy.</div>
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9) Yoda! Yoda! Yoda! At least when Luke goes into his cave, we understand what the hell it means. I still don't get what we learned about Rey in hers in TLJ.</div>
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<b>Medium (for wasting Boba Fett)</b></div>
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10) Boba Fett, one of 3 lines- "As you wish." Is the bounty hunter telling Darth Vader, he loves him, a la the farm boy from <i>The Princess Bride</i>? </div>
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<b>Critical</b></div>
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11) Luke is on Dagobah training to be a Jedi-knight, who will go to confront Vader, the reason Obi-Wan and Yoda have been hiding out for twenty years with, at most, 2 days of training. So, Rian Johnson (TLJ writer and director) isn't the only one who can't manage the timing of how long it should take someone to hone their skills as a super hero.</div>
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12) Bespin approach. Another great add to this movie from the SE. It didn't work for me in <i>Star Wars</i> SE with Mos Eisley, but does here.</div>
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13) Yoda: "No, there is another." Did we ever learn who that was? Leia, Rey, Kylo Ren, someone we haven't met yet? Can we build a movie around this where we see Leia with force powers?</div>
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14) Han and Leia stayed an overnight on Bespin. It was dusk when they arrived; a new day is waking when Lando comes to escort the lovebirds to a meal. The point here is that if the storytellers could have used something like the long wait to get a part for the hyperdrive, some kind of creative montage showing a prolonged passage of time, Luke could have learned a lot more in a week of training than in a day, which would further establish his skill set, making him more capable of facing Vader.<br />
<br />
<b>Interlude: </b>Google- "<i>Empire Strikes Back</i> and CinemaSins". If I had known this was a thing before starting to write these, I would have acknowledged it. I don't need someone else to break down a movie franchise I grew up watching. And most of the problems I had with the original trilogy occurred to me well before the internet existed. Course, there is the thing about the title of these Cinema Sins. I decided on "What's wrong with" while they/he (Corey Chichizola) went with "Everything Wrong With".<br />
<br />
Since I see there is also a <i>Star Wars, A New Hope</i>, version, I'll have to check that out too. I'll get back to the ESB of Cinema Sins, to see how my list stacks up to his, at the end of my list.</div>
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<b>Low</b></div>
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15) Bespin is short on jail cells. Putting Chewbacca, Leia and Han in the same cell is a no-no. Only reason you do it, is because this is a movie.</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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16) 6 storm troopers and 1 officer from the Empire are meant to guard one Wookie with a protocol droid on his back, a resourceful princess who isn't in handcuffs, and a smuggler, with his aid, whom Darth Vader shouldn't trust.</div>
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<b>Low</b></div>
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17) More misses in hallways. Again, would it kill you to have Lobot shot and killed or Lando shot in the leg?</div>
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18) Where did Lando get a rifle?</div>
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19) Luke: "No, nooooo." Just like Vader when he's put in his black suit in ROTS. Luke's version isn't as horrible, but I'm still not a fan.</div>
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<b>Low</b></div>
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20) Luke jump-falls to a too safe position considering how high up he is. If you could convince an audience that he, using his Jedi powers was able to fall in slow motion, that works, but given the oversight tradition in this franchise, I would bet against it.</div>
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21) Lando is frustrated that the hyperdrive hasn't been fixed, and about then is a line from Vader- "Did your men disable the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon?" These are the types of things that can stomp out the eye-rolling at the implausibility of the plot and story and laziness of the director, writers and creative team in certain areas. The creative team, writers and directors got so many things right in the whole franchise, particularly in this movie, that to quibble about relatively few perceived errors seems like complete nonsense. Sure, there are those out there whose time can't be wasted with a recount of these errors, whose passion and intensity is earmarked for other endeavors about which I wouldn't care. </div>
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Again, if Vader and Tarkin had spoken a couple of lines about having the Stormtroopers deliberately miss our band of heroes with all the shots fired in the halls of the Death Star, in <i>Star Wars</i> in order to have them escape so the Falcon could be tracked to the rebel base, that would make more sense.<br />
<br />
Or if Han had said something in TFA about how eerily similar it was to cart around a droid with galaxy-sensitive plans, to have to contend with a near relation (Leia's father, and Han and Leia's son) dressed in black with a black helmet and a scary voice, and the desperate mission of destroying a planet killer that would have been a clever way to answer for the inconsistencies, redundancy, oversights and mistakes.</div>
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<b><u>Deleted scenes:</u></b><br />
The best of the deleted scenes shows C-3PO removing a warning from a door where a wampa was captured. The Stormtroopers then open the door and one is grabbed by the wampa as other troopers and Darth Vader look on helplessly. Not including any of the deletes I saw, good call. The creatives, editors and Lucas would have said that including wampas crashing through ice walls slowed the pace of the movie. Apparently, that realization is exempted from occurring to them for all of the movies.</div>
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<b>CinemaSins (CS):</b><br />
<b>Most of the 100+ sins aren't really "sins" and if they are, they're venial in nature, i.e. relatively slight and don't condemn one's soul to hell, not unless they're combined together- n, p, and s below might get the creatives sent to purgatory.</b><br />
a) first 5 don't really count. When the filmmakers decide to only show you 1-2 day snippets of the military struggle between the empire and rebels, they, perhaps to their detriment, haven't shown a full-scale assault of the empire on a rebel base. The complaints about the walkers from my perspective are above and CS has also captured those issues.<br />
<br />
b) #6 from their list is the happenstance of Luke seeing a probe land a couple thousand yards from him. Bothersome of course, considering it could have landed anywhere on the planet. CS #7 is more of an issue- when you have a character with traits that make him super-human (Jedi) it is a good idea to not have him abstain from using them, like sensing a gigantic beast in near proximity that is about to claw the hero in the face.<br />
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c) Stealing the look of the abomindable snowman = not a defect. And of the tens of thousands of alien creatures in the history of film, some are going to look like each other. Lucas admitted his Kaminoans were inspired by Speilberg's <i>Close Encounters</i> aliens. Dragging something still alive back to your cave and not killing it until later, given the frozen confines of the wampa's habitat is not a defect. I usually defrost the steak before consuming it. The wampa's treatment of Luke is different than the crazy tentacled creatures' treatment of Finn aboard the docking station when we first meet up with Han and Chewie in TFA; the latter is hunting for sport, the former for life.<br />
<br />
d) Han refers to some adventure we don't have a context for . . . like the Kessel Run, or Jabba the Hutt, that we don't learn about for another 41 and 3 years respectively. Remember, they show us 1-2 days out of these character's lives every three years. And if Han is getting nervous about paying off a debt, that seems to be a normal human reaction to mounting pressure and increasing odds that more are looking for him.<br />
<br />
e) is it a sin to have a human want to get out of the lair, in which he was almost ripped apart while still alive? The hypothermia sins I'm on board with, but maybe they're wearing a few more layers of under armour than we're aware of. At this point he's at 32 sins, only four of which are legitimate. Luke, submerged in a vat of liquid wearing tighty whities is not a sin.<br />
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f) We've been hearing about the whole Luke and Leia kissing/incest stuff for years. This is akin to Luke being on hand to see the probe land. It is improbable that two siblings in that big a universe, uniting without knowing about the other. In human history there have been some crazy things happen. I bet there have been two siblings who slept together without their knowing it. Not ideal.<br />
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g) It is a "sin" that Han shot 2nd, or that Chewie thought Leia and Luke kissing was noteworthy.<br />
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h) not sure the walkers would be slipping and sliding all over in snow and ice. Snow and ice are two different things. Considering how heavy the walkers are, and if it is only snow, they wouldn't be slipping.<br />
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i) like my list, the CS also has the note about harpoons, tow cables and the vulnerability of downed walkers.<br />
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j) Ku Klux Stormtrooper- not a defect. Why they are in all that costuming considering the suit does nothing to protect them, excepting the Snowtrooper suit may aid in some way against the cold.<br />
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k) Luke survives a crash. He's crashing in a lot of snow (not ice) and is wearing a seat belt. Luke gets through the blockade is a legitimate complaint and one I brought up in <i>The Phantom Menace</i>.<br />
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l) Vader doesn't think to force control the Falcon. It is Yoda's opinion that size doesn't matter. CS compares a stationary X-Wing 1/4 to 1/8 the size of the Falcon that is definitely on the move.<br />
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Intermission: of the 60 sins he's detailed, 4-5 are legitimate.<br />
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m) the hyperdrive isn't working. CS spends 3 sins on this, that the issue is understood initially, or eventually, are two different things, which anyone who has installed a water heater, or torn open a wall, not expecting to find the power supply to the whole house stored within it. Problems mutate and become more specifically understood after investigation.<br />
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<b>Severe</b><br />
n) Luke kept the name "Skywalker" and was supposed to be hidden from his father with the same surname. This is a serious defect and one I had overlooked.<br />
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o) Yoda is challenging Luke.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
p) a giant creature lives in the middle of space with a lack of food. It is the big foot of this galaxy.<br />
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q) maybe Yoda has misgivings, the same concerns he had when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan got to train Luke's father, when the whole Jedi council was against it.<br />
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r) I think Luke is figuring out what is going on with the symbolism of him seeing his own face in Vader's mask.<br />
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r) Why wouldn't Obi-Wan and Yoda have told Luke about his father? Humans are complicated and unpredictable; apparently, so are force ghosts and whatever the hell Yoda is.<br />
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<b>High</b><br />
s) Han doesn't wait a few minutes to continue to float off with the rest of the junk, which is an inconsistent handling of the situation, as he had been so patient sitting on the trunk of a Star Destroyer. The Falcon doesn't detect Boba Fett and Slave I right behind them. Apparently the hyperdrive isn't the only thing that isn't functioning on the Falcon.<br />
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t) Luke may have needed to go to Dagobah because Obi-Wan failed in his attempt to train a Skywalker to become a Jedi.<br />
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u) Vader can rip things from walls and send those objects violently through mid air. CS is right, he could have done more of that. However, I'm not sure that the combatants are always in rooms in which there are things to hurl. I'd already expressed my wonder at why Vader couldn't have acquired the plans to destroy the Death Star in <i>Rogue One</i> via essentially the same means.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-38136819101766408692018-07-01T09:14:00.001-05:002019-09-09T20:00:12.849-05:00. . . Solo<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's wrong with:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>STAR WARS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Solo</u></b></div>
<br />
Not having enough perspective from the first viewing, I paid money to see it a second time. As I had seen all of the others at least three times apiece, and a few of them as many as 30 times, the regression testing I did, was necessary. Regression testing, in software development, is when the functionality is moved to a different environment and reviewed again to see if you can uncover any other issues. In this case, I watched it with one fewer person, in a different theater and city, and not in a leather recliner.<br />
<br />
<b>High</b><br />
<b>1)</b> This is going to come off as pretty pot calling the kettle black, but there is too much explanation on the screen to begin the movie. Not sure if those deciding to describe in words rather than in actions, and interactions, between characters, were influenced by <i>Terminator</i> or <i>Blade Runner</i>, but it is needless (and less necessary than in either of those movies). In fact, the treatment of the subject matter in <i>Solo</i> is more conducive to <i>showing</i> the world; we can get the idea of how valuable certain resources and commodities are by having the writer, director and actors/characters <i>show</i> us.<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A couple lines sprinkled
in the first thirty minutes of the movie, eliminates all that reading. And if that exposition is necessary, here is an idea, put it in a crawling, receding text that disappears into the stars. Fresh. I've seen that tactic employed somewhere before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Also, <i>Solo</i> has a few characters more dynamic than many given enough screen time in either of those two sci-fi classics, to be able to pull off the exposition of the story without people needing to read.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Note</b>: ironic, very little exposition in this review; it starts with a defect right out of the gate.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>High</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>2) </b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Over the top gian</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">t villain. The slug creature
that emerges from some cesspool must have been a lot of fun for the special
effects people</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">to create.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I see it as one more overdone freakishly large
impediment. I’ll have another example below. <i>Men in Black</i> used a pug (think of Salacious Crumb- judge him by his size do you?) as an information source the audience never would have expected. Can’t we just have some alien in charge of the local syndicate that is like Snaggletooth, Max Rebo, etc.? We get
it, this is a large galaxy, populated with a lot of freakishly unique creatures- but now your art and design people are just showing off. Why does it not occur to the creature creators to just recycle something like the changeling (bounty hunter Jango Fett hires from AOTC), the wolf creature from the Cantina scene in Star Wars, the
six-eyed thing Han sits next to at the card game, or [insert your
random alien species here from 1 of hundreds we’ve encountered, many of them in passing, in 10 movies to
date]. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Note:</b> yes, Vincent Dinofrio's bug character considerably expands in size when it gets to the park with the trophy/statue ship he needs to escape with Orion's belt. The <i>Star Wars</i> franchise has had 10 shots at this. Use your universe people. The fans would be thrilled to see a female <i>Boss</i>k as a bad-ass crime syndicate boss. The word "boss" is already just right there.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">For that matter, put one of the Clone soldiers in charge of something like that. We've now seen a Stormtrooper defect (Finn), and sometimes nature trumps nurture and a sixty-five year old clone soldier's wiring to propel it into a rogue position after having left the Empire, would be a welcome change.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Low</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>3) </b>Han throws a rock through a window, which lets in a lot of light, which isn't appreciated, expected, or helpful, for the giant millipede. The complaint might be, why would a powerful villain even have a window in a room in which they live for fear of someone destroying it to let light in? Fair enough. However, J</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">abba </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">doesn't expect someone to choke him with a chain; the New Order didn't expect Holdo to fire a space cruiser into them at light speed, and Snoke didn't anticipate Kylo Ren would turn and ignite a light saber into his midsection. I didn't expect Vader to get into a fighter plane instead of staying inside the womb of the death star in the original film.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">People are unpredictable; the characters they play should be no less so. I'm not asking for each situation and outcome to be anticipated by the good and evil characters in any movie. These characters aren't actuaries. I'm asking for a certain level of consistency with a special influx of unpredictability and oversight under normal, and dire, circumstances. Villains in movies have always overlooked the potential resourcefulness of the hero. Can the creators make the audience believe the good v. evil interactions are realistic, when you factor in the precedents in the worlds they've created? Is the inherent suspension of disbelief willful and smartly attended to (as judged on different scales depending on if the subject matter is historic fiction, a present day crime drama, a farcical romantic comedy, or science fiction)?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">T</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">he real question is, how, in a dingy hell-hole of a futuristic city, would a pane of glass still be completely intact? Why wouldn't there be a tarp, sheet, or boards in that space, in a city in complete disrepair, instead?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>4) </b>Stormtroopers</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">detaining people both before and after Han and Kira go through the
checkpoint shows us that many are still trying that method and perhaps still
succeeding. Since Han and Kira are separated there, we see a little of both
(Han gets out, Kira does not). Besides, showing multiple others in the midst
of getting caught trying to flee is one of the reasons Han actually gets out. If all else was an orderly procession of people milling around a detention center escape point, while only two people were trying to sneak through, any one person escaping would have been less plausible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><b>Medium</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>5) </b>Kissing. While Emilia
Clarke is quite fetching, I don’t get the sense that Han has been away for
years, months, or weeks when he returns with the super fuel. If he’d been gone
three years, then I get it. But if I’m someone who just made a deal to get out
of somewhere, and had in my possession the commodity that would get me out, I’m
not kissing anyone, I’m getting into the fastest vehicle, and urging anyone I'm attracted enough to to kiss, to come with me quickly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">In <i>Enemy at the Gates</i>, Jude Law and some intoxicating filthy beauty have intercourse during a brief interlude of a sniper fight. It is a desperate exchange and perhaps both of them think that it is their due, given an overwhelming feeling of mortality, to enjoy sharing something with, and taking something from, another human being. If those two had an imminent hope of escaping their situation, they would have waited to bang until after their safety was assured. Han and Kira are not in that position. And ahem, since this is a Disney movie, they aren't in <i>any</i> position.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><b>High</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>6)</b> Han is separated from Kira while both are trying to escape. When I watched this a second time, I was convinced the complaint I'd heard about him caterwauling for too long after Kira had been caught, was legit. I don't think he turns around to see if his protests are drawing more attention.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>7)</b> For those skeptical about the psychic connection creatives and thinkers have with the number 3- here are two more examples- why would we have to advance 3 years in time? Why not 2, or 4? I am re-watching <i>Breaking Bad</i>, one of the top ten television shows of all time. In the first episode we start with an action scene showing the two main characters hysterically driving from something. Ok, we see one, because Jessie had been knocked out. But after the opening scene, we are brought to action 3 weeks earlier. Back to the main topic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>8) </b>Solo- the name. I've heard criticism about how Han got his last name. Unless the creatives decide that Anakin's last name was granted by Darth Plagueis witnessing the procreation of a cloud and a star giving birth to the immaculately conceived child, I'm not considering how Han got his name a defect. Is it reminiscent of how Vito Corleone acquired his name in the 2nd Godfather movie (from the town he's from in Sicily)? Sure. But giving Solo a demerit because his last name wasn't his birth name, or because this scene doesn't stack up to something from the Godfather . . . Jesus people! Grow up. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Medium</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>9) </b>Woody Harrelson. I think he was underutilized. This isn't because he isn't on screen for enough of the film, but rather because he is such a good actor who plays a role that hundreds of other actors could have played. There isn't much pathos extracted from him generally, and not much specifically, when his love dies. I get the impression that Harrelson had to hold his talents in check so as not to distract from who is supposed to be the star like a brilliant guitarist who plays down so the singer can shine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>High</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>10)</b> I get that Becket (Harrelson) is supposed to be a heartless bastard who can't trust anyone, a loner without a conscience, but when Val dies the movie spends less time with his grief than they do showing Han wailing about losing Kira at the checkpoint. This isn't the first time the creatives were off on the scale of sorrow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><b>High</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>11) </b>Alden Ehrenreich- as Han Solo. Not bad. He's anxious to prove himself about twenty years before the only thing he had left to prove was that he was dutiful. So, we can forgive casting for finding someone that isn't an exact fit. I can envision Ehrenreich as Han about half the time. Casting didn't do as good a job finding a young Solo as those casting the Star Trek reboot did in finding young versions of Kirk, Spok, Bones, Scotty, Sulu and Checkov. Still, for all the pre-release hype about how horrible Ehrenreich was supposed to be, I certainly did not see that. Those who haven't seen this movie once because of all the bad hype are the same types of people who felt their only two options for president were Trump or Hillary. Seeing the movie, and not seeing it, are not the only two available options. Seeing it and being critical of a world you love, but giving reasons why it isn't a perfect world is an open-minded possibility.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">I gave this a high defect because it is halfway between nothing and Critical. Couldn't those in charge of casting have found someone with a longer face? I'll admit this is a bit nitpicky, but Hollywood has found someone who looked incredibly close to JFK (Greg Kinnear) and made Gary Oldman look like Winston Churchill; Han Solo needs to look more like Harrison Ford and less like a version of Han Solo if only his head <i>hadn't</i> survived the trash compactor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Also, Ehrenreich is 28 years old. Ford, in the original, was 34. I get that actors have been playing older and younger than their age for a couple thousand years in stage plays dating back to the Greeks, but I'm not buying that this is the version of Han 10-12 years before we see him for the first time in Mos Eisley. It isn't just the look, it's the feel. I had the same criticism of both Obi-Wan/Alec Guinness and Luke/Mark Hamill from Star Wars. They keep getting the passage of time wrong. When you factor in the desperado mentality Luke portrays in TLJ, they keep getting the feelings and motivations of the characters wrong as well. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Note: </b>Research yielded some guy's idea of all of the character's ages at various times during each of the movie's to date- http://www.yodasdatapad.com/ages.html. I don't know based on what authority some guy drunk in the basement of a pub in Boston came up with those opinions, but the chart considers that Solo occurs 10 years prior to <i>A New Hope</i>. There is no way that the Solo we just saw is only 10 years younger than the Solo in "A New Hope". That doesn't feel right. It <i>feels</i> like Han's debt to Jabba is older, and that his name "Solo" was given to him 20 years previously and not 13.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>12) </b><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: small;">Han meeting Chewie. Nicely done. It was a great way to show how quickly they built trust and how Han knows what Chewie is saying. How anyone else ever knows what Chewie is saying is still a problem, which I'm willing to overlook until . . .</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: small;"><b>Medium</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: small;"><b>13)</b> Also a problem is- how does Chewie know English and if he knows English, wouldn't he be able to understand what others were saying? If so, wouldn't he have demonstrated that understanding and not be incarcerated for being a beast, but for some other reason, like he's rebellious, or Wookies are known to be free-spirited?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Low</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>14) </b>Lando a pansexual. I had to look up the word "pansexual" when I read rumors that Lando was said to be flirting with Han during the movie. I didn't see any evidence of that behavior and I have to admit my relief. Some of the comments justifying such a move were ridiculously topical and cliche- (i.e. it is time for representation in these movies for GLBT-type characters.) That may well be true. I wouldn't stop paying money to see a Star Wars movie just because an alternative lifestyle were represented, even if an endearing character like Lando were selected. I stopped paying any money at all to watch a Denzel Washington movie because he whined about there not being any good roles for black men. ?? He's been nominated, and won, Oscars and his IMDB resume is filled with well-respected acting credits. I don't think he's gone more than two years without a major motion picture credit, and he's one of the most bankable actors in the business. Also, I wouldn't pay money to watch or rent <i>Spaceballs II</i> and there aren't any black actors in that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">[Note: I had no idea there even was a Spaceballs 2, and there isn't, yet. And I only know that because I had to Google it to find out if there was; turns out there might be one on the way. I look forward to not watching it.]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Where I think Disney and Star Wars missed the opportunity, while still successfully making light of it in this general topic was, before I looked up "pansexual" I speculated that it might be a human's sexual proclivity toward a member of an alien race. And I thought that could be interesting if done right. The making light of it part was the female droid (L3-37) musing on a relationship between she and Lando. And the droid's disclosure to Kira was funny and well done.</span><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>15) </b>Donald Glover- excellent call. That casting decision is right there with the Star Trek calls I mentioned above.<br />
<br />
<b>16) </b>Millennium Falcon- that was an excellent casting decision, to put the Falcon in that role; it looks just like it did in the original. It loses another radar dish, or the first one we know it loses.<br />
<br />
<b>Medium</b><br />
<b>17)</b> Lando too quickly puts something he's said to value that much (the Millennium Falcon) up in a card game.<br />
<br />
<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>18)</b> Not one guard at the gates of the impound lot where the falcon is stored. I realize there is a homing beacon attached, but I'll get to that in a minute. Not one of those characters notices how easy it is to cut through a fence and get into an impound lot holding something with enough value to be impounded in the first place?<br />
<br />
<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>19)</b> A homing beacon is attached to the Falcon. I can't fault Lucas for not foreseeing that Vader, when he pulled the same stunt 10-20 years later/in a film shot 40 years earlier, would not have had Han remember how they were tracked in this instance. After all, it occurs to Leia, in Star Wars, to consider that they are being tracked, and that the escape was too easy. Never mind the fact that despite it occurring to her that they're being tracked, she doesn't object to their flying directly to the rebel base.<br />
a) just like droids are a thing in this universe, homing beacons are a thing. Not considering the possibility of being tracked when the ease of your escape came at such a trifling price (it was free) is not something a set of pretty, to very, experienced scoundrels would overlook is pretty unforgivable.<br />
b) perhaps Han, in Star Wars, didn't consider the escape from the Death Star easy, because, in retrospect, his escapes have been more like those we see in <i>Solo</i>, where no resistance, instead of almost no resistance, is the norm. Yeah, that's more revisionism. This is a severe defect not because of (b) but because of (a).<br />
<br />
Thing is, you can't survive in this universe without knowing about the reality of droids and homing beacons. Asking the audience to believe these characters are that gullible is embarrassing. One to three howls from Chewie about how easy it was to get the falcon, with Han offering a retort that tells the audience what Chewie said, would have been enough to minimize this defect.<br />
<br />
<b>Low</b><br />
<b>20)</b> Becket and Lando keep calling Han "kid". Dude is 28. If you wanted your main character to be called kid, that pejorative isn't applicable to anyone who looks 25, or who is playing a character over 20.<br />
<br />
<b>21)</b> Lando calls Han "baby" and Han returns the favor later on. These are both spoken as insults, not as two guys flirting with each other.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><b>22) </b>I had read that the woman who played L3</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">-37, is given credit for being a scene stealer. In the theatre I viewed the movie in, there were some laughs derived from her revolutionary streak, but she’s really only in the action for about 30-40 minutes, 4-5 scenes. Chewbacca, Lando and Han seem to take turns stealing scenes. I think the idea of a scene stealing robot was revolutionary and hip for some critics, so they went with it. A robot leading a robot’s revolt and putting on airs about how she and Lando could have been a thing are pretty funny. Let’s not get carried away. The idea of having a female robot, ten movies into the franchise was an excellent call.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>23)</b> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;">With Han and Kira on the Falcon, that is the time to get busy (reference to the preemptive kissing from above). C'mon Disney, if you're going to grace us with the onslaught of multiculturalism and enlighten us with pansexuality, let's see the cleavage you allowed the hottest of your cartoon Disney princesses (Beauty/Belle) to reveal. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">You've got the private quarters. It is time for the heat to go out on the falcon so we can see how cold it is in there.</span><br />
<br />
<b>Critical</b><br />
<b>24)</b> Despite our knowing that the falcon had permission to land that close to such a valuable resource, the superfuel, the number of guards watching the ship, searching the ship, or boarding it to search it, is not anything that would happen in our world. When the start of the movie offers 2 paragraphs of text about the value of a commodity like Xanadu, a ship being tracked to that resource is too much of a threat not to be guarded more heavily. The falcon sitting that close to the mines is like the Trojan horse. How do the guards know there aren't thirty bad-ass soldiers on board? It never occurred to the miners that someone would attempt to steal unrefined Xantham Gum/hyper-fuel?<br />
<br />
<b>25)</b> Han kicks one of the guards in the nuts. How does he know that's where the alien's nuts are? In this universe we've seen creatures with four arms, six eyes, necks two feet long and three-breasted women. Wait, that was <i>Total Recall</i>. Even more, how do we know the guard even has nuts? It could be a female, or it could be a race that spawns the next generation out of tears.<br />
<br />
<b>Medium</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>26) </b>With all the bullets being fired again, and the hero band is making their escape after stealing the unprocessed super fuel, to have only one casualty (L3-37) and one flesh wound- Lando's arm, from a band of 8 is better than all the movies to date. But, I still have to track it as a defect, because it isn't good enough, and amidst the firefight, the dynamite of that world was loaded onto a ship that wasn't inspected or guarded without one bit of it exploding. Giving it a medium because of the attempt at improvement in this area. If the next movie has more of this, the severity will be increased.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>27) </b>Plugging L3-37 into the Millennium Falcon to act as its brain, a brain C-3PO must deal with in ESB . . . Very good idea! Excellent! At this rate, with these one off's fixing the mistakes, oversights and overreaches from all of the creative's since the series' inception, I'll actually live to see the revisionism explain away all that embarrasses me when I declare that I am still a fan.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>28)</b> Tie Fighters and Star Destroyers- another good decision. No need to create yet another ship with which fans were unfamiliar. When I see things like X-Wings in RO and Tie Fighters, it makes me think of how cool it is to see 1920s Fords and 1957 Chevies driving down the road.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>29)</b> YT-1300- why no others around? Can we know why it is such a pile of junk? Was there a design flaw like there has been on many automobiles- the brakes don't work, having the heat on while the radio is running causes it to hesitate, not having the gas cap completely secured when the left turn signal is flashing causes it to burst into flames? It would be cool to see another YT-1300 out there.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Severe</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>30)</b> The bad- that the big scary giant creature was even in the Kessel run. Can we just stop that whole business. If you're not sure what else to do, let's stick this monster in here to make the characters have to overcome something. <i>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</i> had a big creature at the beginning and end of the movie, <i>Ghostbusters</i>, or <i>Ghostbusters II</i> had a giant marshmallow man . . . the Castle Crashers video game has you fight a giant boss to advance to each level, who would be no less menacing if given the same powers as the big boss and the same height of its enemies. If I cared to, I could crawl through the thousands of movies and movie sequels and give plenty of other examples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>31) </b>The good- they didn't have a tentacle come from nowhere to latch onto the falcon right when the heroes and audience thought they had gotten past that. That is so old and best left to horror movies</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Medium</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>32)</b> Why can't Dryden Vos be an alien character? Although, his <i>boss</i> is Darth Maul, a human-challenged species, so forgivable in some respects, but how about some interplay on the socioeconomic level the way Jabba treated his Gamorrean Guard and his green-skinned eye candy (before Princess Leia) by allowing each of them to be fed the Rancor monster.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;"><b>33)</b> On the topic of Darth Maul- nice call. Very nice call. Nice to see how many bosses, and overbosses there are. Of course, we can tell, despite it being a hologram that it isn't the Darth Maul from TPM. We'll get over it- it's Darth friggin' Maul!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;">Also- we see Han's dice, that made infrequent appearances throughout the films, Lando's mask from ROTJ; there is the hologram chess table, a reference to Bossk, and Mandalorian/Fett looking armor in the background of Vos' office.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;"><b>34)</b> Beyond all that above there is an allusion to Jabba (the job on Tatooine), which it is clear, would be the major story for the sequel so that more uber-fans can bitch about how that movie will check all the boxes. On that point, would I ever steer you wrong? This reference to Jabba is about as ominous as the card of the Joker that is handed to Batman at the end of "Batman Begins".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;">Disney- big mistake to decide that there doesn't need to be another <i>Solo</i> movie. The movie was good. Just because it didn't shatter box office records is no reason to not have a sequel to this prequel. Whether we have <i>Star Wars</i> fatigue, or a vocal minority of fans are boycotting <i>Star Wars</i> until you get your collective shit together, aren't good reasons to quit. Stall the franchise for a while. Bring out episode IX in 2020, after you've hired me to fix what your creatives are going to eff-up. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; text-indent: -24px;">The <i>Star Wars</i> DNA is dripping from my fingers, my brain and my imagination. Where can I send my resume?</span><br />
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<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-35495446805198961052018-08-04T15:07:00.001-05:002019-09-08T17:51:56.968-05:00. . . ROTJ<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's wrong with:</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>STAR WARS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>The Return of the Jedi</u></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><br /></u></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>1)</b> Shocking. 4 <b>bad</b> <i>white</i> guys fly Vader's shuttle to the Death Star conducted into the landing spot by 4 other <b>bad</b> <i>white</i> guys checking a clearance code. Bad guys could only be white, in 1983 and 2017. Not giving this a defect for retroactive legacy use of white guys to be evil just because 34 years later, those running the "Disney years" of this franchise still haven't figured it out.<br />
<br />
<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>2)</b> A little short-staffed at Jabba's palace. 2 droids feel the resistance of a security guard the size of a light bulb attached to a rod the length of a cane and get 40 yards into the dirt hallway before they're greeted by Bib Fortuna who probably deserved a promotion to General Hux's position years ago.<br />
Similar to the "Falcon parking so closely to the super-fuel" argument from <i>Solo</i> . . . if I'm Jabba the Hutt and Han Solo cost me that much money, both initially for dropping his cargo at the first sight of the Empire, and I've had to pay multiple bounty hunters, including Greedo and Boba Fett to name just a couple . . . why, once I have finally obtained Solo in carbonite, would I retain a skeleton crew security detail? This would be like Captain Ahab splitting one harpoon amongst two whalers on a sea voyage to kill the white whale Moby Dick.<br />
And, and, aaaaaand, why, once I have seen that two droids, and Princess Leia, dressed as a bounty hunter, traipse right into within feet of me, as overlord of that part of the universe, or at least the planet, wouldn't I employ more security to guard such a valuable possession? Plus, R2 played the hologram message of Luke, advertising himself as a Jedi, and claiming friendship with Captain Solo; why would I ignore the warning given me by an adversary? Why wouldn't I make it 1/10th more difficult for a Jedi to rescue his friend as it was for 8 guys to save Private Ryan?<br />
When Luke tried the mind control, Jabba claimed bullshit. Huh. It seems like that should have worked.<br />
<br />
<b>3) </b>Once we see Jabba for the first time after 2 films of waiting, it was well worth the wait. This further accentuates how horrible a decision it was to videoshop him into a pre-escape Mos Eisley scene and treat him like a child who has asked for a PS4 the last two years without result. FYI- not aware of a droid in the <i>Star Wars </i>cannon named PS-4. But, that ain't a bad cross-marketing opportunity.<br />
<br />
<b>4) </b>Salacious Crumb is a fitting sidekick. That laughing little gremlin would be a Porg's worst nightmare.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>5) </b>The special edition lengthened version of the song is a little much.<br />
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<b>6)</b> Boba Fett is working, on at least a menage, with a couple of ladies. This was his last chance to get some alien booty before his coming death. #sad. Also, I'm surprised Lando, the supposedly closet pansexual (thinking of the <i>Solo</i> criticism) isn't jealous . . . of the ladies. Boba Fett, in Mandalorian armor, is quite a catch.<br />
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<b>7) </b>The negotiation between Leia dressed as a bounty hunter and Jabba over the price she's willing to accept for turning over the Wookie, is more in line with how someone as notorious as Jabba would handle things. Leia gets $15k more by threatening to use a thermal detonator; Han used charm in <i>Star Wars, </i>to buy time from Jabba in the Star Wars special edition. Maybe this <i>pan</i>sexual thing is a <i>pan</i>demic and Jabba was bitten by it, maybe <i>actually</i> bitten by it, maybe by one of his slave girls. Dude is into some kinky stuff- slave costumes and chains. Just sayin'.</div>
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<br />
<b>8) </b>Hey, where did Luke and crew park their ships? Right next to Jabba's palace. Hell no, they made it slightly less difficult to get to Jabba's palace as it is to find a spot within hiking distance of the Home Depot. If Luke were a handicapped, pregnant veteran, he could get mighty lucky and not have to haul paint and weed killer back to his X-Wing. Instead, he has to listen to 3PO bitch about his chores.<br />
<b>Note:</b> This one is a complement. The creatives thought it might make more sense to have the heroes park at a distance from their objective that would not arouse suspicion. Never mind that there isn't anyone on Jabba's payroll around to be suspicious- see #2.<br />
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<b>Medium</b></div>
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<b>9) </b>Again with putting Han and Chewie in the same cell? Is there some gene in this a long time ago galaxy far far away that precludes the characters from constructing multiple cells, that aren't right next to each other? Is the metal, rock or stucco used to construct them too rare, or cost too much money? Are contractors in such short supply? Are contractors harder to deal with than they are in our world? That is hard to believe.<br />
Han and Chewie were united in a cell in ESB and the crew from <i>Rogue One</i> were held in adjoining cells. I bring up the latter one because of convenience. The Rogue One crew wasn't a thing yet, so the captors had no reason for thinking those outlaws were connected (thinking of the pilot and the three who are in one cell). Still, the three were put into <i>one</i> cell after being captured together. All this is to say, it is a plot convenience. It is a too fortunate event, and just one among many in the series. I do not enjoy the happy accidents of limited confinement options, because it is creative laziness and only serves to advance the story.<br />
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<b>10)</b> It was wise to not show the Rancor the first time someone was dispatched into its clutches. Thankfully, Lucas didn't go back into the special edition ESB and show them roaming free on Dagobah making friends with the creature that tried to swallow R2 whole after the X-Wing landed. Visually, this many years later, Jabba still holds up. However, the Rancor looks like one step beyond the special effects from the 1933 King Kong movie.<br />
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<b>11) </b>Carrie Fischer's abs. Personally, I prefer both the catholic school girl outfit and the librarian look to the slave girl outfit, but I have nothing against smoldering tight hot princesses on a chain.<br />
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<b>12) </b>Enhanced Sarlaac with the Venus flytrap head is an improvement. Makes it less impersonal. I mean that.<br />
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<b>High</b><br />
<b>13)</b> Boba Fett got only another 25 minutes of screen presence in this movie and his only line was a yelp as he fell hopelessly into the pit.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
<b>14) </b>"Pass on what you have learned." "There is another Skywalker." Is Yoda telling him to teach the other Skywalker? And if so, why doesn't he do it? And if Yoda knew that Luke was not their only hope, why wouldn't Obi-Wan, Luke or Yoda have sought out Leia to increase the chances of toppling the Empire? I think Lucas read Joseph Campbell a few too many times.<br />
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<b>High</b> (at least)<br />
<b>15) </b>Did they build a Death Star with about the same flaw as the first one? That a small fighter plane can penetrate the outer defenses to strike a fatal blow into a small window to set off a chain reaction sending the Death Star into a few million pieces is foolish. Here again is the giant evil the heroes must overcome. Man, the empire is compensating for something. After the first one exploded, years prior, maybe touch up on the defense system a bit.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
<b>16)</b> So 1 ship with an old clearance code gets permission to land on Endor and dozens of rebel soldiers are already there? On the far side of the planet you say? The Empire has no shortage of Stormtroopers who can't shoot straight, as long as they can operate a phone they could warn the Emperor et al that Storm troopers who aren't knocked down by a pebble, or who passed sharpshooting school, should be sent. There are Stormtroopers that passed some kind of weapons training, right?<br />
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<b>17)</b> The speeder bike scene is 1/7th the length of the pod race. Enough said.<br />
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<b>Critical</b></div>
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<b>18) </b>Ewoks! I've been told that boys at a certain age when the movie came out either loved or hated the Ewoks. That cut-off was probably about 10 years old. I was 12 when ROTJ came out. I hate those little sonsa bitches.<br />
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<b>High</b><br />
<b>19)</b> The Empire puts maybe 500 troopers of one kind or another on Endor, the planet they used to house the shield generator, and didn't reinforce it after the Emperor learned the rebellion had a plan of how to disable it. Given the noteworthy and comparable decision-making incompetence, Jabba would have made a good slug soldier in the Empire.<br />
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<b>Critical- yeah, I already gave it a critical. I'm giving it another one.</b><br />
<b>20)</b> In retrospect, half the time the Ewoks are on screen, isn't the worst thing I've seen in the history of movies. But the scenes where that little bastard is riding the bike, and where they're tossing rocks and poking sticks at what are supposed to be trained soldiers, its, its . . . unforgivable. Plus, they stole the chant from the wicked witch's guards near the end of <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>.<br />
To this point in the franchise, Lucas had delivered an A- (Star Wars) and an A (The Empire Strikes Back). Until the Ewoks are besting the Stormtroopers, ROTJ was probably at least an A-. I've got only 7 total defects through half the movie before the first midget in a bear costume shows up.<br />
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<b>Holy lord </b>(not really a severity type- I just don't know what to do with this one anymore)<br />
<b>21) </b>Han: "I've got a bad feeling about this" as he's bound hands and feet to a tree limb about to be placed over an open fire. If you don't have a bad feeling, you're still under the effects of carbonite. Maybe Lucas was under the effects of carbonite when he thought this line was something he should include in every film. This line is more overused than "Oh my god, they killed Kenny." from every episode of South Park. At least, I think that line is in every episode of South Park. I wouldn't know, I stopped watching that show in the 90s. Still, Cartman would also make a good Stormtrooper.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>22) </b>Leia tells Luke that somehow she's always known he was her brother. Sophocles would be proud.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>23) </b>The Emperor learned nothing from Tarkin, who, when given the chance to leave the first Death Star, abstained and was obliterated for it. Luke was right, the Emperor's overconfidence was his weakness. When Luke and Vader first enter the throne room, the Emperor commands his guards to leave him. What is it with these bad guys? Never surrounding themselves with enough support, even when it is available, they dismiss it.<br />
Emperor: "An entire legion of my best troops awaits [Luke's pitiful band of friends]."<br />
Seriously? It's as if the Stormtroopers have been shooting blanks since the Clone Wars ended, or the Emperor has never had one meeting with a general who could have told him who to send to Endor, or life in the Empire is a perpetual Halloween where the guys inside those suits have been dressing up every day instead of once a year. I could make a gun right now out of cardboard I can't reach and do more damage than the Emperor's <i>best</i> troops.<br />
Finally, the Empire has enough soldiers per rebel prisoner and the professional soldiers lose to a flock of well-groomed pudgy schnauzers who wear all kinds of things on their heads but have the fashion sense of your average claymation sheep.</div>
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<b>Low</b></div>
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<b>24) </b>When Luke turns the second time and force calls his light saber into his hands, he doesn't time it right. He turns, then a second passes; he extends his arms, which seem damn near close enough just to grab the thing from the Emperor's arm rest, another second passes, and then the light saber jumps to Luke's hands. I thought the same thing when the timing of R2 shooting Luke's light saber to him on the skiff above the Sarlaac was a little off; right when he does his flip, and lands, that weapon has to be in his hand. Whether this defect is due to choreography, film editing, the idea that the Emperor would delay the saber from being obtained by Luke, or R2 miscalculates the trajectory of a metal weapon in desert air, both instances seem clunky.<br />
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<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>25)</b> <i>One</i> Ewok is shown to have probably died in the battle for Endor. Can we see one limping around, one that maybe got the sun in its eyes, something, anything? A sliver? I get that Lucas wanted to sell toys and appeal to kids, but he jumped the god-damned shark here. This was the beginning of the end of his credibility. The first two prequel trilogy movies, TPM and AOTC are campy in the same way that all the Batman movies in the 90s are hard to take seriously. Keaton and Nicholson are great and Michelle Pfeifer's butt-cheeks inside of the leather Cat Woman outfit are nothing to hiss at, but other than that . . . So anyway, seeing more Ewoks die would have been the least you could do for us Lucas.<br />
"Why . . . why" think Nancy Kerrigan's cry after Harding's boyfriend took her out at the knees, couldn't Lucas have gone with having the battle for the Endor shield generator be fought between Wookies and something resembling the guys from Hogan's Heroes.<br />
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<b>Severe</b><br />
<b>26) </b>Looks like I have some kind of theme going here. But the manner in which the Stormtroopers are defeated, by bear midgets beating them with tree limbs, and throwing medium sized boulders at them is even more embarrassing than the troopers in <i>Star Wars</i> that couldn't hit a 7 foot Wookie in a 6 foot hallway with several hundred attempts. The troopers on Endor should try to get onto some kind of world cup soccer team because they are good at looking like they were shot by an elephant gun when they were poked in the shoulder by a twig. Yellow Card!<br />
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<b>High</b><br />
<b>27)</b> So, we went from one of the best villains (Darth Vader) in the history of film (in ESB) because of his menacing strength and omnipresence to a veritable cripple. Luke and Vader fight for maybe two minutes in front of the Emperor. Vader is overwhelmed, falls down and has his hand cut off. ROTJ is only a few months, in real time, after ESB. Luke, Leia, Lando and Chewie weren't looking for Han for years. And the passage of time from the beginning of the movie and the end is, again, maybe a couple days- remember, because Lucas can only tell a story in 2 day intervals every 3 years. How did the most feared villain (along with Hannibal Lecter and Heath Ledger's Joker) in movie history turn into a Cylon (ala Battlestar Galactica) statuesque in the agility department?<br />
This is typical also- a highly anticipated fight scene, cut short. I've referenced a half-dozen battles, at least, in the course of this set of movie reviews that ended very prematurely- Grievous and Kenobi (AOTC), Dooku and Kenobi and Anakin (AOTC), Windu et al v. the Emperor (ROTS), Boba Fett into the Sarlac pit and on and on.<br />
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<b>28) </b>Adding young Anakin as a force ghost back in at the end of the movie isn't the end of the world. We saw that version of Anakin in two movies and his predecessor in another one. We saw the older version of Anakin for three on screen minutes and we had it burned into our memories from 1983 to whenever Lucas re-edited ROTJ. I don't even care to research when that was, given the iterative meddling Lucas has done. Like Neil Page (Steve Martin) complained in <i>Planes, Trains and Automobiles</i>, you people need to "pick and choose." He was referring to Dell Griffith's (John Candy's) anecdotes. I'm referring to fanboy, elitist protectionists of the original versions of the films, especially when the changes are improvements. Nope, I'm not an elitist protectionist, as I've called out as many good things as bad, in 8 other posts on the overall <b>What's Wrong With</b> topic.<br />
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<b>29)</b> Addition of cities and planets enjoying the demise of the Empire with fireworks and celebrations also not a bad inclusion.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
<b>30) </b>Lame Ewok dancing. He made the end of the trilogy seem like the last minute of a news cast where the two anchors, the sports guy and weather lady are all the best of friends about to open a bottle of merlot after reporting on violence, incompetence and degradation of private citizens and elected officials for 22 minutes.</div>
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<b>Deleted scenes:</b></div>
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Vader attempts to communicate with Luke through the galaxy and the latter is in a cave activating his lightsaber, seemingly receiving Vader's interstellar communication and then Luke dispatches 3P0 and R2 to Jabba's lair. They should have left that in. This scene does 2 things:<br />
a) it reveals an attempted communication between a father and son and an initial plotting of Vader to bring Luke in to fight with him against the Emperor, which aligns with what happens at the end of the movie.<br />
b) it shows a Jedi, virtually alone with his thoughts, his father in his head, spending quality time with his weapon, hermited in a cave about to attempt to rescue his friends. What this isn't is a spaceship landing next to a valuable superfuel resource (as in <i>Solo</i>) where attention is drawn, or should be drawn, to a ship given its proximity to what should be a protected area, Jabba's home.<br />
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Scene after Jabba's barge is destroyed and Boba Fett is fed to the Sarlaac, where the heroes have to struggle to get back to their ships amid a sandstorm. The only part of that scene that could have been included, unless there were something else to overcome, besides the storm, was Han and Luke connecting after the successful rescue.<br />
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I had mentioned the whole Battle for Endor was pretty ridiculous, so anything prolonging it would have been foolish. This creative crew seemed ill-equipped to make it more interesting. A skirmish for control of the control room on Endor could have worked, but none of what I saw should have been included in the movie. The Stormtroopers piled up on top of each other as the rebels shot them at will. In the agility department, the troopers reminded me of the mincing steps of the sleestack from <i>Land of the Lost</i>. In fact the sleestack were more menacing with their hissing and alien goonishness, than were the Stormtroopers with loaded blasters and seemingly unlimited ammunition.<br />
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The last deleted scene I saw was about some empire commander's inner turmoil, but the sound was bad and I don't know if he's supposed to be conflicted about blowing up Endor or constipated because he hasn't had enough water.<br />
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<b>CinemaSins:</b><br />
Not sure having to read a prelude, or that Jabba smoking green swamp heroin is a sin. Droids having feeling in their feet is legitimate.<br />
<br />
C-3PO rhetorically asking "what has come over master Luke?" doesn't mean he is too smart not to understand, but he's subordinate to Luke. Underlings can question all kinds of things their superiors decide, in inter-galactic prisoner re-acquisition and how to distribute resources on a project. 3PO can comply and complain at the same time.<br />
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All kinds of appropriate sins with Luke not having his lightsaber, trying to mind trick Jabba in a different language, Luke couldn't possibly know . . .<br />
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The "sin" about Luke not having the inclination to attempt to mind control the Rancor doesn't count. George wasn't able to keep Lennie (from Steinbeck's classic novella "Of Mice and Men") from squeezing the life out of rabbits, puppies or the boss' wife. You can't reason with those without minds or minds that emotionally or morally underdeveloped. It's like trying to plug a USB into a coaxial cable outlet; and that is being kind.<br />
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Reasonable sin- Han just got out of carbon freeze and doesn't object when Luke proposes a plan which involves Lando on their side. The last interaction between Lando and Han is when the latter is double-crossed by the former and frozen in carbonite. Han showing no negative reaction to Lando's name being brought up is a bit of a problem.<br />
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There are all kinds of legitimate issues to be found in the continued reluctant disclosure to Luke, by Obi-Wan and Yoda, about Luke's genesis. Other than to say that subtopic has been a mess dating back to Star Wars when Obi-Wan first brings it up, I'm not interested in enumerating them, but my guess is there are 8-10 things that don't make sense, from phrasing, to timing, to keeping secrets.<br />
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Calls out that the cuteness of Ewoks is the reason Jar Jar exists. I think we covered that topic.<br />
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I missed, but CinemaSins catches that 3PO's programming is inconsistent- that he vacillates between George Washington's "I cannot tell a lie" and Tommy Flanagan-style lying his ass off about being a god.<br />
<br />
Luke is powerful, per Vader and talented with potential, according to the Emperor. We've seen very little evidence of that. The Matrix's Neo, teased us with that kind of untapped potential but he eventually was able to deliver. We don't see Luke's potential/power until shortly before he force-ghosts himself to death in TLJ 34 years after he's given credit for it.<br />
<br />
Many more legitimate CinemaSins for this movie than there were for ESB. The last of which is this Catch-22. Luke must face and defeat or turn Vader, but he might have to be aggressive and violent to do so. Hugging it out won't work. If he gets violent and aggressive, this might insight Vader to defend the Emperor, but he can't beat Vader and the Emperor without "giving in" and being violent enough. So, he either has to stand there and die, or fight and be turned. Somehow though, Luke plays victim enough to force Vader into defending him and killing the Emperor.<br />
I'm still contending that the logic of the final showdown is flawed- Luke's execution is remarkable. And in this way, he kind of achieves what Kirk did in the first Star Trek movie reboot from a few years ago.<br />
Luke takes an impossible situation that his elders on both sides, Vader and the Emperor, as well as Obi-Wan and Yoda, have devised for him. That is the potential and power that all four of his elders have been fostering, concealing and beckoning. Unfortunately, something tells me that I just gave more thought to the enigma I've just described than the franchise's creator did.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-39823817830100581492018-08-31T17:22:00.001-05:002019-09-08T11:05:50.243-05:00. . . TFA<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>What's wrong with:</b></div>
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<b>STAR WARS</b></div>
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<b><u>The Force Awakens</u></b></div>
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Kid Rock rhymes the word "things" with the word "things" in his song "All Summer Long"; </div>
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Adele includes among the lyrics in one of her mega-hit singles ("Send My Love") - "You couldn't handle the <i>hot</i> <i>heat</i> rising"; </div>
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Less contemporary, America's 1971 song, "A Horse with No Name" includes these words- "the <i>heat</i> was <i>hot</i>". Also unfortunate is that Dewey Bunnell sounded like Neil Young. Young's voice is among the most haunting, disgusting, overrated, or disgustingly-overrated sounds in the history of rock and roll;</div>
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John Mellencamp's "Small Town", a song I will never get sick of, never, has some very regettable lyrics- "No, I cannot forget from where it is that I come from." He could have made that line about eleven words shorter. "No, I cannot forget from where I've come." Poetically, rhythmically, it just works better. Because it is a song, you can do almost whatever you want with pitch, tone, pausing, beat, extension, whatever, but that sentence is atrocious. I haven't recorded 20 #1 hits, but I don't have to have from done of from that in order to have from think that.</div>
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Joe Cocker's "You are so Beautiful" has, I think, 17 total words, and it is remarkably simplistic, raw, sensual and indelible.</div>
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The point is, all of these songs have gotten air time over the years because a whole lot of people liked them at one time or another, or radio stations played them so often we came to hate them- I don't really know which. I don't even care enough to research if all of the artists I mention above wrote the songs they are famous for performing, and I'll research almost anything. </div>
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The point is, all of these singers decided to go with it. Bad calls, bad. Rebooting a franchise as popular as Star Wars after 11 years, whether J.J. Abrams had written the film he directed, he went with it, and that too was a bad call. Oh man, on Tatooine (a-friggin'-gain?); ok so not Tatooine, but Jakku, another desert planet (see #31). The hot heat was rising, the heat was hot (and still is considering justifiable criticism). And, just like Mellencamp sang, when you consider the comfortably-derivative, unfortunate, sludge Abrams, a declared Star Wars acolyte, put on film, Abrams "[could not] forget from where it is that [he] came from." </div>
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The defects for TFA, with their severity, as uncovered by an experienced quality analyst and professed <i>Star Wars</i> fan, based on objectivity and in chronological order.</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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<b>1)</b> Was it Luke who left a clue to his whereabouts? If he didn't want to be found, why would he do that? Also, if Leia can sense Luke and Luke can sense Leia, I imagine that gives each of them an inkling into each other's location, kind of like, the find my iphone feature. If he really wanted to stay hidden from everyone excepting his General sister, there wouldn't have needed to be plans about his location to obtain, conceal, hide, brood over, or overrate the importance of.</div>
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<b>Medium</b></div>
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<b>2)</b> Captain Phasma should never have been promoted beyond Private. She's a useless character and there is no reason for her to show up out of nowhere over Finn's right shoulder like she's Batman, Jason Bourne, or the X-Men's Nightcrawler. While force-ghosting has been a thing since ESB, and its recent impactful use in TLJ, could raise the stakes of the whole franchise, I wasn't aware that Captains could use teleportation as a means of travel. Morgan is still my favorite captain and truth be told- Phasma ranks below Captain Caveman on the overall list.</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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<b>3)</b> Rey parks way too far away from the junk dealer and has to strain in that heat to deliver a mass of objects to a scumbag. If she is intelligent enough to be afraid of others seeing that she has a functioning speeder bike, and she doesn't want to park too close because she is concerned someone would steal it, she's wise enough not to bring BB-8 the following day, even if she is unaware of what information he is carrying, as she knows the clientele of this junkyard.</div>
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Also, we're all over the place in this series with where people park their ships. Luke leaves the X-Wing and Millennium Falcon far from Jabba's palace when he probably didn't need to, because Jabba's security detail budget was light in ROTJ. Luke had no way of knowing Jabba spent all his capital on bounty hunters to spend more on guards. Han and Lando are allowed to park too close to the unrefined superfuel mine in Solo. Gah! That's my new, G-rated WTF. Characters exercising their free will, or writers who aren't considering the illogical nature of their character's choices, given the character's intelligence or experience?</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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<b>4)</b> One Storm Trooper (Finn) is able to tell another one that Ren wants to see Poe. Pathetically, this is allowed. Are this generation of Storm Troopers not well-versed in the lore of the horrible decision-making, horrendous marksmanship, and uselessness of the suits they're all wearing? At least in a half-dozen other scenes, some security code clearance is required.</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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<b>5)</b> When Finn and Poe have stolen the Tie Fighter and are out of the Star Destroyer, Poe tells Finn they have to take out as many guns as possible. Why? With the speed and/or the maneuverability of the Tie Fighter, which Poe had already commented on, they would have been well out of range, or would have been well out of range considering the skillset of those firing at them. Poe waited so long to flee, that weapons that weren't prepared to fire at them initially were recharged, and now could. That is the reason they are hit, causing damage to the ship, which Finn assumes has cost Poe his life. Finn "steals" Finn's jacket according to BB-8, which later, the little droid communicates to Rey. So that one horrible scene/terrible decision that no one with that much at risk would make, sets the rest of the movie in motion all the way to at least Moz's bar. And for what? All of the same things could have happened if Poe and Finn had just survived a firefight with ten Tie Fighters sent after the one that was stolen. And why weren't there any Tie Fighters immediately dispatched to chase them down?</div>
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I haven't watched Amazing Race for a reason. If <i>Star Wars</i> were <i>The Amazing Race</i>, the Empire and the First Order would always be eliminated in the first episode.</div>
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<b>6) </b>"I can do this," spoken by both Finn and Rey independently and successively in the Falcon. I was thinking that they were both hopeful of their abilities within the movie, and on another level, outside of it, as actors thinking of the big shoes they had to fill as the next generation of <i>Star Wars</i> characters. I watched this movie twice in the theater. The first time I was conscious of judging the believability of the actors in portraying people a long time ago in a galaxy far away. The second time I paid more attention to the story, which meant I thought enough of their performances to focus on something else. One step forward, two steps back. The story thievery from the original is a bigger problem than the good that comes out of actors who are capable of playing their roles.<br />
I think of Abrams, crafting the script, and by crafting, I mean, stealing the story, and I think about it never occurring to him that he should do this. Goldblum's J<i>urassic Park</i> line is appropriate- "[he was] so preoccupied with whether or not [he] could that [he] didn't stop to think if [he] should."</div>
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<b>Severe</b></div>
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<b>7)</b> Rey may be force sensitive, but how does that qualify her to fly a ship she'd never seen (the Millennium Falcon) so well that she could best the terrain, the tight confines, all the buttons and levers, defeating what had to have been 4 trained Tie Fighter pilots, or for what passes as a trained anything in the Empire/First Order. Here's an idea, have her crash the Falcon and have her use her resourcefulness and strength to evade the pilots until coming up with a more believable escape. She uses the shadow of something to trick the pilots, scares up a bunch of creatures with wings, something that makes us consider her worthy because of the talents of her pursuers, not because she capitalizes on their incompetence.</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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<b>8) </b>If the location of Luke Skywalker were such an important piece of information, why did it seem like the First Order only started re-looking for BB-8 after Poe and Finn crashed on Jakku, and why did the First Order only send fewer than 20 Tie Fighters, and no more than 20 ground troops to look for the droid said to be carrying the plans?</div>
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<b>Critical- yeah, damnit!</b></div>
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<b>9)</b> Han, again has a bad feeling about something. Me too. I feel like a deranged, merciless, tentacled, rampaging, disgusting, slobbering creature you seem to have recently captured, loose in your ship should evoke a little more emotion than when a coat rack drop the raincoat it had been holding for a guest about to leave for the night. Tiresome. When Hitchcock did, or Stan Lee still does, show up in the movies they've directed or produced, it at least is inventive or subtle. This line is like the dog turd you step on in the morning after you forgot to pick it up the night before it rained.</div>
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<b>Severe</b></div>
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<b>10) </b>The slobbering creatures, devour, impale, or dismember every other human en route to traveling all the hallways of Han and Chewie's cargo ship, until one of them gets to Finn. There, the <i>thinking</i> beast, holds him hostage, or otherwise cradles him nicely, allowing Rey to take the gamble of closing a door which separates the creatures body from some of its tentacles. Lucky. Where is C-3PO to tell us the odds? He would have been busy; see #s 20-25.</div>
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<b>11)</b> In the original trilogy, Chewie never would have been hit in a firefight. Kudos.</div>
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<b>12)</b> Han and Chewie bring in the humor and they make this movie worth seeing.</div>
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<b>13)</b> Shout out to CinemaSins- Finn's first battle is when he was 25-30 years old? The First Order waited for 25-30 years to engage a soldier in a battle where it might be necessary for him to fire his weapon? He doesn't hit anything, but still, that is what makes him a real Storm Trooper.</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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<b>14)</b> When Kylo Ren captures Rey, why wouldn't he just kill her? People would wonder what kind of a movie, or a trilogy, would there be without her. What kind of a movie do you have with her? Hundreds and hundreds of stories have been written and/or filmed where the two main characters chase each other for the whole movie (<i>Les Miserables, The Bourne Identity, The Fugitive, Beverly Hills Cop, Silence of the Lambs</i>) and either rarely meet or interact, or when they do, each character is adept at handling themselves so that the viewer would never need to ask this question.</div>
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<b>Low</b></div>
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<b>15)</b> Finn was carrying a blaster running through the battlefield toward Ren's ship as Ren is loading Rey into it. He had already complained twice about there not being a blaster available; when he finally has one he tosses it aside.</div>
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<b>High</b></div>
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<b>16) </b>Leia shows up helpless. The Leia the audience remembers would never have stayed back to let a man retrieve her son. She is too willful, adventurous and strong to stay back. I think its great that the young hero, Rey, is a woman. She's strong, smart and resourceful. Unfortunately, they turned Leia, (or Carrie Fisher did due to drug and alcohol abuse) into a zombie. The creatives behind this trilogy reboot decided to copy major story points from the movie that started it all (more on that below), but changed something very integral- a confident, powerful, emboldened woman as its base. Rey isn't that yet.</div>
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Say what you will, Princess Leia was the foundation of the original. Obi-Wan was a hermit, Luke a farmboy, Han, a selfish drifter. Leia was a princess in a militarized era, bred to lead, make decisions and take control. We see very little of that in TFA. While so much of TFA seemed too familiar, a fair criticism is to hold them accountable for one of the relatively few things they changed. I get it, she's over 60 and her soul seemed to be fueling her body with fumes (much like the plot of TLJ). I guess I would have wanted to know how much the person, of Carrie Fisher, had left to fuel the energy of Princess Leia. </div>
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I made this observation way back in my review of TLJ- that the inclusion of women was, and still is, a needed improvement for the franchise. While Rey is a strong and resourceful woman who doesn't need to have her hand held while running in the desert, or be asked if she is ok, Leia is weak and docile. This reminded me of the criticism of the dichotomy between the two Indian tribes in <i>Dances with Wolves.</i> The Sioux, the protagonist tribe, are represented as reasonable, more tame and kind-hearted, while another tribe, the Pawnee, are shown to be a cliche-riden Indian nation- howling, threatening, bloodthirsty scalpers.<br />
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<b>Severe (very close to making this a Critical defect)</b><br />
<b>17) </b>Rey is guarded by one Storm Trooper. One. One. A prisoner that the leaders of the First Order have discussed as having force powers has <i>one</i> guard. Given Snoke's age, isn't it implied that experience comes with that? No one in a leadership position has ever heard about, discussed, or encountered, a Jedi's potential ability to influence or coerce the weak minded?<br />
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<b>18) </b>Haven't mentioned yet- BB-8 pretty cool. R2 the original, still the best, but at least with this new guy, he's seen rolling around the terrain and negotiating his way down the stairs. In theory, R2 beat Captain Phasma to the whole teleportation ability, he would have had to to get around some of the geography in the <i>Star Wars</i> universe.<br />
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<b>High</b><br />
<b>19)</b> There are a lot of humans, and very very few aliens, standing around making high level decisions. Another reminder- this is a defect because of how deliberate Disney thinks they have been about placing minorities into these movies. This is a chronic defect. I'm almost tired of it, which is maybe why it only gets a High. I'm like an NBA official in the 90s trying to referee a Knicks v. Heat game, they would have worn out their whistles if they had called every foul.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>20) </b>There are five feet of separation between Rey and Ren during their dark snowy battle. What are the odds that the crack in the planet's surface separates them? Pretty steep, let's get back to this theme.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>21)</b> Let's get back to it now- they happen to find Phasma in the StarKiller base . . .<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>22)</b> Characters are talking to each other in light speed. The difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound is quite vast. The speed of light is faster, by a wide margin. I think I first mentioned this in the review of <i>Rogue One</i>.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>23)</b> The Falcon almost falls over the cliff and stops just short.<br />
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<b>Low</b><br />
<b>24)</b> Han and Finn happen to be in the right spot to see Rey climbing just when they're looking for her.<br />
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<b>High</b><br />
<b>25) </b>When Rey and Finn are scrambling around looking for a ship<b>, </b>the Tie Fighter pilots blow up a ship 1/3 the size of the Falcon, but the Falcon has kharma on its side so the pilots can't hit it? What else does it have on its side? Like every other ship in the universe it doesn't require keys or an ignition system that takes more than a finger to ignite. If something were <i>mine</i>, I'd build a fence, put a lock on something, have a guard. Perhaps people in this universe are too trusting.<br />
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<b>CRITICAL!!!</b><br />
I think of the beginning of a Tale of Two Cities- "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity."<br />
<br />
We have a Star Wars movie, after eleven more years of waiting, we have the same Star Wars movie as we had 38 years ago, the director made some positive choices, and he made some horrible decisions, I am wired to enjoy this because of my Star Wars DNA, but I'm incredulous.<br />
<br />
When one adds up all that crap from numbers 20-25, you just can't believe it.<br />
<b>(Imagine the reserved tones of Obi-Wan transporting you into the spirit world):</b> <i>Guys . . . guys, guys, you can make a good movie if you use your imagination; it is easier to control than the force. There is another . . . way to do this. You can make a good movie without copying everything you liked about the original, and without introducing story points that defy scientific or metaphysical laws, or the laws of reason, without distorting time, or turning living things into creatures without motivations, memories, or instincts.</i><br />
<br />
<b>High</b><br />
<b>25) </b>Ren bests Finn in a lightsaber duel, but not by much. And when Ren prevails, any normal bad guy, considering the stakes, would have killed Finn. I'm not sure Abrams exhibited enough foresight for this to be explained away by Ren's supposed internal conflict.<br />
<br />
<b>High</b><br />
<b>26)</b> Rey closes her eyes for way too long to cull the latent force she uses to contend with Ren. Again, I have to say, we would respect the heroes accomplishments even more, if the villains they fight were worthy. I think Ren is quite worthy, but I don't like the treatment here of a character closing her eyes for that long without losing her position, or her wherewithal. This isn't Daniel Laruso in the crane position before kicking Johnny in the face. Johnny is a bully, but Ren is an assassin with a weapon that cuts people in half. The guy stopped a laser blast in mid air in the first five minutes of the film. I'll grant, there is a difference between the metaphysical ability to stop a bullet in flight and having the agility to defeat a foe in hand to hand combat, but I don't get the impression the writer/director/creatives/producers think enough about these character's mental and physical machinations to reconcile this type of defect. Obviously, I do.<br />
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<b>Medium</b><br />
<b>27) </b>Chewie happened to know where Rey was? Did he put a homing beacon on her before they parted? Is he using the find my iphone function? Are Rey and Chewie sister and brother? See #1.<br />
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<b>High</b><br />
<b>28)</b> Leia and Chewie walk right by each other. Leia just lost the love of her life and Chewie lost his best friend. Both had been fighting for the same cause, not just then, but for 30 years previously. Seems like some writer or director is going to have to clean this up by filming a flashback scene where Leia and Chewie quarreled about who got to spend more time with Han. Abrams actually admitted this was a mistake, which is rare because defiance and stubbornness in the face of fair criticism have been the director's normal approach. Having Leia and Rey, two women who had never met, embrace when someone who barely links them (Han, who Rey had met earlier that day) has been killed by his own son, the son of the woman Rey embraces, who I'm guessing, has met Chewie a few times.<br />
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<b>High (I can't bring myself to re-watch the movie to determine if the First Order knew of the general location by having seen the rest of the map. Luke's location is evident because of the missing piece, not secret because the overall map is incomplete.)</b><br />
<b>29) </b>The map is completed. Did the First Order see the bulk of the map? Once the map is completed, which is the crux of the whole movie, I'm alarmed that the First Order doesn't have enough ships, scouts, troopers to search in the narrow plotted galaxy BB-8 slides into place. Ren could have spent a couple weeks looking for him in that part of the galaxy and had just as good an opportunity of finding Luke's location without the missing map piece.<br />
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<b>30) </b>Mr. Harrison Ford- happy now. They killed you off so you don't need to be in any more of these; you ungrateful ass! Now, go make another Indiana Jones movie so you can survive a nuclear blast inside of a refrigerator.<br />
<br />
<b>Critical</b><br />
<b>31)</b> Really, Really- secret plans hidden inside of a droid who travels to a desert planet and finds a Jedi, or Jedi to be, who in turn finds a drifter and an emaciated grizzly bear with opposable thumbs, who then go to an intergalactic watering hole and you all wind up destroying a gigantic super weapon that can blow planets into a zillion pieces. At the end you find a Jedi master, Luke, who like Ben (who you found at the beginning of the original), is hiding from the troubles he could not prevent.<br />
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Abrams, you had carte blanche, according to you, to deliver a movie and you chose to do the same exact thing that had been done almost 40 years earlier. Not so beautiful, closed circuit to Joe Cocker.<br />
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Songwriters can have a difficult time: rhyming words unless those words are rhymed with themselves, avoiding the use of too many useless words (this blog is proof of the critical equivalent), or using words that don't really make any sense when combined. If you're writing a song or the script to a movie, hold onto the good ideas until you can come up with more good ideas to link them together, without stealing someone else's material or being completely redundant- a definite no-no if you're a stand-up comedian, but less frowned upon, say, if you're Vanilla Ice, or Kid Rock (who used the beats of both "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Werewolves of London") in "All Summer Long".<br />
<br />
There are dead animals with more music knowledge and more music talent than I have, but in a movie, overusing the hook is a problem. I'd wager that overusing the hook in music is a problem which 90% of the songs recorded these days have, but the public are too entranced by the beat to break free. We're definitely not looking for wholesale repetition in our movies.<br />
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That's it, for now. . . . my next topic, two months after the World Cup of soccer ended will be a little more timely than reviewing all the iterations of a movie franchise going on year 42.<br />
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That's a lot of defects this QA has found during functional testing, regression testing, in requirements, etc. Seriously, Rian Johnson is to direct another trilogy and Abrams has another coming out to complete this trilogy. If I'm Disney, I put a hiring freeze on the creative group, hope there is an out on contracts they've signed with those writer-directors. Like NFL contracts, perhaps a certain percentage of the money isn't guaranteed; if we continue on this path the one thing I can guarantee is more of the same types of defects.<br />
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I'm available for hire. I have bled Star Wars; let me infuse the franchise with the creative and reasonable force of a practical idealist who wants people to continue to take these movies seriously.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-69482480242731314502018-11-03T07:58:00.001-05:002019-09-08T09:39:27.314-05:00Soccer's proposed rule changes . . . <div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">What's wrong with:</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>WORLD CUP SOCCER</u></b></div>
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The summer of 2018 featured the <i>men's </i>World Cup soccer tournament. When all the time spent watching pieces of 15 games is combined, I watched 6-8 games; that's an estimated 14-16 hours, but given how horrible the soccer underworld is at tracking time (see below)- no one paying attention really cares about any of that. I can now be <i>specific</i> about elements of the game which only <i>generally</i> bugged me before. If someone were to take my lifetime soccer achievements into consideration and measure them against the legitimacy of my complaints below, I would come out as pretty under-qualified to write about soccer; David Hume would be supremely underwhelmed with designating me a "True Judge".<br />
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But since the issues which plague the sport are so undeniably repugnant, and anyone paying attention, and not stubbornly protective, should have wondered about the sport's improvements, with as much detail as I have, long before now, I'm going to launch a scathing attack anyway. Someone has got to do it. I'm a giver. Hume waited until after his death to have his friend publish his most scandalous thoughts about religion; I'm throwing caution to the wind, and risking my life, to bring the soccer mafia to justice.<br />
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Ask those weaned on the sport under consideration to identify something, anything, that they would change if provided the opportunity. If there isn't one rule change that person would make, one thing they would do to improve their sport, the conversation is over, because they're afraid of what happens if that conversation continues. I borrowed a George Will line there which he used in reference to campaign finance reform.<br />
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I've discussed the below considerations and complaints, and proposed improvements, with <i>well-rounded</i> sports fans who have been paying attention to sports their whole lives, some that even enjoy soccer, enjoy watching soccer, have played it competitively, and who don't think soccer should be banned in the contiguous U.S. Those conversations seemed to me a bit like the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and Elaine set up dating rules. Jerry tells George about them at the coffee shop, and George is impressed by the rules under which Jerry and Elaine are operating.<br />
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Yes, I'm comparing myself to Seinfeld. Deal with it! The sports fans were generally not opposed to the improvement ideas. We know that Jerry and Elaine's romantic relationship went completely to hell because they were both insecure, neurotic, narcissistic, colossal pains in the ass . . . those who know me would not think that comparison to Seinfeld is out of line. Sonsabitches.<br />
<br />
Soccer has a 2,000 year history. In that time, perhaps those running the sport have, they feel, suitably refined it, and that is the justification for the lack of rules changes. That was the same intent I had in reviewing all the <u>Star Wars</u> movies- to refine many of the aspects of how those movies are written, directed and filmed. What that means for soccer is that I care about how much the sport could mean to more people more consistently. My daughter loves the sport, so I am really only wasting my time because of her. If I come out with a diatribe about "What's Wrong with the Family Feud," or "What's up with Slinkies lately", forget that part about me only doing investigations about things I care about enough to fix. The stewards of these pastimes (iconic, cinematic multi-generational space epics and itinerant, quadrennial, gravity-laden centuries-old athletic contests) are failing; I am supra-qualified enough to put them back on track.<br />
<br />
Here is an example of an article, much like this one, where the writer is justifying rules changes, in this example strictly devoted to the NBA's 3-point line and how easy it is to hit that shot. It is too easy to make that shot in both college and the NBA: <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26633540/the-nba-obsessed-3s-let-fix-thing" target="_blank">Too many 3s in the NBA</a>. <b>Note</b>: the NCAA just moved the 3-point line back following the 2018-2019 season to make it more difficult to make, because it was ridiculously easy. The point again is that sports make changes that make sense and the governing bodies don't dig their heels in.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<b>General Disagreement, Comparisons to other Sports, </b></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<b>Ratings and Big Picture</b></h3>
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Some are going to say- "soccer is the most popular sport in the world; I think it's doing ok without your 'help' you cheeky bastard!" Apparently, I am envisioning an exclusively British challenge to my <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>exposé</i></span></span>. Sure, and back when the Iphone was the only hand-held computer in town, Apple kept churning out "enhancements" every year to siphon money from the world's consumers. Apple actually had less to improve than soccer has; since there are actually more fans of soccer in the world, than of the Iphone, soccer stands to gain more by evolving.<br />
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Football (American football) is the most popular game in the U.S. The NFL's version of an all-star game, or a soccer friendly, the Pro Bowl, gets better ratings than the average playoff basketball games, see <a href="https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2018/01/pro-bowl-ratings-highest-four-years/" target="_blank">Pro-Bowl ratings</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sports-media-harvey-20180530-story.html" target="_blank">NBA playoff ratings</a> respectively. I've been hearing about how popular the sport of soccer is going to be in this country for two generations. With only so much time, and only so much money, in the average family's coffers to spend on entertainment, making a sport so far off from football, in the U.S.A., in terms of popularity, should be something soccer people care about. Soccer is a sport played in the fall in middle school, high school and college levels. Given that schedule, it is competing with football at every level. Soccer fans could question the logic- "why would I care about the overall popularity of a sport I love?" Well, assuming that fan cares to defend the sport they love against the logic of those who don't, they're going to have a rough time of it.<br />
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The natural brood chart of the periodical cicada requires it to make an appearance every 17 years. Similarly, the men's World Cup soccer event (every 4 years) also makes a <i>periodic </i>appearance. The species is lucky we don't see it more frequently, or its presence, would be considered an infestation . . . soccer, not the cicada. Fortunately, the relatively infrequent nuisances are relatively harmless, aimless fliers, don't bite or breed indoors . . . the cicada, not soccer. Although that description is just as applicable to soccer fandom within the United States. At worst, the pests leave their exoskeletons on trees, the males attempt to attract mates with a loud buzzing sound, or excessive diving into the grass, live for about a month . . . the cicada, . . . <i>and</i> world cup soccer.<br />
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<i>Additional information about ratings- see Appendix at the end of this post. I don't want to destroy the "momentum" I've created with the first four paragraphs above. Soccer fans- <b>momentum </b>is something that exists in sports with ebbs and flows, where the anticipation is palpable, the scores are real, and the results are decisive. What's that, there are nine paragraphs which precede this one? Well, five of those were off-sides; all that expectation, mirth, targeted opportunity and joy would have been erased if this diatribe were a soccer game. Now, I bet the reader is exasperated and frustrated. They just wasted all of that time reading nine paragraphs, when only four counted. See #6 below. No one who loves soccer should be complaining about the length of this article. In fact, it is soccer fans I should have been courting, as potential readers, all along. You have the patience for nonsense, and an ability to appreciate that nothing much of interest happens over a long period of time to stick with me.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Despite the NFL's popularity, those in charge <i>annually </i>make rule changes which address time-management, injury and competition concerns to make the game better for its players and its fans. Those rule changes don't always work, hence why competition committees in those other sports keep changing the rules. I should point out however, that the other major sports (hockey, baseball, football, basketball) have not been around for 2000 years and are much more complicated games, by and large. For soccer's most substantial rule changes the last fifty years, see <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/soccer/recent-rule-changes-that-have-had-an-impact-on-football-859333.html">Soccer's recent rule changes</a>:<br />
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a) vanishing spray on the pitch to keep players from encroaching on free-kicks,<br />
b) using technology to determine whether the ball has crossed the goal-line,<br />
c) soccer's version of instant replay,<br />
d) yellow and red cards for managers/coaches who misbehave and<br />
e) diving bans.<br />
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In chronological order, the significance of these improvements-<br />
a) meh.<br />
b) necessary, but like adding a parking spot for food order pickups so restaurants can compete with Chili's or Applebees, who have both had the pick up option for years.<br />
c) hallelujah can you apply it to e)?<br />
d) hallelujah can you apply it to e)?<br />
e) hallelujah can you apply it to . . . huh, hmm, to itself?<br />
back to b) for a second- can you apply it- <i>technology</i> to solve- e)?<br />
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The next guy will state- "getting the distinct governing bodies in soccer, across leagues, countries, genders, age-groups, etc. to agree on anything akin to the meaningful, progressive, and sensible amendments that, in your opinion, would improve the game, is highly inconceivable, and you sir, are a moron."<br />
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The rebuttal- start somewhere. Introduce the below improvements in pre-seasons, at the youth level, in high school and college. That approach is called a pilot. If you're telling me that improving the sport of soccer is more difficult than solving any of the problems in the Middle East . . . I don't believe you.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u>Soccer's Historical Rule Changes-</u></b> </div>
good for you soccer!<br />
<br />
Consider that I'm live-Tweeting these responses . . . <a href="https://the18.com/soccer-entertainment/lists/timeline-soccer-rule-changes-evolution-laws">Soccer's Historical rules changes</a><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>1886-</b> the "International Football Association Board (IFAB) met for the first time . . . was originally made up of two representatives each from <b>England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland</b>. A three-quarters majority was required to pass a proposal." This is more than is required to override the president's veto (two-thirds) and as challenging as passing a constitutional amendment. Should passing a soccer rule change be as difficult as passing a constitutional amendment? We've had 27 amendments in 240 years and 12 rules changes in organized soccer in 2000 years. Only the popularity of the "Masked Singer" surprises me less.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>1902-</b> FIFA established in Paris (<b>France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland</b>). And all hell broke loose. Note how the list of countries in IFAB are mutually exclusive from those in FIFA. I'd like to create my own acronym for the resulting agency, frustrated by wanting to improve any elements of the sport that never made, or still don't make, any sense- that acronym- A-FUK.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>1912-</b> "goalkeepers shouldn't be able to handle the ball wherever they like . . . goalies could only use their hands in the 18-yard box." Slightly less noteworthy event of that year- the Titanic sinks. Too bad all members of IFAB and FIFA weren't passengers so we could have cut the roots of soccer rule change impotence.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>1913-</b> FIFA and IFAB combined. My apologies for that Titanic comment. All is well.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>1920-</b> No more offside on throw-ins. How far can you throw that ball? If you can get it from one end of the field to the other end, congratulations, you've quintupled your chances at actually scoring a goal.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>1925-</b> players are still onside if there are two players between a player from the other team and the goal (goalie included) instead of three."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">Apparently nothing of significance between 1938 and 1990 and then . . . </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>1990-</b> "In an <b>attempt to increase scoring</b>, <i>(it took them 65 years to figure this out)</i> FIFA changed the offside rule to allow the offensive player to be onside if he was <b>even </b>with the second-to-last defender (goalie typically being the last defender . . . [and] denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity became a red-card offense." And FIFA, the soccer syndicate rulers were served with 78,000+ retroactive red cards for denying goal scoring opportunities dating back to the 1920s. What's that? Oh, the rule change was only applicable to players during game action. I see.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>1992- </b>"The last major change . . . prevent[s] goalies from using their hands on deliberately kicked passes from their teammates." The last <i>major </i>change was almost thirty years ago? At that point, Susan Lucci had only been nominated for 13 Emmys. <u>Who Framed Roger Rabbit</u> was still an enigmatic well-respected movie. Ok, that was never true. Thought I'd catch you sleeping with that one, like the goalies who think they can relax once the save-quota has been reached. The save quota = 4 combined saves by the two goalies in the same game.</span><br />
<br />
Without more prelude, here are changes I would propose:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">1- Kickbacks to the goalie</span></b></div>
Starting off with an easy one. This isn't about giving the goalie money for showing up to play wearing a car dealership advertisement on his chest. Allowing players to kick the ball back to the goalie to waste time, or relieve pressure the offense is putting on the defense is a rule that should be modified.<br />
<br />
Basketball provides for illegal defense and delay of game <i>warnings</i>. When a member of the team who has just scored a basket catches the ball after it has passed through the net and keeps it from being possessed by the team that was just playing defense is one example of delaying the game. The idea is that the team that just scored wants to inhale and exhale a couple times to better prepare to play defense.<br />
<br />
There is no reason for any member of the team that has just scored to handle the ball unless, in the eyes of an impartial official, that player is aiding in getting the ball to the team wishing to put it back into play more quickly. Basketball should change the rules, and instantly assess technical fouls to anyone preventing a ball from being put back in play. Sending an offending player to the bench for 2 minutes, like a hockey penalty, but allowing a substitution for that offending player, unlike hockey, would strongly discourage recidivism. To warn adults for something they should have been cautioned not to do since they were 2 is maddening. If a 3-year-old throws a handful of peas on the floor, there are no more warnings, no more peas, no desert, no more television, and plenty of time spent staring into a corner, or watching a men's world cup soccer game- pick your poison.<br />
<br />
Rewarding failure and negligence, or ignoring noncompliance, for actions that are inherently unnecessary, with more chances and warnings is something that pouty 2nd-graders can expect (because of the coddling age we live in); we're talking about inter-continental and/or professional sports, "adults", world-class athletes, and often, galactic boobs. The idea that I would spend two paragraphs chastising a sport I like well more than soccer (basketball) is a warning that someone can be fair and open-minded. Soccer's faults are real, inescapable and fixable.<br />
<br />
The rule change in soccer would be to either eliminate goalie kickbacks, or allow each team to kick the ball back to their own goalie once a half, or once a game. Any more than that, even if the team is determined to do it in a way that makes it look like they did it accidentally, should result in a player from the offending team being removed from the field for 2 minutes, or a time commensurate with the infraction from the standpoint of actually making the offending team suffer by allowing its opponent potentially additional scoring chances. This is just like hockey's 2 minute minor penalty, where we see the chances for scoring increase with fewer players on the playing surface. See the end of #3 below.<br />
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Allowing a team to kick the ball back to their own goalie is objectionable for three reasons:<br />
1) it punishes the aggressor, the team making the game more exciting, the team with a potential advantage, else the defensive team wouldn't safely pass the ball back to their own goalie;<br />
2) the team with the lead is wasting time, or<br />
3) the team possessing the ball considers it a badge of honor to retain possession for as long as possible. This game within a game is akin to the technical awards at the Oscars. Since selecting an Oscar winner is entirely <i>subjective</i> rather than held to the standard of who prevailed by scoring at least one more goal than the other team in an allotted amount of time, there is no comparison. Deciding who was the best cinematographer, or the most valuable key grip, is an entirely different matter than who prevailed when the object of the game is to score goals, not see if they can possess the ball long enough to literally take the air out of the ball with a world of people, in theory, watching. Why even play the game if one team's goal is to just be able to keep it away from the other one the whole time. Who wants to watch that? If this is one of the pleasures of your life, hunting for buried cicadas is likely something on your list of things to do this year.<br />
<br />
I'm not for any rule in any <i>sport </i>which penalizes the aggressor, within reason. Basketball just changed a rule to start the 2018-19 season by only resetting the shot clock to 14 seconds (not 24) in the event of an offensive rebound, to allow more possessions, to offer a more competitive experience for the players and fans. Fixing this waste of time can be done soccer- it can be done.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;">The NBA instituted the shot clock in 1954, college hoops in the mid-1980s. I would never advocate the institution of a shot clock in soccer, because reasonable people can concede points where their argument is weak. The reason one team plays keep away in soccer is probably because they are the weaker team offensively and all of soccer's other limitations, ones which I elaborate on below, predispose the outcome of the game to go the way of the stronger team. Prohibiting passing to the goalie is already something that soccer reasonably changed in 1992- <a href="https://www.football-bible.com/soccer-info/football-back-pass-rule.html">https://www.football-bible.com/soccer-info/football-back-pass-rule.html</a>. You see soccer- you did it! And this is why:</span><br />
<br />
"Before football [soccer] had the back pass rule, a team who goes up by a goal could intentionally waste time by keeping the ball in their own half and repeatedly passing it to the goalkeeper."<br />
<br />
"The goalie, in turn, would pick up the ball, hand-dribble it, before passing it back to the nearest defender or kicking it far into the opponent's field. This strategy might be effective for the leading team, but it is a game not worth viewing by spectators."<br />
<br />
The rationale for not allowing any type of pass-backs to the goalies is exactly the same- the team "waste[s] time by keeping the ball in their own half and repeatedly passing it to the goalkeeper . . . and kicking it far into the opponent's field."<br />
<br />
In basketball in the last 10-15 years, at both the college and pro levels, a wider arc has been drawn on the court, beneath the rim, to aid the referee in determining if the player with the ball "charged" or the defensive player "blocked". This improvement of the block v charge rule has made it a more objective call, and less worthy of debate, because you can see whether the defender was sliding into place, and whether the defender's feet were outside of this arc when the offensive player left his feet. I love that rule change, because the defender cannot just park themselves under the rim and wait for the offensive player to run into, or land on, them.<br />
<br />
I call the parking of your body right under the rim waiting for an offensive player to land on you, "the Battier." Shane Battier, a former Duke Blue Devil (a Dukie) from the late 90-ishes to early 2000s, lauded for either his intelligent play, or his defensive indolence around the basket- is a matter of debate. Battier was a good player and a <i>very</i> good defensive player. However, I have no respect for a liberal approach to defense where you just wait for officials to punish a player <i>responsibly</i> attacking the rim. That enhanced wider arc rule improvement didn't fix everything, but it helped- A LOT. Basketball suffers from too little defense played and soccer from too much. Soccer would do well to change a rule or two. The latter sport's defensive effort could stay the same and its offensive output improve. Basketball has no such hope. Prohibiting how many pass-backs to the goalie per game are allowed is the easiest of the rules to change.<br />
<br />
I went all that way talking about rule changes that take a player's proximity to a line on the field, for this- another option on this rule is to only allow pass backs to the goalies (who still can't pick the ball up with their hands) if the goalie is within the 6 yard goalie box (that is the smaller box in the image below) and can only play it with their feet while inside of that box. This makes the goalie and the teammate passing him the ball think twice about the risk of sending a ball closer to their own goal and cuts down on time-wasting. It also incentivizes the attacking team because if the team possessing the ball that deep in its own end wants to risk sending the ball that close to its own goal, it has already done so much of the work for the team on the attack. This in turn causes the attacking team to perhaps pinch even more, dedicating more players to join the attack and perhaps leaves the attacking team more vulnerable for a counter-offensive where the goalie, or a defender possessing the ball, unleashes a long kick the other way down the field to punish the team which had devoted so many players to the attack.<br />
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These are proposed rule changes that aren't devised by a 21st century inclination that suffers from a short attention span- I love reading Victorian novels. This is a patient reckoning where the rule changes I'm proposing for the sport of soccer should have been instituted decades ago. And aside from retaining the sport's sanctity, could relieve it of its sanctimony- admittedly, probably another line rented from George Will, which I had subconsciously appreciated and stored for the right topic.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>2- Running, stoppage and extra time.</b> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
I like the idea of running time when the ball goes out of bounds, when one team is prepping for a corner kick, when the teams make substitutions, etc. In a world where 3 hr. and 15 minute baseball games with 28 seconds between pitches, 10 pitching changes a game and 12 minutes between balls put in play is acceptable, soccer's approach to tracking time, at any level, is a godsend. In theory, soccer games are 90-<b>ish</b> minute games. You could go to a soccer game that starts at 2, tell your mom you will be on time for your uncle's funeral that starts across town at 4:30, and have almost no chance of being late, unless . . .</div>
<br />
. . . a game goes into extra time. Extra time games happen in the World Cup, only in the elimination rounds when there are 16 teams left. The world lost out on 9 games of extra time during the 2018 World Cup because those games, prior to elimination rounds, ended in ties. Teams play for ties (see below) to avoid a loss and sometimes those teams are playing for ties before the game even begins. I didn't know where to put this line given the ellipsis above, but I might rather <i>attend</i> a funeral than <b>pay </b>to watch a soccer game without the rule changes I'm proposing. Sometimes, funerals are more intriguing than soccer games.<br />
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While running time is great, stoppage time is a mess. Stoppage time is the "ish" in the 90-ish minute game. Running time is the combination of chocolate and peanut butter; stoppage time is like eating a raw tuber, or a canned beet- Bleck! If you like beets, you probably love World Cup Soccer. Running time is Blake Lively in "Savages"; stoppage time is Kathy Bates in the hot tub scene of "About Schmidt".<br />
<br />
Someone, a ghost, a god, the head ref, or father time, is mysteriously keeping track of the wasted, er, extra time. Replays can waste a minute of game time; injuries (which I'll get into later) can bleed 1, 2, 5, 7 minutes, or more, of game action. Invisible arbiters of all things objective and fair, deciding that 4 minutes and 12 seconds of mystery should be added to the length of the first half, and that 5 minutes and 6 seconds should be added to the clock at the end of the game, is like Olympic judges giving the Swedish beauty a 9.5 and the Hungarian an 8.5 for the same vault. It isn't unusual for a soccer game to be called off/end at 95:42. What in the hell is that?<br />
<br />
<b>From a 2012-13 FIFA Laws of the Game document- stoppage time has these, I guess you would call them- <i>guidelines</i>:</b><br />
<br />
"Many stoppages in play are entirely natural (e.g. throw-ins, goal kicks). An allowance is to be made only when these delays are excessive."<br />
<br />
"The fourth official <b><span style="color: red;">indicates the <u>minimum</u></span></b> additional time decided by the referee . . ."<br />
<br />
"The announcement of the additional time <span style="color: red;"><b>does not indicate the exact amount of time left in the match.</b> </span>The time may be increased if the referee considers it appropriate but never reduced."<br />
<br />
I wouldn't want the length of any game determined by the educated guesswork of an official, verbally told to players and coaches, the game lengthened because of <b>perceived</b> factors, and tossed onto the same device used to indicate substitutions, that cannot keep time in seconds.<br />
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From having watched the endings of a few world cup games, the amount of stoppage time added to the ends of periods was generally from 4-7 minutes (see 538's more refined tracking results below). Rarely is it less or more than that. If the amount of stoppage time is generally consistent, why not just add an additional 5 1/2 minutes to the end of each half and call it good? Why not add an extra 10 minutes of game time, five for each half, which is represented on the game clock, so that everyone knows exactly when the half or game can be expected to conclude?<br />
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A New York Times article from 2014, gives us the headline- "In Time Warp of Soccer, It Ain't Over Till, Who Knows . . . " Ellipses are great for song lyrics, or leaving the reader hanging during a fine piece of writing, but as the headline to a story about anyone knowing how long a soccer game might go on, after the <b><i>scheduled</i></b> conclusion, well, that is a problem.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/sports/worldcup/stoppage-time-in-the-world-cup-underscores-soccers-strange-rules.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/sports/worldcup/stoppage-time-in-the-world-cup-underscores-soccers-strange-rules.html</a><br />
<br />
Here are some salient points from the article that advance this complaint. Notice the quotations, indicating other people are at odds with the concept; it isn't all about me:<br />
<br />
"Games do not end when a clock expires, but only when the referee decides they are over."<br />
<br />
In a 2014 game "the United States scored to take the lead in the 81st minute of a 90 minute match only to see the advantage slip away when Portugal scored . . . 14 minutes later." [<b>Note:</b> another appropriate use of an ellipsis- to skip information when quoting from a speech or article that contains important snippets of detail, but is otherwise surrounded by needless verbiage.] A fitting use of ellipsis equated to the action of a typical soccer game- Team A scored in the 21st minute . . . they mustered three total shots the entire game . . . Team B scored in the 74th minute on the only shot they took in ninety-eight minutes of a scheduled ninety minute game . . . 17 players faked shin injuries, . . . the game ended in a 1-1 tie . . . participation trophies were handed out to all involved.<br />
<br />
Sorry, those quotes I promised:<br />
". . . no player on the field, no fan in the stands and no announcer on television has any earthly idea as to when the last kick of the ball will come."<br />
<br />
"In the game between the United States and Portugal, the referee added five minutes of extra time to the second half. But 'five minutes' could have been 5 minutes 1 second, or 5:59. Like a power-mad dictator, the referee can set the limits according to his whim."<br />
<br />
". . . referees typically wait until a tame point in the action to declare the game over. Sometimes, though, as in the France-Switzerland match last week, the referee is more abrupt; in that match, the official ended the game just before France scored what would have been its sixth goal."<br />
<br />
" . . . with a billion-plus people watching a sporting event, we should have a system whereby more than one person knows when the game will end."<br />
<br />
<u>ah, hell, just read the article</u><br />
<br />
Strangely, among the first 10 of the 294 comments following the article, the respondents were evenly split on whether they thought not knowing how long the game would last was a problem that needed a solution. Most of the objections to the prospect of Americanizing the game of soccer revolved around comparing it to football or basketball, where endless reviews and commercials ruin the excitement near the end of games. Agreed, those games can be ruined by that. I concede that point.<br />
<br />
However, this seems like a stubborn redirection of the problem. This is like a political candidate running an attack add that calls out his opponent's excessive campaign funds derived from pharmaceutical companies when that hypocritical candidate is taking just as much money from automobile manufacturers. I don't think advocates of knowing how much more time is left in the game reasonably consider turning the last five minutes of a soccer game into a beer advertisement-laden endeavor. The only thing that would change is that the world would acknowledge that regular time has ended and stoppage time has started. If the amount of stoppage time, which I'd propose would still, and always, be calculated by multiple official timekeepers and sanctioned by soccer's governing body, is deemed to have been excessive in the second half, additional, well-communicated (to the coaches, players, fans, and network broadcasting the game), in minutes <i>and</i> <b>seconds</b> should be added to the official scoreboard in the stadium and on the television screen.<br />
<br />
Wouldn't any invested fan want to know how much time their team has to attempt to tie the game, if their team is behind, or how much time a team in the lead has left to hang onto it?<br />
<br />
Unlike most other sports, where blowouts can happen and time <i>can</i> be a factor, with chronic 0-0, 1-0, 1-1 and 2-1 soccer games, time remaining in the game is <i>always</i> something not just the fans, but the players, would want to know. From the article above, the players and coaches don't know how long stoppage time is supposed to last. For a sport that is 2,000 years old and a device, the clock, that was invented in 1656, to be kept apart, is abominable. There is a solution to this problem.<br />
<br />
In the 2018 World Cup round of 16, all 8 games were decided by a goal, 3 of those ended in a shootout. Knowing how much time remains, what kind of chances to take and when to play it safe, should be decisions that both teams have to make rather than allowing neither team to have to make those decisions, or both to decide on an approach based on incomplete information. We should have <i>general</i> instructions when we're choosing how much a pinch of salt is when we're cooking, not when an athletic event is going to end.<br />
<br />
Baseball is largely exempt from time limitations and for that, it is possible, the popularity of the sport has waned. Football, hockey, and basketball all play to the clock, even after regulation time has expired with tie scores. The NFL and college football rules warlords have tinkered with overtime rules for ten years and still haven't gotten it right, so soccer is hardly alone on this topic. The soccer fan's biggest complaint on this issue should <b>NOT </b>be, how much god-damned time is left in this game! And it isn't, because apparently soccer fans don't care- probably not enough to disavow their refined sensibility and concede the stoppage time point. If a soccer fan's goal is to never concede anything is amiss with their sport, congratulations, for you will undoubtedly give up fewer goals than your mother country is likely to score in group play in the next World Cup.<br />
<br />
How inaccurate is stoppage time? Click the link to this June 27, 2018 (about the 2018 World Cup) FiveThirtyEight story to find out:<br />
<a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/world-cup-stoppage-time-is-wildly-inaccurate/">https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/world-cup-stoppage-time-is-wildly-inaccurate/</a><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arnhempro" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arnhempro" , "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Actual stoppage time is a wildly inaccurate measure of how long the game was actually stopped. The average added time flashed on the board for these 32 [World Cup] games was 6:59, which includes both halves. By our calculations — which adhered to FIFA’s rules on the matter — the time that should have been added to each game was 13:10. This means stoppage time was roughly half of what it should have been for most games."</span></div>
<br />
Per below, just half of those calculations, using FIFA's own rules for stoppage time. Note the DIFF. column on the far right. The referees always added less time to the games, never more.<br />
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Does the impact of the reduced stoppage time added to the ends of games matter? Read the last two paragraphs of FiveThirtyEight's article . . . the answer is yes . . .<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">3 - Ties</span></b></div>
This isn't about the piece of cloth that wraps around a man's neck. For that many combatants to take a field, court, or arena to sweat, bleed, fight, scrap and strain so that the result is they are equals after 90 minutes, or more, is un-American. The sport is international, so we're probably screwed; fixing this will be more difficult than getting 60% of United Nations countries to agree on anything, other than that Trump is a moron.<br />
<br />
Ties are the Ewoks of sports. Yep, ties suck.<br />
<br />
Neither team involved in a tie game should feel fulfilled, but somehow I would expect they feel as if they have accomplished a great deal by not winning or losing; and just like father's on christmas morning, no one watching a sport for the sheer passion and excitement, really wants a tie. The only people who like ties are parents and grandparents who either never were competitive, or who lost that edge prior to having grand kids. We shouldn't be conditioned to accept ties, not just when it is possible, but especially when it is probable, as in soccer. (<b>Note</b>: I was going to add an image of an Ewok but noticed a copyright infringement message, and I thought that nothing could be worse than being fined for using an image of one of those little bastards without the proper consent.)<br />
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<b>Note</b>: not capitalizing "proper" nouns is not a typo. Words which represent entities, personages or ideas for which I don't, appreciate, respect, or make concessions to the significance of, get a lower-case first letter. Henceforward "world cup soccer".<br />
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I'm not contending that two teams in search of a definitive outcome should play a game for 5-6 hours, until 2 a.m., like in baseball. A tennis match at Wimbledon's 2010 tournament went on for over 11 hours, stretched over 3 different days, where the 5th set went 70-68 to John Isner. I'm thinking that we explore other ways to end the game in a satisfactory manner, which means, one team should go home dissatisfied.<br />
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Hockey plays an overtime period with two fewer players on each side, which opens up the ice for speed, skill and endurance to take over. Why not remove 2 soccer players from each side in a game that is knotted after regulation? I realize the world cup knockout round doesn't allow ties because one team or the other needs to be eliminated. I'm suggesting that in world cup soccer there should only be a tie after 10 minutes of play where each side fields a team of 8 players and 1 goalie apiece. Of course, this won't prevent one team from putting the ball on a spike in its own end for all of extra time. But do we want soccer to turn into tetherball 2.0? Just as in hockey, overtimes would create more exciting play and wide open spaces where skilled players aren't hampered by well-positioned defenders who cut down advantageous angles. That sentence alone stopped 50% of the people from further reading- so, it stopped 1 person who had made it this far.<br />
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The removal of players from the field during the course of games that continue to be tied would be an improvement over penalty kicks, which could still be used as a last resort, if, after 10-15 minutes of game play with fewer players, the game is still tied. We don't decide tie baseball games with home run hitting contests after 9-10 innings, or turn a tie football game into a place kicker standoff, or a basketball overtime game into a free-throw shooting contest. Why reduce soccer to penalty kicks so quickly? Besides, soccer players are incredibly conditioned athletes, let's see that conditioning in effect so that after 90 minutes of a spirited game of "let's retain possession so we can all be tied at zero" when the game is over, we can watch the players break down and make a physical or mental mistake. If it takes so much skill to retain possession, let's see that skill in action for a longer period of time.<br />
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Let's have an outcome, where one team prevails and the other is defeated, by reducing the number of soccer games ending in ties. The last 20 minutes of a close game, where the underdog played over their heads for 70 minutes, shouldn't be a big game of keep away as one team drains whatever is left of the clock (see #1), and only god, and his soccer emissary, the referee, know how much of the clock there actually is to drain, (see #2); no team should drain the clock with such relish that they make the casual fan wish one of their relatives would die so they could leave to go to the funeral, rather than watch the "conclusion" of a soccer game that is bound to end up in a tie anyway.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlL9Ixofom7VamGsq75velMxiI58utWOuO0UQHjKHYFKrI2x2u0ZnYuhrg5JJ8lOp9GNMikU5cMKrt8gLpY4Cr4-Wb0yxe2vbwq0PqQBZWh7iQt5ZLFwCcgkt5ohzvXVe7dA8Apy9JQwSP/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-10-06+at+6.51.34+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="493" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlL9Ixofom7VamGsq75velMxiI58utWOuO0UQHjKHYFKrI2x2u0ZnYuhrg5JJ8lOp9GNMikU5cMKrt8gLpY4Cr4-Wb0yxe2vbwq0PqQBZWh7iQt5ZLFwCcgkt5ohzvXVe7dA8Apy9JQwSP/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-10-06+at+6.51.34+AM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://terrikon.com/soccer/worldcup-2018">http://terrikon.com/soccer/worldcup-2018</a><br />
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In the 2018 world cup there were 9 ties, out of 48 games, in group play. That is actually fewer than I had expected. Three of those were in group B. Literally, half of the games in that group ended in ties. The two teams with two ties apiece (Spain and Portugal) were able to advance to the next round. Each of those teams won 1 game, tied 2 and didn't lose, and both cleared the first hurdle in the tournament- that of exerting less energy than a turtle crawling over a sheet of paper, in order to advance.<br />
Congratulations.<br />
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Given the number of games determined by one goal, or laughably, by no goals (Denmark v France ended 0-0), and the amount of time wasted by normal soccer events (goal and corner kicks, throw-ins, penalty and free kicks, goal celebrations, substitutions and injury assessments), the number of minutes the referees don't add to the game for stoppage reasons, means that soccer purists, as the FiveThirtyEight article above concludes, are actually witnessing actual game action that is less in line with their expectations and comes nearer the amount of time the ball <b><i>isn't</i></b> in play in sports like football and baseball.<br />
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In 2014 306 NHL games (almost 25%) went to overtime, where the teams skated with four men a side for 5 minutes. 44% of those 2014 games were decided in overtime. In 2015, when the NHL went down to a 3-on-3 model, with 275 games (about 22%) going to OT, 61% were decided in OT (without going to a shootout).<br />
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The following year, the percentage of games that went to overtime were decided within the OT period 65% of the time. Even more, from 2005-2014, 22-24% of NHL games went to overtime. Of the games that went to OT in that ten year span, 39-50% were decided in overtime and avoided the shootout. Removing 1 more player (down to 3-on-3, instead of 4-on-4) clearly provided the game a more worthwhile outcome.<br />
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Source: <a href="https://www.sportingcharts.com/articles/nhl/how-often-is-overtime-needed-in-the-nhl.aspx">https://www.sportingcharts.com/articles/nhl/how-often-is-overtime-needed-in-the-nhl.aspx</a><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">4 - Substitutions</span></b></div>
This is a rule change I feel less strongly about, and about which I have the least perspective. With this complaint, the solution is less certain and perhaps, the problem is less real. But in games that might start extending into 2 hours and 2 1/2 hours because of stoppage time and overtime, for the betterment of the sport, not just individual games, allowing removed players to come back in if the game gets to stoppage time tied, and if after stoppage time the game needs to go to overtime, allowing rule changes in this area could be of benefit. This adds an extra couple layers of strategy, more discussion and disagreement, and likely, more investment by fans and the media.<br />
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Three substitutions are allowed per game by each side? While NCAA collegiate basketball coaches get 17 timeouts apiece to micro-manage a game, soccer teams get 3 subs for the entire game, and those coaches can't <i>manage</i> much of anything. I'm probably missing the justification for not allowing a team to substitute 4-5 times in a game. Fine, allow a player removed to never come back in, just as in baseball. Should the result of the game be determined because all subs were used prior to a legitimate/serious injury (to be distinguished from the frequency of fake injuries [see below]) which forces one team to play short-handed? Hell, these guys fake so many injuries and writhe around in "pain" for so long, they might have actually had semi-legitimate maladies or contusions that healed, via aloe-laden fescue, Bermuda or bluegrass, allowing them to continue playing.<br />
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This might seem inconsistent to some. If someone is advocating for penalties which take players off the field, and for taking players off the field when the game is tied after regulation, why would you be against taking injured players from the field and not allowing teams to replace them if they've already utilized their three subs? Pretty different. An opposing player may have caused the injury, or the injured player's own exertion, or chance, or bad luck itself might be the cause. Why punish a team for its legitimate injuries and do nothing for its fake ones? Which brings me to . . .<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">6* - Fouls and fake injuries</span></b><br />
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The NBA installed new rules in the last eight years that address whiny responses to foul calls and flopping (when a player acts like they've been more severely impacted by physical contact with another player than they actually have been). Unfortunately, the NBA stops very short of penalizing players across that league for those infractions.<br />
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<b>*-</b> If you noticed that the numbering increased by 2 from 4 to 6, you caught me. I was making sure you were paying attention. See, a 6 is a number that follows 5, which is probably another number with which you soccer fans are unacquainted. 5 follows 4, yet another number with which you are relatively unfamiliar. These numbers may all be used to total up scoring chances, and heaven forbid, goals, that number more than 0, 1, or 2. I just didn't want you to stop reading because your mind was blown by all these strange symbols in conjunction with the overall topic.</div>
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Moving on. I watched a world cup game that featured Neymar, from Brazil, recognized as one of the best players in the world. While his skill and effort didn't disappoint, his antics certainly did. He would be excellent at charades if every word or phrase were synonymous with feigning a lower leg injury. He would be a better actor, than a soccer player, and that would be a travesty, because he's a damn fine player. He faked an injury a few times that game and one time he was down writhing in pain for eight minutes, longer than it takes some women to give birth to their <i>first</i> child.<br />
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Consider that every player, every game, takes a turn improvising their own death scene, whether they behave as if someone took an alligator to their shin, or had a 5 second circumcision performed on them unbeknownst to the fans who had yet to fall asleep.<br />
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Neymar should be embarrassed; Brazil should be embarrassed; as a human being, I'm embarrassed. All the points he scores in the transcendent talent department, he more than gives up in his wuss quotient.<br />
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I'm sure there are people who can't complain about the theatrics some of these players go through to convince a referee that an atrocity has been committed. There is no end to it in <i>men's w</i>orld cup competition. I know there is none of it in youth soccer, but I don't know about the other levels. All I can tell you is that it is revolting and horrific. I wonder what disabled veterans and those who have lost limbs and senses think about these theatrics. I'm reading <i>Black Hawk Down</i>- I can't imagine those who have had the butt-ends of rifles slammed into their faces and organs leak out of their stomachs would have much time for soccer of this type.<br />
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I'm not, never have been, and never will be, a world-class athlete. I was athletic during my time, and more than that, I was competitive, and still am. I've played basketball well, and from time to time played it better on a sprained ankle, when the will to push through, aided by adrenaline, outranked the pain. I've been on crutches, in casts, eye-patches, had an eye surgery. I gave up softball because I knew that given the same set of circumstances, I would have instinctively slid head first back into second base, leaving me vulnerable to the same injury. I've popped dislocated fingers back in to keep playing a flag football game. There are people out there who have played at much higher levels, and have a list of maladies ten times as long, and plenty more painful. Anyone who has actually been injured at any level of competition, would not, nor should they, respect a player that makes love to the field of play as if someone found that player's self-destruct button. I could have gone with another Kathy Bates reference, this one more amenable to good taste- when she hobbles James Caan, in <i>Misery</i>, with a piece of wood and a sledgehammer.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The problem is real and the solution is real easy. Fine and suspend the player for the next game, or fine the team/country in a way that hurts their pride AND their pocket book. On replay during the game, or after the game, review the game film, and assess whether someone was first- actually contacted, second- actually injured, third- actually suffered, and fourth- actually recovered. If they aren't limping four minutes after getting up and never had to get removed from the game, a fine and suspension for the next game is in order. Yes, players have played on broken legs and other leg injuries. I expect the number of times those exceptions come into play won't be worth not implementing a draconian approach to these shenanigans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Note: </b>Yes, Curt Schilling was accused of sporting a fake bloody sock, and Paul Pierce was carried off the court during an NBA Finals game, but these are exceptions. Hockey players take galvanized rubber pucks shot at them at 100 mph to knees, ankles and faces every game and appear to heal their wounds with stitches made from the beards of their teammates. Suck it up Neymar et al! Hockey players are like Wolverine from the X-Men; soccer players are like . . . I don't want to insult Squirrel-Girl and Arm Fall- off-Boy (actual super heroes).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;">Yellow cards can be issued if someone fakes an injury, but it is rarely called. And if the supposed injured player is later found to have been actually injured, he will miss games, so the fine would be expunged. We're not talking about head, neck and spine injuries here. We're talking about ankles, feet and knees for the most part. If the guy can't put weight on a leg, walk without a limp, or flat out can't walk, we know he's injured, and we know if the conditions for injury were ripe by reviewing the recorded game film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Seriously guys, have some self-respect. That applies as much to the people in positions of authority who could positively impact this sport, (who haven't implemented any rules changes since 1992- ironically, the last time a Constitutional Amendment was passed) who haven't already looked to modernize and meaningfully improve this problem, than it does for the cadre of cry-babies keeping their tibias in place with a tourniquet of hands players must feel they should employ because it is illegal to use their hands to contact the ball in the field of play.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">6* - Off-sides</span></b></div>
This is the most infuriating issue and most necessary rule change, if we have any hope of improving the quality and enjoyment of watching and playing the game. I would change one of the off-sides rules slightly and one of them drastically. What are the rules? Largely, there are usually only three of them (according to one source- <a href="https://www.orlandocitysc.com/post/2016/01/01/soccer-101-explaining-offside-rule">https://www.orlandocitysc.com/post/2016/01/01/soccer-101-explaining-offside-rule</a>), here they are:<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
A player is <strong>NOT</strong> in an offside position if:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;">
<li>He is in his own half of the field of play.</li>
<li>No part of the attacking player (head, body, or feet) is closer to the opponents goal than the final defender (not including the goalkeeper) .</li>
<li>He is receiving the ball from a throw-in.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
According to the FIFA rulebook, a player is in an offside position if:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #343434; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px;">
<li>He is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.</li>
<li>A violation will occur when he is in an offside position (previous bullet point) at the same time the ball is being passed forward to him.</li>
</ul>
<b>The slight change:</b> I'd allow any player to be considered on-side if at least one of his feet is positioned on his own side of the field. If he's straddling the mid line when the ball is kicked to him and the defenders are all sucked so far away from their own goal that none of them are in their own defensive end, the player straddling the mid line is <b>on</b>-sides. Defenders should be on <i>defense</i>. I don't want to <i>require</i> them to be in their defensive zone, but they can't be on attack 60 yards from their own goalie and use the off-sides trap. That is the equivalent of "the Battier" referred to above. This would be no more difficult to officiate than when the ref has to determine off-sides on any other part of the field, where no line can be used as a guide to make the off-sides determination.<br />
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This site addresses some more nuanced examples of off-sides offences such as when the off-sides player is illegally screening the goalie from viewing the ball, which would be a manifest advantage if the ball is in the scoring zone I detail below, but shouldn't be allowed if the ball isn't in that zone. <a href="https://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/refereeing/law_11_offside_en_47383.pdf">More off-sides fun</a>.<br />
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<b>The large change:</b> Add a scoring zone line. Call it whatever you like, but draw a semi-circle across the field that would look like the image below.<br />
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<b>Scoring zone- </b>if the ball is within the scoring zone, any offensive players within that zone are not off-side even if they are whispering in the goalie's ear.<br />
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Now, this will make the game more difficult to officiate, but more fun to play and watch. Defenders can't passively slide forward a few inches to catch offensive players napping just ahead of them to their own goal. And the ball will be at one moment inside the scoring zone and the next outside, and passed back in, and determinations about off-side position will have to be made. I would not make any player have to tag up and go outside of the scoring zone, if the ball goes outside of it, as in hockey, <b>if the ball remains on that half of the field</b>. They just need to be on-sides again according to the current rule, no closer than the second to last opponent (the goalie and one defender).<br />
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In the example above, the picture on the left is meant to indicate that the player in the blue jersey closest to the bottom of the screen is on sides, but is off-sides, according to the defender's position, on the right. With the rule change I had in mind to improve the game, because the ball is within the scoring area, the blue player is on sides. I would tell the defenders to back the hell up, the attacking team is in a scoring position, stop trying to play geometry and play your sport! Use your brain and have it tell your legs to back up.<br />
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As long as a player isn't in violation of any of the other stated offside rules, what is the problem with asking a defensive player to engage his opponent in an athletic contest? Look, this is a proposal. It isn't perfect and some competition committee, probably made up of competitors from other sports, because those weaned on the liberal teat of soccer would object to every proposed improvement, would need to be the ones to force this change down the soccer player's throats. Those who would argue on behalf of the cerebral aspect of catching an opponent off-sides, and those who desire otherwise, aren't appreciative of the finer points of soccer, should stick to chess. Soccer, you've got a good sport here, let's make it <i>great</i>. <b>Note</b>: this should not be in any way misconstrued as a reference to Trump's mantra about making America great again. Soccer has never been great. This whole exercise is proof of that.<br />
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The lone exceptions to a rule change of this magnitude would be direct and in-direct kicks, and of course, penalty kicks. All players on offense would have to remain on side whether the ball was in or outside of the scoring zone for the free kicks, and could only be considered on-side if the ball remained in the scoring zone after the free kick.<br />
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The casualty of this change will be fewer games without major disagreements among fans, because an increase in assessments about whether something is a violation will undoubtedly increase the number of <i>questionable</i> calls, and so increase the likelihood of <i>bad</i> calls. And I'm not sure that is a detriment- more people passionately investing in the events of the game, having spirited discussions about outcomes and instances is generally not a negative. I'm not guaranteeing there will be games decided by the hosed up interpretation or application of this rule, but that likelihood significantly increases, and it increases only at a rate equivalent to the time it takes a 1 quart pot of water less time to boil than a 3 quart pot, so we can get to the sustenance of anticipation and excitement rather than remain in the cesspool of soccer reverence.<br />
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The biggest reason for this proposed change is because basically any player on the field, with their talent and honed skills, could score from within that zone. Now, the number of players within that zone will cut down the space, limit the angles and holes the ball could fit through, and increase the physical play. It may resemble a life-sized version of bumper pool. But the sport has got to infuse some excitement and anticipation that it lacks. And that's the key point- the anticipation.<br />
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Hockey is a much better sport to watch in an arena than on a couch because of the anticipation you can feel. A 1-0 hockey game is well more exciting than a 1-0 soccer match if only because of the anticipation and chances. By the time there are five minutes left in a hockey game, each goalie has probably had to make at least 20 saves apiece; by the time a soccer goalie has played <b>four</b> world cup games he might not have had to make 10. The ball bouncing off of posts, defenders, re-kicked quickly by forwards and deflected off of the goalie is the natural product of this rule change and it unquestionably improves the game.<br />
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This attention at one offensive end will inevitably increase the chance that a ball played out of that end to what are now more open areas of the field heading in the other direction could add open field scoring chances- 3 on 1s, 2 on 1s, and secondary breaks that were virtually non-existent before. These "break-aways" are the type of play that creates excitement and increases scoring in basketball and hockey.<br />
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So, instead of 1-0, and 1-1 games, perhaps the teams combine to score as many as, perish the thought, 4 or 5 goals, especially if you institute the tie rules I've already addressed. Maybe that opens the door to fantasy soccer . . . and the interest in the sport grows even more. It wouldn't be much fun to own a player of Neymar's or Messi's substantial abilities if they only scored 1 goal every 4 games.<br />
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There were 167 goals in 63 games during the 2018 world cup. That is four fewer than the record and is only 2.65 per game. People, please.<br />
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And I want to stress, the idea isn't to focus on getting more goals, but to provide these talented athletes more <i>opportunities </i>to score goals; here too it is the process and not the destination. Ask any really well-versed student of any sport if they require the game to produce excitement or numbers. It isn't the score that matters, it is the prospect of bearing witness to athletic excellence, which is a prospect currently denied to any participant who steps onto a soccer field at any level because of the limitations in the nature of the game.<br />
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Changing off-sides rules isn't unprecedented. This is a link to an off-sides rule change from 2016- <a href="http://nisoa.com/instruction/interscholastic-instruction/2016/04/29/offside-new-interpretation/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; color: purple; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; word-break: break-word;" target="_blank">http://nisoa.com/instruction/interscholastic-instruction/2016/04/29/offside-new-interpretation/</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><br />
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I was going to quote at length from the instruction link, but I'll summarize instead. A player in an offside position can now legally play the ball if the defending opponent has touched or deflected, but not controlled, the ball, or attempted to touch or deflect the ball, but failed.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">7 - Historical perspective</span></b><br />
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One other ancillary point that all of the sports get wrong and about which I've been bringing up for 20 years- opportunity. These rules are probably never going to be implemented, but if they were, we would need to section off the stellar play of soccer heroes these last 140 years and offer some perspective. Even if Bonds weren't pumping himself with steroids, or McGwire before him, if any player had more games than another player to hit more home runs we've got to consistently mention that in conversation. Pele scored 1281 goals in his career and that is second all time. If, because of the rule changes identified above, some German, Argentinian, Brazilian or other worldly player were to amass 1400 or 2000 goals, the media, press, fans and announcers should continually impart and publicize the significant differences the sport has gone through.</div>
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Other sports make rules changes, add more games to schedules, change the height of pitching mounds or scientific advancement improves the tennis racket, or golf club, and we are in awe of the modern day players in all sports. Sure, when they are handed every advantage modern times has to offer, these players are going to look like super heroes. It seems obvious, but just because player A scored 300 more goals than player B, doesn't mean player A was more talented- perhaps he had several advantages it isn't always convenient to remember or mention.<br />
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<b>Note:</b> that link is from the National Intercollegiate Soccer something or other, and its applicability to professional or world cup soccer might be in question. To be honest, I'm as worn out from writing this as all of the people who haven't read it.<br />
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So, that's all I have. I fixed soccer. I spent more energy caring about the sport than I ever thought possible and that includes, trying to coach it for 6 years, and counting, at the youth level.<br />
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<b>Appendix-Ratings</b></h3>
<b>Important to note:</b> the NBA comparison highlighted in the article about basketball ratings (14.8 million viewers), is game 7 of the 2018 Western-Conference finals, which featured no fewer than five future hall-of-fame players . . . the NFL Pro-Bowl highlights the contributions of players who threw for the 12th most yards and tied for 15th for the league lead in sacks, and that broadcast got 8.6 million viewers. For those stating the obvious- well, that is a game 7 vs. one game. But game sevens always get higher ratings than their 6 predecessors in a series and higher still than the playoff rounds which precede the conference finals. So, I'm choosing favorable comparisons for the NBA and they are not attracting even twice as many viewers as a game of players acting as substitutes for substitutes, that is televised one week before the Super Bowl, and after four months of Sundays which all offered 10+ hours of football.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAU-SsJX6hixzfQU4xyd9kpemYyEKUEhHayy2aBh2OXpNsSiR1H4fgY0NcXEX6g2MvmU2-pgUSMOwd1jZc-fgUzOHGodlQKTSdfnlLwv1S2cRPC32kwdmOM-KuiNpbLDTUQTFvEfCilK2G/s1600/NFL+Pro-Bowl+ratings.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="962" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAU-SsJX6hixzfQU4xyd9kpemYyEKUEhHayy2aBh2OXpNsSiR1H4fgY0NcXEX6g2MvmU2-pgUSMOwd1jZc-fgUzOHGodlQKTSdfnlLwv1S2cRPC32kwdmOM-KuiNpbLDTUQTFvEfCilK2G/s640/NFL+Pro-Bowl+ratings.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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The Pro-Bowl is a completely useless endeavor that spotlights players who are only participating because the first 15 players at their position recused themselves for having suffered <i>pretend</i> injuries, or because the pain the players feel is only painful retroactively. This is no different than the male world cup soccer players who embarrassingly attempt to convince us they have suffered <i>real </i>injuries on camera, rather than NFL players who 50% of the time have suffered real injuries, in games that mattered, and who are unwilling to play in an exhibition game, football's version of a friendly, given the pain and/or the inconvenience. Those soccer players, faking injuries, fail to convince us at a rate similar to the percentage of times Susan Lucci won daytime Emmy awards- approximately 5% of the time (she won once in 21 tries).<br />
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Phew. I know what you're thinking- what in the hell does comparing football and basketball ratings have to do with fixing soccer?<br />
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Someone will say, "so, let's talk soccer ratings. The men's 2018 world cup ratings were estimated to have hit 3.6 billion world-wide." It is important to note- the U.S. did not participate, and by some accounts, relatively speaking, the ratings in the U.S. weren't horrible. If the reader didn't click on the links I've already provided, foregoing the addition of another here isn't worth my time. My counter to the question which started this paragraph- that is <b>every four</b> years. If the world cup were held every year, those ratings would not be as high. <span style="background-color: white;">(<b>Note:</b> and I'm not discounting the Women's World cup, coming in 2019; the 2015 final featured the U.S. and drew 25.4 million in the U.S., 750 million world-wide.) Another note: the continued capitalization of Women's World Cup, if for no other reason than because they don't fake injuries to nearly the degree as the men.</span><br />
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So, yes, soccer is doing just fine, two out of every four years. And that is world cup soccer, the arguable pinnacle of the sport, as judged by fans everywhere, and players too. Players stop playing for the club that pays them the bulk of their salary, any time the opportunity to play in the world cup presents itself. Imagine fixing a few things that are wrong with the sport and finding ratings that challenge the NFL in a decade?<br />
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<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-19/what-the-world-cup-ratings-revealed-about-american-soccer-fans">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-19/what-the-world-cup-ratings-revealed-about-american-soccer-fans</a><br />
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"The 2018 men's final between France and Croatia drew 11.3 million viewers on Fox and 4.7 million on Telemundo, according to data from Nielson." Imagine that number being 25 million in the U.S. alone <b>WITHOUT </b>the United States involved in the final.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-2471726932257983592008-12-23T07:58:00.003-06:002018-02-11T15:28:00.014-06:00Middle Class Part 41: Medicinal and Prescription Drug HumorOriginally, I had intended for much of this material to appear in the 39th post, but decided to not deviate from the free market subject for reasons that would bring me no closer to completing my overall task- which is to diligently, conclusively, objectively and thoroughly push back the covers that comfortably conceal middle class woes that even those who suffer from them are unable to identify or effectively communicate.<br />
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Those who are responsible for logically distributing electoral votes based on congressional district (legislative inhabitants of Maine and Nebraska or those voters from other states who would like to have at least those rights in common with the Pine Tree and Cornhusker states) would likely not suffer from many of the side effects mentioned below.<br />
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<strong>Diversionary tactics:</strong> This edition of the chronicles of the middle class ailments is a simple diversion from the grind of the bi-weekly posts, much like the Dr. Seuss material from post 15. Not sure whether the relief from the grind is more beneficial to the author of these episodes or the non-existent reader. Don’t answer that. <strong>The idea is to further ridicule the ludicrous nature of our political system (some people call it a democracy) and mock the stranglehold that stubborn politicians have and processes they promote that are in place to limit or prevent improvements of the most sensible kind.</strong><br />
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<strong>Fires and pills:</strong> If electing politicians is just like sitting out by an enticing fire (see part 39), then it is surely also like taking medications. While the fire will help restore a mood, a pill can also do so. <strong>A pill can manage your rheumatoid arthritis, high cholesterol or irritable bowel syndrome, while causing other problems- like thinking that drive-through accounting services are a good idea or cultivatating an uncontrollable desire to sign up for Britney news text alerts.</strong> I know people who vote for all the challengers, all the republicans, all Independents, all democrats, some who don’t vote and some who are ballot splitters, who vote for who they feel is the best candidate for the job, supposing there is a name on the ballot which is suited to that approach. Voting in an election, armed with our hopes, is too much like a drug. We seek to cure all ills, ours, our family’s, our community’s, or posterity’s, when we mark in those circles which appear before selected candidate’s names. <strong>Taking basically any drug/electing most any official has its side effects.</strong> <strong>Martin Luther King said: “We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” There is hope in the vote and much finite disappointment if we keep electing the same two political parties.</strong> It often happens where a prescribed drug serves no good purpose, or works, but cancels out the productive qualities of other medications. Where they are Constitutionally strong, (the republicans), they too much favor the rich and military spending, etc.; where they are generous to the poor (the democrats), they are prone to enable the indigent and these elixirs/laws/social aid programs for others cause us great pain.<br />
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<strong>Getting older:</strong> As we age, three things happen nearly in concert. <strong>One, we take more medications</strong>, excepting if we were dealt a set of crappy genes and have taken them our whole lives or we were hypochondriacs prior to the aging process taking a toll on our immune system; <strong>Second, we talk about our ailments</strong>, sometimes even to our parents, whom you will never defeat in a verbal exchange of maladies; <strong>Third, we talk more about politics</strong>. Coincidence? I think not! Eighteen years ago, I only thought about sports, reading Dickens and figuring out when my mom would be working so that I could have sex with my girlfriend. I was twenty. One other thing that was vaguely in my mind was the germ for this very exhaustive work nearing its completion/abandonment. What I am hinting at is we may have to take prescribed medications simply to keep our innards from shutting down in order to tolerate the desolateness of adulthood that is a greater awareness of our fearless leader's collective utility. <strong>Not even the elves were subjected to so much self-awareness when they learned that Santa did not traverse the globe looking for christians to reward with gifts from some supposed bottomless magic bag of presents.</strong><br />
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<strong>Prescription drugs:</strong> “Prescription-drug advertising is big business. <strong>The pharmaceutical industry in 2006 spent $4.8 billion on consumer ads, according to IMS Health, a private firm that tracks sales and marketing. The industry spent $7.2 billion more marketing products to doctors.”</strong> <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-29-drugs-inside_N.htm">http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-29-drugs-inside_N.htm</a>, “Analyzing the side effects of drug ads” Julie Appleby, February 29, 2008. Now, that is big business. <strong>Thousands of people, including myself, have addressed, or proven, the connection between the prescription drug industry and the politicians who protect them; this will not be a mini-diatribe in that vein. I am going for comedy.</strong><br />
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<strong>Side effects I:</strong> There are all kinds of side effects connected with the medications we take which we suppose are good for us. I happen to think that additional options at election time would do wonders for our economic and political health, albeit without completely correcting problems, but without our suffering by our imbibing, injecting or ingesting them. We need a way to get through nearly 18 months of canvassing. <strong>These third party candidates are looked upon like generic drugs because people do not recognize the name, as it has not been thrown in their face by constant advertising. Huh, this metaphor is more sound than I thought. Think of the doctors, as the media- proposing that only two candidates/drugs are worthy of consideration.</strong><br />
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<strong>Side effects II:</strong> My diagnosis is that politicians and voters both justify the compromised conscience, which must be like a drug addict’s gradual decline into dependency- filled with denial. The former are not pressed to alter their approach to issue resolution and the latter don’t demand more . . . whining about it does not count. <strong>By voting to change nothing we can continue to complain just as we always have and the elected politician can continue to push his remedies, knowing they are placebo solutions we will continue to swallow to no avail. Everyone has seen dozens of commercials for various miracle drugs which will allow for an erection and help sustain it, but may cause an upset stomach or cause a temporary bluish vision or light sensitivity- Viagra.</strong> The following comments are in that way and mock those who dream of change by refusing to be the authors of it. Keep in mind, it isn’t always obvious who should be prescribing and who ingesting the drugs mentioned below, but that is what I’m here for . . . to obscure the line of truth. Doing the opposite, trying to pronounce that line, is too much damn work, so this is a departure.<br />
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<strong>Disclaimer:</strong> Some of the side effects and warnings below have been embellished for comedic effect. A wise reader will be able to differentiate the real from fabricated side effects. <strong>Some of the side effects referred to have only manifested themselves in fewer than 5% of patients.</strong> I am not interested in delineating which of those side effects those might be. We’ve all heard about those drugs that may not be for people who are nursing, who are pregnant, who may become pregnant, who know what pregnancy is, etc., those advertisements which must admit to a catalogue of possible subsequent indispositions which it takes the narrator more than half the commercial to enumerate. <strong>Hopefully I can provide more in the spirit of the 12 days/drugs of christmas, political medication style. Another element of these advertisements is that the voice talent, lists a series of disclaimers, communicating who should not attempt to take the drug being advertised- so I have followed suit.</strong><br />
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<strong>1) Plan B:</strong> your pregnancy backup plan, which can prevent a pregnancy up to 72 hours after unprotected sex or primary contraceptive failure.<br />
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<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> stomache cramps; vaginal bleeding; <strong>the inclination to favor the letter ‘B’ above all other letters, especially if you live on a farm and were violated by a horse your father-brother said it was too cold to castrate in the barn;</strong> headache; heavier menstrual bleeding; lighter menstrual bleeding, bleating- like a sheep; dizziness; breast tenderness; a Jones for some breast tenders; fatigue; vomiting.<br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Plan B:</strong> those to whom it has occurred that the use of Plan B would take away some of the heat conservatives place on the Roe v. Wade decision; men; those who celebrate Festivus (a Seinfeld reference- a fictional holiday I have decided to capitalize the name of ); people who have been pregnant for 72 days; <strong>youngish daughters of conservative hypocrite politicians who fear their run to the <span id="google-navclient-highlight" style="background-color: #50ccc5; color: white;">senate</span> may be crippled if the beloved family value square on their Yahtzee board of morals will never be populated with a score.</strong> This box is less difficult to fill than four-of-a-kind.<br />
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<strong>Note:</strong> at the beginning of the list of side effects for Plan B this disclaimer appears- “Some women may experience side effects similar to those of many birth control pills.” Sounds like they are playing the blame game too- see part 40. <strong>After the side effects list this sentence appears- “If you should experience severe abdominal pain, you may have an ectopic pregnancy . . .” Suuuuure, use the old ectopic pregnancy excuse.</strong><br />
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<strong>2) Fexofenadyne hydrochloride (Allegra):</strong> Will allow an allergy sufferer some relief.<br />
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<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> back pain; upper respiratory infection; diarrhea; vomiting; dizziness; pain in extremities; or pain in the stremities. <strong>And I thought the fact that some people voted for Obama was going to be bad for our Constitution.</strong><br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Allegra:</strong> kittens who think they are acting as emotionally distant as some people; <strong>people who have passed a bulbous-foreheaded child through their birth canal; </strong>people who may or may not have a red-headed step-child; those who do not know the difference between Darth Vader and an Ele-vater; those who have been naughty or nice; left-handers; people who have never seen an Edward Norton movie; those who think that small business owners should actually see a tax increase. I hope there isn’t an outcry for a small business owner tax increase- for those who make 200k-250k AND who own small business- and who must meet payroll. These are not the types of people who should see a tax increase. This is an important distinction from those who make 200-250k and who do not own a small business. Oh, another side effect- <strong>molting. Because those who can slough off how imperative it is to avoid taxing small business owners who are employing other people are allergic to common sense.</strong><br />
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<strong>3) Bronchodilator (Advair):</strong> Will treat patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.<br />
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<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> irritation and inflammation of the ears; bronchitis; lower respiratory infection; the <strong>contention that your candidate, if he is a republican who lost to a democrat, or a democrat, who lost to a republican, was far and away the better candidate (i.e. cognitive dissonance);</strong> nausea; dizziness; increased heartbeat; <strong>lost their heart when they discovered how ruthless the corporate world can be;</strong> bloody nose; sinus infections; voice changes; menstrual problems (among men); thrush (whatever that is); nervousness and bone pain. I would be nervous too if that was the list of potential complications that might stem from having ingested such a restorative. Bone pain? From something that is supposed to assist asthmatics?<br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Advair:</strong> those who answer the phone using the word- “Yello” or pronounce the ‘X’ that is in the word “especially"; have ever ironed a sock; think that all democrats are exempt from hypocrisy (which, if this were true, would make the gullible/credulous breathe easier); and those who have never liked general anesthetic, new math, old tires or christmas crap (i.e. unneeded, hideous, storage-space-eating decorations that someone else thinks you cannot live without); people who take peanut butter in their hot chocolate or the double foam, chai latte, (or tai chi, which I would guess is a drink you take while practicing a martial art).<br />
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<strong>Note:</strong> <strong>a bronchodilator is not a type of long-necked herbivory dinosaur alive during the Jurassic period. </strong>Also- I cannot get past this bone pain thing. So, do not take Advair if you are already taking Viagra . . . Bone pain. Figure it out.<br />
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<strong>4) Viagra:</strong> got wood? No? This will help.<br />
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<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> facial flushing; upset stomache; temporary bluish vision; blurriness; light sensitivity; headache- especially after satisfying your partner who is going to want more than a four hour commitment. It is advised that Viagra only be taken once a day- but if you are into monkey lovein’ or are a monkey misogynist (which has nothing to do with monkey massages) and you like to try to get by with just one pill a day- good luck- <strong>I’ve heard that those simian females have some pretty lofty expectations.</strong><br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Viagra:</strong> people who were too sophisticated for trick-or-treating by the age of eight; apparently those with already weakened vision; those who have made a joke about Viagra in connection to Egg Nog(gin); <strong>those who like to watch x-rated hypnotists “perform”;</strong> <strong>men who after taking Viagra- lose all interest in intercourse if they even think about the pace of the Barbara Streisand version of “Jingle Bells”;</strong> people who have held their own christmas cards hostage (which often stems from being sleighted by neighbors, relatives, acquaintances or part-time friends who did not give them a christmas card of their ugly family last year); people who have tried facon (this is fake bacon and has nothing to do with people who pretend sexual enjoyment- friggin' untrustworthy vegetarians); people who almost voted for Nader, or who wrote in Mickey Mouse or god- these people already have enough nerve, vigor and potency and probably get off plenty on their displayed pride and have no need to have their fore-sight compromised by a drug that may blind them if taken twice a day.<br />
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<strong>Note:</strong> Why would a drug designed to firm up a man’s primary sexual organ potentially cripple his vision (look at the vision-related side effects)? If one becomes dependent on Viagra, the quality of their sexual partners is sure to decrease- <strong>because of the little-known post-blue pill ingestion condition known as Viagra-goggles which clouds ones physical assessment of proposed, present sexual partners. The same thing happens to voters who take a Viagra equivalent hoping for trenchant political judgments of their elected officials, but are rather left feeling blue.</strong> Be sure to avoid the dreaded Viagra and Plan B combo.<br />
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<strong>Question:</strong> <strong>Would Viagra help with political impotence too (help the lack of flow to the brain of candidates who accept gifts from constituents, or attempt to sell <span id="google-navclient-highlight" style="background-color: #50ccc5;">senate</span> seats on Ebay), or is it just for the flow of blood to the penis?</strong><br />
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<strong>5) Chantix- (varenicline) tablets:</strong> The motto: “It’s all about getting there.” With the image of a turtle on a trail toward a distant finish line. I don’t know that the average smoker has 17 years to wait to quit smoking with your help. Maybe the Cicada should be your drug's symbol. And if it really is supposed to be about getting there and not how soon someone is to get there is Chantix really worth it?<br />
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<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> change in behavior; agitation; depression; suicidal thoughts or actions; constipation; gas; vomiting- did I already use a line about a weakened constitution?; “sleep problems (trouble sleeping, or vivid, unusual, or strange dreams)” These are not all the side effects of CHANTIX . . . you may have trouble opening drawers, may not be able to spell the word ‘fag’ if spotted the ‘f’ and the ‘a’. (Note: “fag” is another name for cigarette.) As always- jaundice, rickets scurvy and rubella.<br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Chantix:</strong> people who do not know how to chew gum; people who like the automobile exchange rate with South Korea which should not at all trouble Ford, GM, or Chrysler to come up with an economy model which does not so negatively affect our ecosystem; those who have ever caused the demise of their garbage disposal by trying to grind up grapefruit husks; have ever benefited from a Ponzi investment scheme (which I swear is some combination of Fonzi and Potsi and somehow related to Happy Days, but Google tells me different; those who drive or operate heavy machinery; wear more than one watch on their right wrist and those who do not put their pants on one leg at a time . . . oh, <strong>and all white people, including those prone to regretting who they have voted for in a general election.</strong> If this drug were marketed to politicians, the motto could be changed to- “It’s all about getting there, no matter how much money you spend during your campaign, deciding not to use public financing and continuing to be beholden to campaign donors and thus continuing to forsake the middle class who really need your help.” Yeah, those are the types of politicians who like to blow smoke up your . . .<br />
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<strong>6) Spiriva:</strong> an inhaled maintenance prescription treatment for breathing problems associated with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).<br />
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<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> chronic bronchitis; emphysema; an allergy to Tupperware that was purchased in the mid 1980s; <strong>dry mouth; wet tail (which is usually, almost exclusively an infirmity suffered by small rodents); sore throat; worsening of breathing problems; wheezing; chest pain; severe constipation; upper respiratory infection (in up to 41 percent of people);</strong> sinus infection; bladder infection; muscle pain; yeast infection; nosebleeds; difficulty passing urine; vision changes; chest pains; signs of an allergic reaction (i.e. hives; unexplained rash; itching; unexplained swelling; wheezing; difficulty swallowing); RARE side effects include leg pain; voice changes; unusual sensations; such as burning or tingling; canker sores; high cholesterol; hyperglycemia; bone pain; shingles; cataracts; gastroesophageal reflux disease. “ . . . make sure to let your healthcare provider know if you develop any side effects while taking the drug or if something ‘just does not seem right.’ ” <strong>Is there anything left? Seriously, why even advertise, prescribe or administer any product that has the potential to cause so many subsequent complications? And if you insist on doing so, perhaps paranoia should be listed first among the potential side effects.</strong><br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Spiriva:</strong> <strong>those who have not mastered the use of the rhetorical question, not even in printed form;</strong> people who enjoy paying more in health care expenses for people who should not reside in this country; people who despise the overconfidence of those with 4-wheel drive vehicles the morning after six inches of snow; those who welcome what any performer, especially Alec Baldwin, Barbara Streisand, Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, or Bruce Springsteen has to say about politics; apparently, those who enjoy breathing, and obese people who think it is against one of the commandments to make them pay more for airline tickets, considering the drag (literally) they have on a plane’s fuel efficiency. I have no opinion on that matter. Write that down- it might be the answer to the trivia question: “on what topics has Janus not expressed an opinion.<br />
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<strong>Note:</strong> I only added a couple of side effects to the list of them for Spiriva- the legitimate potential compliations took up all the space. <strong>Among the most comical- “unexplained rash” and “unexplained swelling.” Have you ever been able to explain a rash or swelling until someone explains it for you? Isn't it explained if you do not have short term memory loss and recall having taken Spiriva?</strong><br />
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<strong>7) Xanax/Alprazolam:</strong> is a CNS depressant which works by slowing down the nervous system and controlling the chemicals in the brain. Anyone thinking that Tolkein could have used either of the names listed just after the 7) for wizards in a novel that is to be published posthumously? No? You think this novel would have come to light by now- just like the pictures of Obama and the audio tapes of LBJ. There is art and intrigue out there my friends.<br />
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<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> drowsiness; dry mouth; increased saliva production; lightheadedness; tiredness; <strong>trouble concentrating- (like when someone has penned a long blog column); weight changes; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, tongue, or buttocks (unexplained swelling of the buttocks?) closed-circuit to Jennifer Lopez- stand clear</strong>; confusion; fainting; hallucination; loss of coordination; a gain in coordination; ordination without anyone's help; menstrual changes; <strong>muscle twitching; nail biting; a fear of chairs; red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin; seizures; searches; trouble speaking; stammering; yellowing of the eyes or skin; a change in eye color; the loss of your eyes- like under a couch or something (perhaps in connection with your having taken Viagra);</strong> changes in sexual desire; insomnia; . . . wait, a change in sexual desire? Really? . . . inner restlessness; outer restlessness; the strange desire to shave one’s ear hair even when it isn’t needed. It is noted that “some side effects may not be reported” such as an inability to write, speak, draw a picture, or use a telephone in order to report those side effects.<br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Xanax:</strong> TI; Amish people who cannot make a wooden rocking chair; <strong>those who thought that Acapulco would be a great vacation spot because of having watched a lot of Love Boat episodes in the late 70s;</strong> those who forgot to put the recycling down at the end of the driveway the week before christmas; people who think that the government cannot waste enough of our money, and therefore should not even have the hope of resting more easily, Coke drinkers; Pepsi drinkers; those who have ever mixed Pepsi with Captain Morgan; Captain Morgan (drugs and alcohol don’t mix), Morgan Fairchild; Morgan Freeman; <strong>parents of little boys who have received advice, by him, on how to keep him out of the freezer; people who can explain the link between meal time and the inclination of kids under five to remove their socks; people who have no reservations about the ambiguity of the first amendment.</strong><br />
<strong>8) Orencia/Abatacept:</strong> for Rheumatoid arthritis.<br />
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<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> redness at the injection site; upset stomach; chills; fever; persistent sore throat; flu-like symptoms; night sweats; shortness of breath; funky gums; coccidia; unusual lumps or growths; usual lumps or growths; <strong>increased, decreased or painful urination (these guys are really covering their butt- and would have to use big hands to do so if they had just taken Xanax); increase in the size of one's hands- (just messing with you);</strong> an interest in allowing mass immigration with no questions asked.<br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Orencia:</strong> people who aspire to travel back in time to direct a World War II movie that is to be filmed in that actual era (i.e. in the 1940s); <strong>Welfare proponents who encourage the demonstrated fraud hundreds have uncovered;</strong> idealists; realists; those who have head-butted a reindeer . . . with a red nose, which was not derived from a birth defect, but because it was an alcoholic; people who have needlessly gotten a cortisone shot so they could watch an NFL playoff game; those who think that any supreme court justice should tell a woman what to do with her body (restrict abortions); a homosexual what to do with their domestic partners (prohibit marriages); or subject people out for dinner who are non-smokers to the hazards of second-hand smoke. Also, people who have a hard time determining what an unusual lump or growth might be; people who blame the unusual growth of their buttocks on Xanax; people who keep losing or breaking expensive electronics they don’t ever have to pay for; <strong>those who have ever had trouble getting a belt sander to work, or have ever had trouble getting a belt sander to rest.</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>9) Cymbalta:</strong> an antidepressant.<br />
<br />
<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> blurred vision; hot flashes; yawning; vertigo; gas; chills; seasonal allergies; taste changes; <strong>abnormal dreams (like those where you get to be on top); weight loss or weight gain; a decreased sex drive; sweating; ejaculation problems; orgasm problems; (so far- these are actual listed side effects- except for the embellished abnormal dream component);</strong> shakiness; hostility or aggression; engaging in unusual or dangerous activities; chest palpitations; the hugging of house plants; desire to change light bulbs when they have not burnt out; acne; ear pain; an interest in clicking on George Michael Google results to be found on lyrics.com; <strong>high blood pressure; congestive heart failure; sensitivity to the sun; sensitivity to being mooned, especially by ugly people.</strong><br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Cymbalta:</strong> should also avoid taking Cialis, Propecia, Lipitor, Lexepro, Celebrex- drugs I have left out of this column for the sake of brevity; people who think they are being brief if they restrict their column to 9 pages; <strong>those who talk a lot with their eyes closed; pee more when they’re nervous or cold; pinned their pants in 1984; those whose elbows have gotten bigger since their 30s; people who have filed frivolous lawsuits; have ever shaken hands with a type II diabetic; have ever advocated that Pakistan should give arms to tribal militias . . . ever advocated that they should give legs; those who have gone to the same dental hygienist twice a year for a decade and still don’t know her name; have always thought that there only should have been one edition of Walt Whitman’s collection of poetry- “Leaves of Grass”; have used alliteration to name their car; have been told that sighs that have meaning have been banned in the home.</strong><br />
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<strong>10) Boniva (ibandronate sodium):</strong> used to combat osteoporosis.<br />
<br />
<strong>Side effects may include:</strong> headaches; back pain; <strong>indigestion; an eagerness, in fourteen years, to pay ten times what a college tuition costs now; people who cannot get taxed enough; unexplained explanations; home foreclosure;</strong> vomiting; high cholesterol; weakness; infections; muscle pain; arthritis; dizziness; a spinning sensation; bronchitis; thumb pain; arm or leg pain; pneumonia; sore throat; bladder infection; constipation; prostipation; insomnia; somnia; throat pain; difficulty swallowing (potential esophageal ulcers); those with difficulty swallowing the cost of a <span id="google-navclient-highlight" style="background-color: #50ccc5; color: white;">senate</span> recount for the taxpayer; severe heartburn; jaw or tooth problems; signs of an allergic reaction, including hives, itching, unexplained rash and unexplained swelling (they’re back- like evil Siamese twins).<br />
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<strong>People who should avoid taking Boniva:</strong> those that think bow-legged Oriental women are attractive; those who already look like Kirk Douglas/those who look like a jack-o-lantern still on someone’s front step on November 10th (same, same); <strong>people who think Oswald acted alone; people who think Jack Ruby acted alone; people who are annoyed by David Caruso’s (CSI-Miami) overacting;</strong> people who think that corporations should continue to be allowed to take American jobs overseas without any crippling affect on the greedy bastards making such moves; <strong>people who have kidnapped Mrs. Clause; and people for whom the threat of Santa’s omniscience and the elfish version of the posse comitatus/retributive justice is as ineffectual as the SEC;</strong> people who dispute that someone burns more calories standing up than when seated; those who had older sisters who had a suspected crush on Kirk Cameron- even when he was wearing pink, which was the old yellow; people who cred at the end of "Old Yeller"; people who have, through neglect, killed a cactus; those who are married to people that are so into being green, that they fear their spouse will actually hug a tree next year;<br />
<br />
<strong>One final note:</strong> Courtesy of: <a href="http://www.drugs.com/cymbalta.html">http://www.drugs.com/cymbalta.html</a> <strong>“Cymbalta can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions. Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be awake and alert." For example- ohhhhh, voting for instance. Should you have voted for a democrat or republican in the election a few weeks back, how can you have been administered this medication and the Independents should still, and again, be those who are depressed. Rhetorical question. I am probably not being adminstered Spiriva.</strong><br />
<strong>Seasons Greetings:</strong> Why, you ask, are there only 10 drugs, when I had promised, or threatened, the 12 drugs/days of christmas. This is a recession and I need to spend some time going over the voluntary leave packet that was disseminated last week at work before a whirlwind string of days where each day requires I be merry. I cannot spend all of my joy on this christmas column. I am tired of fighting Microsoft Vista and the Word application trying to figure out, post George Michael Virus, how to override the auto format functions and constant lower casing of the letter ‘C’ in the word Christmas. I cannot pronounce a holiday I do not religiously appreciate. Besides, my son is in a Blue’s Clues phase and I am strangely fascinated by the prospect of watching (again) the episode where Joe replaces Steve, who is off to college. Ahh, <strong><span style="color: red;">Christmas</span> </strong>vacation, <span style="color: #33cc00; font-size: 130%;"><strong>christmas</strong></span> vacation. Gotta go- I need to help the little Houdini get the remote, and keep him out of the Spritz cookies.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-7112793668250115802017-02-18T06:45:00.000-06:002017-02-18T06:45:06.386-06:00Election 2016 continued<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The next 20 posts to Facebook from October 22nd-November 13th:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 21 (money, money,
money, money . . . money- the theme song to Trump’s reality show)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If
you can justify still voting for someone who can spend millions to discredit
someone challenging you and still have money left over to buy a small country
with your election campaign funds, I love to tell you, but you are part of the
problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“We’ll be launching a multimillion-dollar digital
campaign that talks about what’s at stake and how a vote for a third-party
candidate is a vote for Donald Trump, who is against everything these voters
stand for,” said Justin Barasky, a strategist for Priorities USA.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN">NO- a vote for a third party is a vote for a THIRD party
candidate and a legitimate, productive, purposeful vote at the dawn of a new
way of thinking for American voters who are interested in the bigger picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Laughable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Only the first part of that sentence is legitimate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m far too cynical to believe my diatribe
will actually do any good.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We
are in dire need of so many improvements in the election process (term limits,
campaign finance, super PACs oversight, congressmen turned lobbyist, ethics
violations, American Legislative Exchange Council regulations, Commission on
Presidential Debates [CPD] reforms)- do you think any of those get fixed by
continuing to vote for either of these parties? Do you put a question mark at
the end of a rhetorical question?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Certainly, there is no guarantee any of those problems improve just by
electing a different presidential candidate- no, but it’s a start.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Day
22 </b><b>“Gary Johnson” + news</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">No entitlement you could name, about to cripple
this country in the years to come, is more unsustainable than a republican or
democrat who thinks they are entitled to the political office of their
choosing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will spend any amount,
say and deny anything they have to, and do anything they have to in order to
attain it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A week after Trump’s harassment video blew up
big (cable and network news) and small media (blogs and internet articles), I
did a search on Gary Johnson and then clicked “news”. These were the
first screen of results, in order, on Google: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1- A “Daily Beast” article- “Donald
Trump’s Collapse Gives Gary Johnson an Opening.” Worth the read, a fair
critique of Johnson’s candidacy, but some tip-offs that it wasn’t written by a
professional news agency. I’m in good company- my offerings always have
plenty of those same signs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2- Fox13now.com <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3- The Inquistr – if
you stuck the word “Grand” in front of that and tried to pass it off as some
kind of Twitter sequel of a famous passage in a Dostoyevky novel, you have my
interest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4- The Libertarian Republic- about who
Johnson would nominate for the supreme court <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5- “Libertarian Gary Johnson’s Polling
Struggles are Clinton’s Gain”- U.S. News and World Report (Opinion section)- it
is noteworthy that this is only the Opinion section- not front and center <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6- Huffington Post- about his
championship of Private Prisons <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">7- Twitchy- ??? about a Twitter typo from
the Johnson camp directed at Trump, where respondents again use it to ridicule
Johnson. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">8- A blog about why Utah voters might
favor Johnson over Trump <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">9- The same blog addressing Johnson’s
foreign policy stances <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">10- A CNN David Axelrod opinion-ish
piece- about how Johnson would treat ISIS the same as Obama. This is a
summary of podcast distributed by CNN and not ultra-affiliated with the major
cable news station. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So far, any of these “news” outlets strike you
as mainstream, legitimate? Only the Huffington Post article. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">11- The New York Times. There you go.
Finally. All of this convinces me that if the presidential race
were akin to any Olympic event in history, the media would remove the third
stand usually reserved for the bronze medalist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">12- KOAT Albuquerque- a newspaper from the
state he was governor of for 2 terms <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Others- another from the Libertarian Republic
(#4 above); the blog referred to in #s 8 and 9 above; RealClearPolitics (not
bad); Washington Times (great- if it weren’t a blurb about the Libertarians
urging Mike Pence to drop Trump and support Johnson); another from #12 above;
something from NPR- awesome . . . about Johnson’s medical records with the
conclusion that he is the healthiest of the 3 leading poll vote getters fitness
to be pres. – not awesome; and then about half way down page 2 of the Gary
Johnson “news” Google search results- an article from The Cannabist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Very significant media coverage, not dismissive
in the least- where the most meaningful contributions are blogs, unknown sites
or subsidiary locations of otherwise legitimate news agencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The word complicit comes to mind when you
think of the news coverage given to other party candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 23 (Where’d she get
those millions?)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/10/02/flashback-reuters-audit-finds-clinton-charity-hiding-foreign-donations-on-irs-tax-filings/">https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/10/02/flashback-reuters-audit-finds-clinton-charity-hiding-foreign-donations-on-irs-tax-filings/</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“<span lang="EN">For three
years in a row beginning in 2010, the Clinton Foundation reported to the IRS
that it received zero in funds from foreign and U.S. governments, a dramatic
fall-off from the tens of millions of dollars in foreign government
contributions reported in preceding years.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On
the heels of that, we heard about this didn’t we- from October 9th?:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Another Side of Clinton – Latest WikiLeaks
release paint candidate as a moderate at ease with Wall Street”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This A.P. article<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A
CNN Money article from August 26, 2016 announces:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Associated Press botches Hillary Clinton
Report and Response.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The AP had taken
and run with a report about how many visitors of Clinton’s, while she was
secretary of state contributed money to the Clinton foundation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deplorable . . . for the AP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have to get that stuff right, or legitimate conflict
of interests, scams perpetrated against the gullible public, and elitist words
and actions will be ignored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lucky for
those who wouldn’t vote for Clinton have stories like this next one to cuddle
up to; unfortunately, those who will vote for her can ignore yet another
indication that she is also unfit and unqualified to be president of the United
States:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">News
Agency:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Associated Press; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Author:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lisa Lerer;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Title:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another Side of Clinton; Subtitle: Latest
WikiLeaks release paint candidate as a moderate at ease with Wall Street.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“.
. . in speeches to some of the country’s biggest banks, [Clinton] highlighted
her long ties to Wall Street . . . saying that she views the financial industry
as a partner in government regulation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">That’s
like leaving senators in charge of a congressional ethics committee, a fox in
charge of the hen house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abigail Adams
wrote to the future second president- “Remember, all men would be tyrants if
they could.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently that sentiment
can be expanded to include women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No man
or woman who has gathered in so complete a pile of money, is the best judge in
determining how it shall be retained or spent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day 24 (which one really
is the lesser of two evils- rhetorical question?)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">With
apologies to Jon Oliver, whom I love, of HBOs “Last Week Tonight”, and his
September 25<sup>th</sup> presentation of Clinton’s and Trump’s political and
business missteps . . . revealing Clinton’s errors and lies as somehow
preferable enough to justify that voters should elect her is like stating a
preference of donkey scat over elephant vomit as the most favored emission to
wake up covered in as the human prisoner of a zoo keeper landlord holding you captive:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/26/john-oliver-dangerous-donald-trump-is-way-way-shadier-than-hillary-clinton.html">http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/26/john-oliver-dangerous-donald-trump-is-way-way-shadier-than-hillary-clinton.html</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #3a3e44;">If the two candidate's scandalous negative qualities (as
personified by their FHOICCIS score) were compared and the likelihood of their
obtaining your vote were measured by their proximity to Earth, Clinton is
Uranus, 1.7-1.9 billion miles away, and Trump is Neptune, 2.7-2.9 billion; I'm
sorry, but that is not a meaningful difference.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day 25</b><span style="color: #16191f;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is a process, and the logic considers the big picture.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">You go to bed the night of December 12th and wake up to 12
inches of snow. You either don’t have a snow blower or yours isn’t functioning.
You have 45 minutes before a conference call to shovel/clear a driveway that
will probably take you an estimated three hours to complete- once you factor in
the cold, the energy loss, the will, and sore muscles and joints and the idea
that your favorite episode of the A-Team is due up on the FX channel at 4 pm.
Your kids, who are depending on you to get them into the house, are coming
home.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So, you don’t have time to get it all done, but making a 45
minute dent in a task that would take 3 hours leaves you with a more manageable
effort the next time you go out. This is a wet snow . . . the kind that gives
you a backache, could give you a heart attack, and you definitely don’t want to
have to do it. But you don’t have a choice. Putting it off another hour
jeopardizes the freedom you would rather spend elsewhere. You can blame the
weather and curse the conditions that caused the snow, and wish the obligations
that only allow this 45 minute window to make progress were larger.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">At the end of the 45 minutes of shoveling you won’t feel good,
because the job isn’t done. However, people driving by your driveway on their
way to the dentist, or the homeless guy who passes by your property on his way
to beg for food, will notice that progress has been made on the overall goal of
clearing the driveway. Perhaps you were thinking ahead and carved out of the
snow a path for your kids.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ladies and gentlemen, when you start to finish your basement,
start a paver patio project in the backyard, go shopping for a new car, or plan
a wedding- it isn’t all done once you begin. It is a process; there is a goal.
It takes will, time and consistency to accomplish the end result. For the
basement, there are wall frames to construct; there are foundations to tamp
into level for the pavers; for a wedding you have to secure a church and a hall
on the same date. There are hundreds of things to accomplish before you
complete the job of a finished basement or being married. You cannot start with
the end and you cannot get to the end until you start.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">Getting this country where it needs to be, so that at the very
least we have more options to choose from on election day is no different than
any other labor, or labor of love, you can think of. Name me one that isn’t? It
is time to start shoveling.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 26 (Polls) from an
October 10<sup>th</sup> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CBS News article
leveraging an NBC News/Wall Street Journal pollfrom CBS News<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-hillary-clinton-leads-donald-trump-by-14-points-nationally/"><span style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;">http://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-hillary-clinton-leads-donald-trump-by-14-points-nationally/</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #18181a;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The survey found that in a two-way race between the two
nominees, Clinton leads Trump 52 percent to 38 percent, up from a
7-percentage-point lead last month.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #18181a;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“In a four-way race involving third-party candidates, Clinton
leads Trump by 11 percentage points -- 46 percent to 35 percent, up from
Clinton’s 6-percentage-point lead in last month’s poll.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #181818;">A different poll, from October 11<sup>th</sup> (Deseret News in
Utah) brings us this information: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“As
Trump falls, </span>independent<span style="color: #181818;"> presidential candidate Evan McMullin continues to
rise. He is now in a statistical three-way tie with Republican Donald
Trump and Hillary Clinton in McMullin's home state of Utah.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the link to the poll </span><a href="http://mnip.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cfbe1f25c3dd0d0d2f422e186&id=4580021321&e=13bb97dc0a"><span style="color: #2699d7;">according
to a new Utah poll released late Tuesday</span></a><span style="color: #181818;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The poll shows<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Clinton
and Trump tied at 26 percent, McMullin with 22 percent and Libertarian Gary
Johnson getting 14 percent</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #181818;">“94 percent of Utahns </span><span style="color: #181818;">have
watched or heard about the video in which Trump” was caught speaking lewdly
about women. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Both Clinton and
Trump have unfavorability ratings of about 70 percent</span>, according to
the poll.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">First-
“Utahns”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a thing?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Second-
I’ve seen this so many times, it is a tiresome epidemic- Mr. or Mrs. article
writer, the word is “Independent”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Capitalize the word when used in reference to a political party, you
know, just as you would for those other two parties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How would you like this: republican and
democrat?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the same sentence-
“independent”, “Republican”, and “Democrat”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you are that oblivious, you should go back to writing papers about
what you did on summer vacation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Third-
who are the four candidates splitting the votes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their names?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fourth-
what “two-way race” is she referencing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Are there only 2 candidates vying for the presidency?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Fifth-
Why delineate between a two-way and a four-way race?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is she referring to two different elections?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Sixth-
again, how is Mr. Groper still polling at 38% after all that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 27 (Polls- Part I) <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the 1988 movie Die-Hard, John
McClane says: “Quit being a part of the f_ _ _ _ _ _ g problem and put the
other guy back on!” to the Deputy Chief of Police, who just made a bad decision
in hostage rescue 101. To keep the intro. short, just go watch the movie and
understand that the nature of polls is a hostage situation, we are one John
McClane away from being rescued and Dwayne T. Robinson is George Gallup.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Many things come before the
primary process (party posturing, becoming a legitimate little candidate with
an R or a D next to your name, fundraising events, and all kinds of other
things about which I couldn’t even begin to speculate). The most troublesome-
is polling. As Michael Traugott mentions in the article linked below- “
‘polling is a very important element of democracy.’ “ No, no it isn’t. There is
no benefit to the types of polling he is referring to. None. He “helped prepare
a groundbreaking report on how Gallup, a public-opinion titan, erroneously
predicted Romney would defeat Obama in 2012.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/09/28/why-public-opinion-polls-are-increasingly-inaccurate"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.usnews.com/…/why-public-opinion-polls-are-increa…</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Traugott also thinks that “Polls
‘give the public an independent voice that’s not generally present’ otherwise
in politics and political news coverage.” Wrong again, what voice does it give
to people who don’t want option A or option B? 9/10ths of the article is about
all of the things wrong with polling and the last five sentences read like the
equivalent of the closing couplet of a sonnet. The poet has spent 12 lines
deploring his melancholy existence (his love favors someone else, he is about
to die, time sucks or fate is unfair) and resolves in 2 lines to better that
situation or make amends with his conscience. Sounds like a pretty good
summation of politics generally- months and years of growing disgust, apathy
and general awareness that something big is wrong and a couple of months we
resolve to basically do nothing about it, but re-watch SNL’s portrayal of one
of the debates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Examples of why 21st century
polls are not close to right (contained within the article): <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1) Mistakes in core samples
(racial makeup, political ideology, overall methodology) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2) It is a digital, multicultural
world- plenty of survey subjects don’t speak much English <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3) Rise in cell phone usage- not
tied to a fixed address- “it’s not unusual for owners to have a different area
code than where they actually live” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4) Falling response rate due to
busy lives, cell phone users being able to screen and block incoming calls <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5) Automated calls to get
opinions have been banned by federal law protecting consumers <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6) “Gated, private communities
that door-to-door surveyors can’t reach”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">All of those factors have led to
a steep decline in the number of poll respondents. The remedy for all of the
above is a “better methodology, improved modeling of public behavior, smarter
ways to reach people (including Internet solicitations and small amounts of
cash) and a commitment to learn from its mistakes.” You could apply that
approach to just about any promise a candidate makes to the voters during an
election. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">I would want to know what
constitutes a “small” amount of cash and what kind of public behavior they
intend to improve and how. Are they out to measure and predict, or influence
and control?</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 28 (Polls Part II) <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The extensive review process
involved a significant amount of new research, including the fielding of
experiments and simulations focused on three areas of pre-election polling --
survey and sample design, survey field management, and data handling.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/trjone4/Downloads/Gallup%202012%20Presidential%20Election%20Polling%20Review.pdf">file:///C:/Users/trjone4/Downloads/Gallup%202012%20Presidential%20Election%20Polling%20Review.pdf</a><span style="color: #16191f;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I understand two major points
people defending a polling company could claim- 1) this is one report by one
polling agency in the broad spectrum of all political races; 2) polling is
their job- how do you not think they will improve this process.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">My answers to both of those
complaints: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1) I could find 100 articles in
the last 30 years that showed polling to be deceptive, inaccurate, or a
negative indicator for who would actually win an election, or by how much. How
many polls do we actually need? Any? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2) More significantly- polls are
speculation, not science, despite the verbiage they use explaining how they were
conducted, and exist to give a preview of what will happen when a broad range
of people vote on something. Polls aren’t necessary to a democracy; voting is.
And since we have a completely flawed and corrupt election process, as
evidenced by the findings from the Last Week Tonight piece above, the findings
of Wiki-Leaks on the DNC conspiracy to hand the democratic presidential
nomination to Clinton, super-delegate existence, campaign finance Citizens
United type of stuff- do we really need a hundred polls to tell us that all of
the things the two parties do to rig the system are working?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">George Gallup (</span><a href="http://www.capitalcentury.com/1935.html"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.capitalcentury.com/1935.html</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;">) founded his whole approach to polling in 1935, and Gallup polling
for presidential elections has been in existence since the election of 1936. In
2012, after 80 years of polling they got their third presidential election
wrong. They’ve been off by at least 2 percentage points on both candidates
almost every election since 1936 and the three times they got the winner wrong
a third party got at least 1% of the popular vote (1948, 1976, 2000).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/9442/election-polls-accuracy-record-presidential-elections.aspx"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.gallup.com/…/election-polls-accuracy-record-pres…</span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 29 (Polls Part III) <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are the four things the
Gallup poll research, conducted after the 2012 presidential election, stated
were the cause of predicting a Romney win over Obama:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1) Gallup’s likely voter
estimating- there is a difference between registered and likely voters <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2) Regional controls on
interviews- completed interviews of people within certain geographical regions-
in other words, some regions of the country were underrepresented<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3) Weighted race and ethnicity- a
disproportionate number of respondents reporting they were multiracial or
Native American- more indicated they were than was accurate<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4) Landlines v. Cell phone- the
listed landline sample in use in 2012 consisted of older and more Republican
respondents<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Other than the questions asked
during the interview and the order in which the pollster offers the potential
answers, I can’t think of another thing Gallup got wrong in 2012. It is
remarkable learning a polling agency with that reputation, and 80 years of
experience, got so many foundation level components to polling wrong
(socioeconomic, cultural, geographical, technology used, demographics, etc.)
And if they got that many things wrong, what can we possibly expect, or find,
are wrong with other polls?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To me, polling is a solution
without a problem. It impacts who will vote, who will stay home and not vote;
polls capture an opinion from someone years and months, in some cases, before
an election, and from others who don’t know the candidates or the issues within
a week of one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ask a group of kids registered to
attend camp next summer if, on July 24th 2017, they are going to want to stay
inside to play backgammon or go outside and swim. Voting is democracy; polling
is not. Some people with too much time on their hands speculating on future
events, isn't necessary. I suggest those people find some money, invest it in
the stock market and see what happens. What if the majority of kids don't want
to do either, but you only mention the two options?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Someone knocks on your front door
and asks, in two months, if you would choose being buried alive or drowned as
your future method of death. The poll results come out and it is determined
that 52% of people chose drowning. We keep choosing from among those options
and so they keep presenting them. What would happen if we stopped choosing the
options they offer?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The selections we make become
"popular" to the extent that the other options are less preferable;
we need to get to the point where we select options that we make available and
the only way to do that is to choose the mode of death WE find preferable. To
do that, we need to make more options exist. Maybe an option of living
contented until we're 88 and passing away in our sleep is something we should
look into so our kids don't have to choose to drown.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Don't ask me who I would choose
two months from now from among two candidates in what I'm finding is an
obviously rigged and corrupt election process; ask me now for my choice- I VOTE
to live.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 30 (more fun with polls) <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I found these first two links
amusing. A Gallup poll about how the majority of voters want a third party to
be available:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/185891/majority-maintain-need-third-major-party.aspx"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.gallup.com/…/majority-maintain-need-third-major-…</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">Pew Research Center- “Voter
General Election Preferences” About all the blocking this candidate from
getting elected instead of actually favoring one because of confidence in their
fitness to serve as a representative of our views and values: </span><a href="http://www.people-press.org/2016/07/07/2-voter-general-election-preferences/"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.people-press.org/…/2-voter-general-election-pre…/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“2016 Campaign: Strong Interest,
Widespread Dissatisfaction” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Overall satisfaction with the
choice of candidates is at its lowest point in two decades.” I can’t believe
that as of July 7, 2016 democrats and republican voters were 43% and 40%,
respectively, are “satisified” with their candidate for president. Important to
keep in mind, that is registered democrats and republicans, not those who are
normally coerced into voting for one or the other. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.people-press.org/2016/07/07/2016-campaign-strong-interest-widespread-dissatisfaction/"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.people-press.org/…/2016-campaign-strong-interes…/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is noteworthy that of all the
poll results indicating that Americans want third party candidates to get more
coverage, want them on the debate stage, etc., the poll results haven’t
actually equated to anything meaningful changing; and despite the polls about
who is winning a race that is the case study for rigged elections is still
keeping everything the same.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And a poll-result-laden article-
“The Majority of Americans want to See a Third Party on the Debate Stage” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“a whopping 62% of voters want to
hear what Johnson has to say.” And “The President of the Commission on
Presidential Debates has said he may be willing to make wiggle room for
Johnson”: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.redstate.com/brandon_morse/2016/08/26/poll-majority-americans-want-see-third-party-debate-stage/"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.redstate.com/…/poll-majority-americans-want-see…/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Wiggle room for Johnson. You
sickos. “Wiggle room,” yeah that sounds like some official government word for
– a subset of the 2 major party cronies going into a room in 1987 and deciding
to wiggle out of including anyone else in debates unless they reached some
arbitrary 15% voter preference threshold based on, you guessed it- POLLING. It
Can’t Happen Here. Someone resurrect Sinclair Lewis- he’s got a sequel to
author.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">Polling isn’t the worst thing
that has to be fixed in order for us to divest ourselves of the rigged/corrupt
election process we have now- it is just one of them. Tomorrow, item number 2.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">October 31- Happy Halloween</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 31 (Problem #2- the Media)<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Joe: Wait, problem 2 is polls.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bill: no problem 1 was polls, 2
is Media<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Joe: . . . pretty sure it was
polls. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Bill: Hmmm.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Me: I’m rather confused.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">You see, I don’t even know if
problem #1 starts with the media or the polls, but I think I have a better
chance than either one of those entities causing our problems than they have of realizing how many problems they’re causing by not doing their
jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here’s a typical poll exchange
from say August 1st of 2016-<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Pollster: “If the election were
held today, would you vote for Clinton, Trump or someone else?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Respondent: I would probably go
for a third option.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Pollster: I understand. But if
the election were just between Clinton and Trump?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Respondent: Probably Clinton, if
I have to choose.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">You don’t have to choose at all
and you certainly don’t need to choose a democrat over a republican.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I don’t have the space to detail
how fundamentally deficient every poll I have ever participated in actually is.
What I do know is that the result of a survey like that where demographics such
as income, age, gender, race, etc. are already known, the 1000+ responses, of
likely voters, are congealed into the simple math of- Clinton 44%, Trump 38%,
undecided = 11% and other candidates 6% or something grotesquely similar. The
assumption is that the 11% will largely fall into either one of the major party
buckets, because they always do; I don’t think polling has changed
since 1936. That is why and how we need to start shoveling- by holding polling
entities accountable for their sloppiness, ignorance, discrediting options
outside of the two they are choosing to assume are the only names worth
bringing up.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The media then, on the NBC
Nightly news, the local news in Tallahassee, the internet sites, some bloke’s
radio program, the newspapers and bloggers pick up those poll results and
distribute them without much, or any, vetting and most of what registers with us
is that Clinton has a 6-point lead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Newspaper example: September 18,
2016- the Minneapolis Star Trib. published the MN poll results from 625
registered Minnesota voters. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.startribune.com%2Fminnesota-poll-clinton-keeps-lead-but-trump-gains%2F393840031%2F&h=ATPGg9z3_wJSoh0R0jXTg8Rny2Tym9JD00WDbJUXx-C14SGK6NSYG_NzxpBf3CxuDCgO9WRUB7r2vYqIadUYb0F7qbOa4FzkcErfRMPJTNXQOvceWnkxXIyjXAc7Qo_0nLoT2z6wkwpcgVwu5RQXsd_lniiwscJAJdI&enc=AZNRMKWT3JWbspsP5xnPimARK3zcc92J8wnuALA7MJxTEPUD2CDE-HN8N6yUbORQWBzAtuGtnIpALWfIiz2lofZNg0O0hm-6dEzB9cLldKqOC7FM-Ql49qUkRwn0V1rAzph03N3vZy4CAsxHSmb9hD6UWIAdqo-JJZxmXQ57WNDlKvPH2WBKo2qWF8DUqU_EB1w&s=1"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-poll-clinton-keeps-…/…/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This is what I wrote, after
prefacing the article and poll results in question, to the author of that
article and the person to whom responses or questions about the nature of the
poll were to be directed:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I am curious about a number of
things- what is the standard reporters use to continue to capitalize the words
"Democrat" and "Republican" especially in reference to the
voters who align themselves with those parties and not capitalize a voting
block consistently referred to as "independents"? </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It is fairly
insulting, as an <i>Independent</i>, to be an afterthought in these types of articles
and in the polls, considering the likely delivery of the questions. You elected
to capitalize the word "Undecided" in the table of results in the
right bottom corner of your article (on page A1). So- "Undecided" . .
. but "independent"? Huh. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This state (MN) features one of the strongest,
for what it is worth, Independence parties in the country. You can't condescend
to legitimize them? There is an industry-wide misuse of the word
"Independent" in my opinion. Bloomberg, at the DNC a couple months
ago, referred to himself as an "Independent", and was throwing his support behind
Clinton. A real Independent does not support a candidate like that, as much because of her affiliation with a political party cabal, as because of what she specifically represents- see any previous or future posts on this topic- or turn on the television, crawl out from under a rock and pay attention.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Can someone research an article
on the nature of these kinds of polls, the questions asked, the phrasing, the
"also receiving votes" dismissive nature of Independent party
candidates? Big topic to be sure, but can we break it down for this specific
poll? The voters questioned, I'm assuming, weren't identified as "registered"
republicans and democrats? I've been asked those same type of questions over
the phone and with volunteers going door to door. Independents (Libertarians,
Green Party) are always considered afterthoughts- the order in which the names
of the candidates are read is indicative of the two-party bias we have, that is
perpetuated by the media and authored by pollsters- "If the general
election for president . . . were held today, which one of the following
tickets would get your vote:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Clinton, Trump, Johnson, Stein,
not sure?" That list isn't alphabetical. That list probably isn't based on
the previous results from April; it isn't based on the expected results of the
poll they are currently conducting? That is mostly a rhetorical question.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Plenty of other questions, but
I'll leave it with this relatively harmless one- I get that Johnson/Weld are
only polling at 6%. But you guys in the newsrooms, editorial boards, across
this country have got to start asking yourself- why would you feel the need to
crystalize the results of the poll for the candidates whom the poll favored
(Clinton and Trump) on page A1 of the paper, in a font size at least twice as
large as those also ran candidates whose minuscule numbers appear beneath the
leading vote getters? You are playing right into the hands of the status quo as
if you've been directed by them.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Shockingly, I received no
response.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Only the answer by Mr. Owl to the
question- “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a
Tootsie Pop?” was more elusive. The answer, though completely subjective, to
that question was 3; ironically, that is, at the very least, how many parties
should be on the debate stage no matter how horribly the third party is
polling. Again I ask, do the minor parties not poll well because the media
doesn’t cover them, or not cover them because they don’t poll well. On this
very important question of life- our glass is half empty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">November 2<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 32 (CPD) (Problem #4 with our RIGGED election process)<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">(Polls, the media and No
Ranked-Choice Voting or RCV were the first 3). I could have spent 5 more posts
on the first 2, so consider yourself fortunate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">At this point, it would be a
victory to just get third and fourth parties onto the debate stage? The only
current way to get that done is to legitimize them; the only way to do that is
to hold out like a defensive-end outperforming his rookie contract until you
force the hand of the powers that be.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We have to demand poll questions
from pollsters calling our homes to give equal treatment of any third and
fourth and fifth parties mentioned during the predictably simplistic
questioning. If the third or fourth party candidate is judged to not be insane
(to the extent that the two conglomerates the news only has the attention span
to cover aren’t objectively judged so) and the candidates are listed in
alphabetical order on a phone questionnaire, why should a third party candidate
whose last name is Johnson be listed last (if at all), if he’s running against
a candidate named Trump. Why would a Progressive, Populist, Independent named
Anderson be listed last in a race featuring candidates named Carter and Reagan.
16 years ago the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) settled on 15% as the
number at which a presidential candidate must be polling in order to be
included in debates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.debates.org%2Findex.php%3Fpage%3Doverview&h=ATMR_DDV598YYnsy7lLBCpjHh_7VFaf_ziEFDJR2vf8S7NOuGNtZeWZU7sixu-a-HuGXrsYTvsNIrrzXXeXC-bHBufzqejafOXaPiRIXuaf644kSCuymuvo2RZPd5rH1HYHdtZAR2HNMuFQic8ScWGwx4d5H5ostZNE&enc=AZOgkxsOhWHnhMnlRLRMXNX6bd_Kz4Dd6SVG_5-s97omZUf3XD5LFXsya-dp5dl6GguNbqtHi3-5BufQFkQBOWOlMogC2VLPxoYLNY3MijIHNjxmuzpCZvk7iM3mG7CMmjcs9CvvFiaKYjtIAQeFz42M_9ggyPZ-zJLw7DlkF1j5VGOR-7twlkTt-d9KUt0JEeA&s=1"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=overview</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> Why not at 8%.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/gary-johnson-libertarian-polls/484151/"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.theatlantic.com/…/gary-johnson-libertari…/484151/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/garyjohnson?source=feed_text&story_id=10206835114106277"><span style="color: #3351a2; text-decoration: none;">#</span><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">garyjohnson</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/pollingat10?source=feed_text&story_id=10206835114106277"><span style="color: #3351a2; text-decoration: none;">#</span><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">pollingat10</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;">% </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/inmay2016?source=feed_text&story_id=10206835114106277"><span style="color: #3351a2; text-decoration: none;">#</span><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">inmay2016</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Why not a change of rules to
invite whoever the third most popular candidate, according to the five leading
polls, to the debates? Ah, but we know why. Money, influence, money, power,
money.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Commission on Presidential
Debates- screams and laughs- “The CPD's selection criteria have sought to
identify the individuals whose public support has made them the leading
candidates.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">- If the pollster mentions the
name of the third party candidate after the two political monopoly parties, a
rundown of the foods they ate that day, and a crop report on corn futures in
Oregon, how in the hell is someone going to gain “support”?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">- If the news channels, who
broadcast news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for all 671 days of a
presidential election cycle include only an iota of mentions for third parties,
while stories, town halls, focus groups and pundits sweat over the monopolizing
media darlings (reps and dems), how are the non-traditional candidates supposed
to gain “support”?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">- If the amount of time, in 2
years that is devoted to the also-ran parties in newspapers, magazines and
legitimate websites could fit into a tube the size of those in Monsters Inc.
before Sully and Wazowski discovered the laughs of children supplied more energy
than their screams, how in the hell is someone going to gain “support”?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">- If a third or fourth party
candidate has 2-3 small children, a small business to run, employees to hire,
wages to control, trades and purchases to make, and business deals to travel
to, while your average major party candidate misses two-thirds of his or her
senate votes while making calls to donors and attending dozens of $1000 a plate
dinners sponsored by investment firms and pharmaceutical companies, how in the
hell is a progressive party candidate supposed to gain “support”?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Again, the election process is
rigged, but not in the way Trump thinks it is. The whole reason he is the
republican nominee and standing on the debate stage with only one other
candidate is because our elections are rigged.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 33, November 3 <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Committee on Presidential
Debates- 15%- pretty good interest rate on just about any investment vehicle;
pretty ridiculous and arbitrary minimum number for the CPD cabal to decide upon
for allowing other candidates to be heard on any of the general election debate
stages. It’s as if the powers that be are guarding against allowing another
voice onto the stage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Is that my paranoia or their
conspiracy? It can’t be both- they’re pretty mutually exclusive. You mention
either of those words (paranoid and conspiracy) and people think you’re nuts;
writing them in one line is downright foolish (yes, a step beyond nuts believe
it or not. The latter implies a standard qualification for being considered
sane has been violated; no one has any behavioral expectation of people
classified as “nuts”). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For as many things as are
outlined here to all be against the possibility of additional candidates
outside of the status quo representing the concerns so clearly within the
collective population to devastating majority (60% of people want another
candidate in every election- not just this one), and for a third candidate to
never make it onto a stage or speak into a microphone- I’m either insinuating
there is a conspiracy, or I’m paranoid. To be saved from the label of paranoid,
one only has to be right 30% of the time- but can never be wrong twice in a row
(???). Since that math isn't possible, someone pronouncing as many things wrong
with the election process as I have been, has to be paranoid. And it isn't a
theory if you're right; it's a conspiracy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Pretty sure I included this think
in another post, but in case I haven't, get ready to be disgusted. Below is a
quote that is really all you need to know-<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=overview"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=overview</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Federal Election Commission
("FEC") regulations require a debate sponsor to make its candidate
selection decisions on the basis of "pre-established, objective"
criteria. After a thorough and wide-ranging review of alternative approaches to
determining who is invited to participate in the general election debates it
will sponsor, the CPD adopted on October 28, 2015 its 2016 Non-Partisan
Candidate Selection Criteria. Under the 2016 Criteria, in addition to being
Constitutionally eligible, candidates must appear on a sufficient number of
state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the
Electoral College, and have a level of support of at least 15 percent of the
national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion
polling organizations, using the average of those organizations’ most recently
publicly-reported results at the time of the determination. The polls to be
relied upon will be selected based on the quality of the methodology employed,
the reputation of the polling organizations and the frequency of the polling
conducted. CPD will identify the selected polling organizations well in advance
of the time the criteria are applied.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">My corresponding questions or
concerns with the contents of just that one paragraph:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1- Aside from the size of the
democrat’s and republican’s collective egos inside the debate hall and the
overall sense of entitlement to the position of president of the United States,
is there not enough room on the stage at the venues chosen to host the debates
for a third podium?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2- “ ‘pre-established, objective’
“- are they defining “objective” in the same way I would and do they know that
objective and subjective are not the same word?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3- “thorough and wide-ranging
review of alternative approaches”- right, right, right- they looked for other
approaches to determining the participants in presidential debates the same way
my daughter looks for her Easter basket, she enters a room, stands in the
middle of it and turns around a couple times . . . sometimes with her eyes open<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4- “invited to participate”- first,
if you are on the ballot in all 50 states, or even half of them, you should be
invited to debate in one way or another, on the same stage with the other
candidates who are on the ballot in all 50 states- and no changing the process
for getting candidates onto the ballot in all 50 states is allowable- even if
each state’s criteria for doing so is completely different.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5- “sponsor”- this, politically,
is like a word that would set Beavis and Butthead off on a minute-long
stupidity-induced giggling fit. No non-elected body who formed to keep more,
and/or diverse voices out of politics should be sponsoring something as
integral to “democracy” as a debate on the issues impacting the citizens of a
country. This is yet another thing more important to “democracy” than polling.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6- “Non-Partisan Candidate
Selection Criteria”- you have got to be kidding me. Non-partisan?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">7- “candidates must appear on a
sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a
majority vote in the Electoral College”- so many things wrong with that
sentence- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">a) are there states in this
country I don’t know about? Still 50 right? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">b) what kind of math are we
talking about here?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">c) Electoral College- that old
boondoggle- I’ll get to that one- but in short, all electoral votes go to one
candidate who has taken for granted 1/4-1/3 of the states that party always
wins- that seems fair.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">8- “support of at least 15%”- Why
so high a number as 15%? Who came up with it and why? Why not 5%, why not 10%,
why not 1%? Is this where the math comes in? See #7.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">9- “five selected national public
opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations”- I
could have spent 3 more posts at least, revealing how flawed polling agency’s
questionnaires, findings, and assessments are<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">10- “using the average” – more
math<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">11- “of those organizations’ most
recently publicly-reported results”- how about any of the polls? If the poll
results are not favorable to the plan to rig the election in favor of either of
the two parties, do we just not hear about it and if they don’t report them,
they must not have been conducted?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">12- “at the time of the
determination.” Which is when, the day before leaked poll results that were
supposed to be banned from public consumption are leaked?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">13- “CPD will identify the
selected polling organizations well in advance of the time the criteria are
applied.” So, is it possible that they choose from among 10 polling agencies,
wherein the results are favorable to blacklisting additional parties from
having representation on the debate stage? So, how many polling agencies are
out there? If the results of the polls are so similar, why do so many of them
need to exist and why wouldn’t we want to have the polling agencies
standardized, with input from an objectively-formed Committee not just
comprised of current or former members of the democratic or republican parties?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When the qualifications for being
debate-worthy are far more stringent than the qualifications of the people
deciding upon who can appear on a stage . . . that is less theory and more
conspiracy. In a nation of laws, plenty of which are outdated, because of the
constitution, (did I just say that) maybe it is time to enact legislation about
who determines a candidate's legitimacy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;">Day 34 (November 4) Debate Exposure</span></b><span style="color: #16191f;"> . . . hold on, wait, stop! I interrupt the continuation of the
intended sub-topic of debates, to bring you one more link I couldn’t keep
myself from addressing related to polls. I found it while searching for what
positives are offered by having a third party involved in the debate aspect of
elections. Since the article pretty much blatantly shows what actual polls do
surreptitiously, I figured it was a mandatory inclusion. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Not sure why the below article’s
contents surprised me, because the lengths that those in power will go to
ensure they each only have one other competitor to deal with is a worthwhile
truth to notice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“CNN Censors Focus Group Members
Voting Third Party,” October 5, 2016, Aya Katz.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I could quote every sentence of
the article, but I’ll try to contain my disgust by selecting a few:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“CNN chose to edit footage . . .
to make it seem that members of [a focus] group who were not voting either
[r]epublican or [d]emocrat were undecided when . . . they had declared that
they were voting for a third party.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">CNN “re-shot the segment and
replaced [the option for focus group participants to choose] ‘third-party’ with
undecided.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://libertybuzz.us/story/cnn-censors-focus-group-members-voting-third-party/2016/10/05/1085/"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://libertybuzz.us/…/cnn-censors-focus-…/2016/10/05/1085/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“Rather than voting for the
Libertarian Party or the Green Party or the Constitutional Party, voters who
have not decided to vote for Trump or Clinton are presented as undecided, as if
the two old parties were the only available choices and anyone who has not
chosen one of the two is still trying to decide.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Why would CNN feel the need to
allow Donna Brazille to “resign” due to a conflict of interest after
determining that her participation in allowing the Clinton campaign to be aware
of debate questions before a debate, and then pull a stunt like this? Surely,
we will find out two weeks from now that someone deciding to censor the
volunteer voters, by changing the words “third-party” to undecided, and
scripting subsequent responses makes me think that the continued lower-case
appearance of words like “Independent” when in reference to a political party,
are more calculated than one might think.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 35, November 5 (yeah, these are getting long, because I'm
running out of time- so are you):<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Committee on Presidential
Debates- 15%- pretty good interest rate on just about any investment vehicle-
pretty ridiculous and arbitrary minimum number for the CPD cabal to decide upon
for allowing other candidates to be heard during debate season. It’s as if the
powers that be are guarding against allowing other electable options to
question the records, platforms, affiliations and judgment of the monopoly
party candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Not sure what the Committee on
Presidential Debates (CPD), the online, print, television and radio media, and
polling agencies would have such a problem allowing candidates on the debate
stage. Of course I do, but I want to play along.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What really are the issues with
not allowing more candidates to participate in a debate?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #16191f;">Level of issue debate: it is undebatable . . . that the level of
issue debate rises when third parties are invited to debates. Instead of
talking about women-groping, email servers, and general lunacy, we could talk
about how exactly we would better the gun-control problem, school shootings,
the problem in Syria, underemployment, health care, you name it<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #16191f;">Space: is an auditorium holding 2,000 to 10,000 in the audience,
at a presidential library, college or university, so small that its stage is
incapable of holding an extra podium or three? I realize that one stage holding
19, as it would have needed to during the 2015-16 republican primaries is as
unlikely as it is desperate, (considering Lindsey Graham and Mike Huckabee were
in the quorum).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3)<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #16191f;">Slippery slope: the next thing someone on the CPD, or others who
are rigging the election process will say is “how many would we like there? If
you put three, four and five on the stage, where does it stop? It is a slippery
slope and next thing you know you have the Cannabis party candidate talking
about federal funding for marijuana growers.” If there is money in it for the
government, that idea would be rife with appropriations in favor of the
measures- a truly lit idea. My answer to the slippery slope concern- let’s get
to three through five candidates included in debates and we’ll worry about the
far less significant problem of too many candidates on the debate stage later,
you know, like after there are actual laws enacted that legally guide the qualifications
for inclusion in debates. What is worse, having only two options, considering
the number of issues and lack of intelligent, meaningful and permanent answers
they consistently don’t offer, or invite a few more that will keep the main two
from saying so many redundant, corrupt and ineffectually stupid things?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4) Numbers: There are 30 minority
parties that will be on at least one ballot- you cannot invite all of them, so
. . .<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5) Preliminaries: We have so many
network and cable television outlets, and all of them have a presence online.
No one can tell me that there isn’t room on these channels/programs for
recorded televised debates that could be youtubed to death. If the candidates
polling at .0001%, whose prime goal after being elected president of the United
States would be to change the spelling to “Amerika”, wouldn’t that be stupid,
wrong, different and entertaining? His failure wouldn’t be dissimilar to the
failures that traditionally occupy air time, cable television time, radio
discussion topics and streamed or podcasted videos, debate highlights that are
currently available.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6) Legitimacy: There would be no
also-ran debates where they take the 6 candidates polling the worst and have
them get onto a stage no one pays attention to, separate from those polling
more than 10%, as happened on the republican side this year. Put the
candidate’s names in a hat and pull out 8 apiece and put them on two different
stages and have two separate debates. The number they draw is also the order in
which they stand from left to right. That way, the poll numbers don’t place the
two leading candidates in the middle of the stage, where the debate organizers
want most of the attention to be focused, subconsciously and surreptitiously
helping decide for voters who are the most legitimate candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">7) If there are 16 candidates
vying for any office in the nation, let alone for president, have them debate
each other. If three candidates don’t have any idea about what they are talking
about, have them fail because of their own weaknesses not because of the
strength of the political machine. If a candidate suffers for his ignorance,
like a basketball team fails on the court, then so be it, but at least they got
an opportunity. Michael Jordan said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take;
it is even harder to take them if you don’t have a ball in your hands. The NCAA
basketball tournament is the best sporting event in the world and tens of
millions pay attention. The public determines who they’re voting for in the primary
after a level playing field has been set, not after the media and party
organizers, supporters and corporations with their hands all over the election
cycle have dictated to the American people who the nominee is going to be.
(Remember- super-delegates, campaign finance, CNN censoring town hall voters,
etc.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">8) Money and ratings: Google
“ratings for republican primary debates” to find out if any of this is this is
a good idea. Ratings = money, that is how they sell advertising. Any chance it
is a worse idea to televise or otherwise make available videotaped debates or
to have another 15 Wolf Blitzer segments trying to get a good answer from
Trump’s third campaign manager about how he won a debate by flinging the most
feces accurately? If there had been a fourth presidential debate this year, any
odds that wouldn’t have been the next thing Trump tried? And can you imagine
how much advertising would cost?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Unless the personages polling,
paying for polls, or affiliated with the polls are rigging the election process
by asking people who just finished teaching their two-legged giant poodle how
to take a selfie with a refurbished Polaroid camera, why should a bonus party
candidate be restricted from contributing in a debate during the general
election or primary seasons on any one of a dozen cable or network news
channels broadcasting 24 hours a day? If a republican or democratic candidate
is really on his or her way to vying for the white house against all comers,
why not let luck decide how persuasive and skilled an orator they are by having
them debate against five candidates intelligent and objective people haven’t
even vetted yet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Shouldn’t they be able to
distinguish themselves amongst candidates at the presidential kiddie table
(which is basically how those so obsessed with upholding the two-party system
treat third parties)? No? Isn’t that what people determining the whole process
are asking of third+ parties?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Consider the number of television
news outlets alone (Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, MS-NBC, etc.) and compare
that to the 5 ESPN stations. The national spelling-B, women’s lacrosse, SEC
football games from 1978, UFC coverage, and bowling have been known to grace
ESPN channels. You can’t tell me that seeing another kid faint on purpose to
delay his potential failure to spell the word “alopecoid”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/06/03/boy-collapses-at-spelling-bee-nails-word.html"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.foxnews.com/…/boy-collapses-at-spelling-bee-nail…</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> is more watchable than Rick Perry stating that Creationism is
taught in Texas’ (the state he governed) public schools- when it isn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://blog.chron.com/rickperry/2012/01/rick-perry%E2%80%99s-top-ten-oops-moments-of-his-campaign/"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://blog.chron.com/…/rick-perry%E2%80%99s-top-ten-oops-…/</span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 36, November 6 – Debates concluded<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">Let’s look at a couple of quotes
from this story from the Atlantic.com- “In an Unusual Election Year, Should
Third Parties be allowed to Debate?” written by Nora Kelly, August 29, 2016: </span><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fpolitics%2Farchive%2F2016%2F08%2Fgary-johnson-jill-stein-debate%2F497735%2F&h=ATMteyOKs4Er2-T9zGD83AA327qrlI5HlsQmhvN0EICFdtV5pB_tsNvsnTJSrgvbEpgindxFp7RMLx7OjU269HwJvYYn_EHHwwpDKHISbcujWFKABFHWD0i7TOFYsC56ySZXKrj2Dcq7LBtsMWrWJxRtYvh8XSM6zJA&enc=AZP9AqpsCk8mvWernDU5t8KA-7eeaHd7LeEfJ9XAsBzG8C7s-M65wPp0IOD-7j6Y2AR8EblANjJ3BJC56pyVCSctp7jOy8afzh9NT5O0jUNAhXM4jMjylmdubw7McCPCxu0rJsyC6eHWSooBvrG6b3WiWZ6g9dkqbccRMdtBV4uaQk9fERS21Vsh6nQmgvdgslM&s=1"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.theatlantic.com/…/gary-johnson-jill-stei…/497735/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“In an editorial this month
[August of 2016], the Los Angeles Times wrote that voters must be given a
chance to hear “alternative ideas” at the upcoming debates. The Charlotte Observer
put it more pointedly, with a reference to Trump’s now-infamous allegation that
the election could be stolen. “While the presidential election isn’t rigged
(despite what some Republicans might want you to believe), the debates sure
seem to be.” Voters, in particular, have responded to the Johnson campaign:
He’s polling better now than he did as a presidential candidate in 2012, and
more than a million people tuned into the second Libertarian town hall.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“The Trump and Clinton campaigns
haven’t had much to say about Johnson and Stein. Neither campaign responded to
requests for comment about those candidates’ hypothetical involvement in
debates. Open-debate advocates probably shouldn’t expect any displays of
support, either, as neither campaign would want to risk defection if
third-party opponents perform well.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">. . . “She [Chris Carson, current
League of Women Voters president] wouldn’t say definitively that a 15 percent
cutoff is what her organization would mandate if it were still in charge, but
pressed the importance of sticking to “really clear” criteria to reasonably
limit candidate numbers. The commission, which did not respond to repeated
interview requests, notes on its website that the League used a 15 percent
metric in 1980.” Note: “League” refers to the League of Women Voters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Additional points on the contents
of the above:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1) “Unusual election year”- every
election year is unusual in that they only happen every four years, we have
candidates who don’t belong in office, saying and doing things we cannot
believe. Since there is no Constitutional directive guiding the criteria for
the intricacies of debates, I would think the adherents who would defend the
Constitution with their life, would be willing to accept such an oversight;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2) An editorial, that's from the
media right, in favor of including third party candidates? Hell hath frozen
over;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3) “ ‘alternative ideas’ ”- why
would we want those, the people normally in favor of voting for either of the
two parties in a normal election are going to vote for one of the two
lunatic-criminals receiving the majority of the affirmative poll-numbers and
will be duped into voting for one of the two major party candidates when, in
four years, the nominees look like angels and/or geniuses.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4) “ ‘the presidential election
isn’t rigged’ ”- oh, it is rigged baby- to quote Trump- “believe me.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5) “ ‘the debates sure seem to be
[rigged].’ ” ya think<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6) “responded to the Johnson
campaign”- if he were invited to the debates the 2012 poll numbers of 2%,
increased to 8-10% this year, would be at 15% in 4 years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">7) Debates would legitimize the
third-party candidates, so why would “The Trump and Clinton campaigns have
anything to say- they would have more to lose by not allowing additional
competition into the monopoly they have going in fooling the voting public.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">8) Additional candidates
“hypothetical involvement in debates”- as opposed to the major parties
hyper-exclusive control and general ineffectualness on display every debate<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">9) “neither campaign would want
to risk defection if third-party opponents perform well.” I think the two major
parties learned that lesson in 1992, when, in addition to looking like a fool,
Ross Perot also made Bush and Clinton look pretty average, and the voters took
notice as he received 19% of the popular vote (5% more than Gallup had
predicted). Since traditional margin of error for any poll conducted since I
can remember is +/- 2-4% that should tell you something about how viable
third-parties could be if they were included in debates. If someone is getting
19% of the popular vote, they are more likely to earn electoral votes, even
under the ridiculously outdated process of granting an entire state’s worth of
electoral votes to one candidate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">What better way is there? That
will be Monday’s topic (electoral votes), from which I will take a break on
Tuesday to revisit the topic I started this whole crusade with and then I’ll
discontinue the whole thing, having left about ¾ about what I could have
written on the topic not included in this format.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">To begin to summarize- it took
200 years for rumors about Thomas Jefferson and his paternity of a child with
one of his slaves to be proven true. All that really proved was that Jefferson
was a hypocrite, as he still has a better reputation than he deserves. Do we
need to wait that long for the proof that I’ve made available to everyone about
our dysfunctional and corrupt election process to sink in and change the way we
do things in this country? Yeah, probably, we’re just that collectively
stubborn and untrusting.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 37, November 7 (Electoral Votes part I)<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Things I’ve gotten to which are
wrong with the election process- Polls, Media, No Ranked-Choice Voting,
Debates, our lack of foresight in not legitimizing more candidates and the
worst among them- the CPD. Things I didn’t get into: campaign finance, term
limits, gerrymandering, the supreme court, local government and the
Constitution. The last item mentioned is the biggest roadblock to improvement
in this country any way you slice it. The constitution is the bible of
politics- an outdated relic that’s application to today’s issues is deeply
flawed- think of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th amendments, to name just a few,
that are in dire need of complete restructuring, which political, government
and corporate entities and private citizens abuse the vagueness of to our
country’s current and future peril.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">No easy transition to this
subtopic . . . think about some of the elections in the past. Way back in 1840
when farmers made up 69% of the labor force; in 1900 that was 38%; in 1950
12.2%; by 1990 that was at 2.6%. Consider that the same trend follows in
mining, manufacturing, industrial plants, lumber yards, shipping, blacksmithing
and that the concentration of those jobs is now more than ever in select rural
areas far removed from the issues facing those in major metropolitan areas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">“The average family size dropped
from seven children to four children from the 1800s to early 1900s.”- </span><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fclassroom.synonym.com%2Fworking-class-early-1900s-16090.html&h=ATMU3LxSBkx7pmPemeboyqit1IJ0oHKXI6X_x7jCb8pdMJupkLWLaVo4GmpeBb9rxL2FQytFT2q1VfI_CHdMVYCjxz2iBmpRGTN1dc8cdFNVQIMJKRqvAFofT3UF7OB5QjaTRuiAZZRRBVlNDqBC-gwYTRpp_n6L9ho&enc=AZP2b1vpEsyiohhJcfKGKoxRowS96mNtQFY1djWAPPWHLIHNqFbd3nLpRMQ1zdMOio5qaCvZeU53pth0YGIFVXhjqn7qtOA7rQEWZbd3o1v5W1km4I7NiSDjQJPAHOlzlqzCwENV11RU6RqxtnowbZeLVpcAu0KxXfO-7_ZyZ3nUcB6qOMZf21MgX60PJUWEcUw&s=1"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://classroom.synonym.com/working-class-early-1900s-1609…</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> It might take me 5 minutes, without using Wikipedia, to come up
with respected sources showing how many kids people are having these days, or
having these days in metro areas compared to rural areas. It might take me ten
minutes to determine what salaries those in the cities are making compared to
those who live within walking distance to a farm, or how much someone in a city
spends on concerts, hockey tickets and dining out, compared to what the average
rural citizen might spend, how likely someone grossing over $110K a year is to
vote for a republican vs. a democrat and whether a 25-34 year-old teacher in
downtown Boise, Idaho making less than $40k a year will go for Trump or
Clinton.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Since I can do it, I know people
whose job it is to know those things, do in fact know them- like the
candidates, the media, polling agencies, corporations bankrolling the
candidates, who subsidize the non-stop election campaigns by donating mightily,
as individuals, not as corporations. Google “Citizens United”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Who else knows the demographics-
the people who put together the red and blue maps we’re enamored with on
election night. Soon enough John King will be poised before a map of the United
States, moving these electoral votes to Clinton and these to Trump. He’ll crawl
inside the congressional districts within Florida, Ohio, maybe Texas, and see
whose path to 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency is most
unencumbered. He may even call Utah for Evan Mcmullin . . . if we’re lucky.
He’ll hit a button and the 2012 election results will pop up and the only thing
he, or anyone else with these fancy maps will hear about is how Obama did well
in this county in Florida 4 years ago. We will be mesmerized. We’ll be made
into zombies the same way people were by Perot in 1992, for which he is
ridiculed now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Hell, we can make ourselves into
zombies by going to a CNN site (you know the media darling for liberals that
told us two weeks after they were parting ways with the interim DNC chair who
reportedly fed the Clinton campaign some of the expected questions-<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/31/media/donna-brazile-cnn-resignation/index.html"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://money.cnn.com/…/donna-brazile-cnn-resigna…/index.html</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;">)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">Sorry, got distracted- the link
where you can play with the electoral votes- </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/election/interactive-electoral-college-map"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.cnn.com/electi…/interactive-electoral-college-map</span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 38, November 8, Election Day<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I started the overall topic of
this particular election, and the general problems with this rigged election
process, over a month ago. That first week, one of the posts was this from
Stephen C. Meyer’s book Signature in the Cell:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 3<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“…the Dover trial and its
associated media coverage made me aware that I needed to make my argument in a
more prominent way. Many evolutionary biologists had acknowledged that they
could not explain the origin of the first life beginnings. Leading theories failed
in large measure because they could not explain where the mysterious
information present in the cell came from. So it seemed there were no good
counterarguments to the case I wanted to make. Yet various avoidance strategies
continued to work because the argument did not have sufficient public
prominence to force a response. Too few people in the public, the scientific
community, and the media even knew about it. And yet it provided—arguably—one
of the most important and fundamental reasons for considering intelligent
design.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The next day’s post was
essentially the same quotation with six minor changes in [ ] below:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 4<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“…the [presidential election] and
its associated media coverage made me aware that I needed to make my argument
in a more prominent way. Many [political pundits] had acknowledged that they
could not explain the [beginnings of voter tendencies]. Leading theories failed
in large measure because they could not explain where the mysterious
information present in the [vote] came from. So it seemed there were no good
counterarguments to the case I wanted to make. Yet various avoidance strategies
continued to work because the argument did not have sufficient public
prominence to force a response. Too few people in the public, the [political] community,
and the media even knew about it. And yet it provided—arguably—one of the most
important and fundamental reasons for considering [another political party].”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The similarities are striking- I
exchanged 11 words for 12 in 6 locations, less than 10% of the text was
altered; the altered and the original should beg the reader to come to the same
conclusion. We are woefully inadequate in adopting, or in authoring change-
whether we are talking about science and education or politics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I wrote all of this the last
month, with a few more to come, because I knew I was right; this isn’t my
opinion. Until we take the long view, politics and the corrupt election process
will seem very much like science, education and the case for intelligent
design, the latter of which (ID) is going to be much more difficult to prove.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Vote for a different party this
election, vote for a different party the next . . . trust each other. We’re
living in a Tower of Babel America. So many languages, cultures, backgrounds,
belief systems, so much lack of faith, so little hope, so little foresight.
This election process is thriving because the two parties, the poll results,
the media, the Commission on Presidential Debates, lack of Ranked-Choice Voting
and the electoral college, among other things, including us, allow it to
continue. They have manipulated you into voting for one of two sides. Anyone
who has thought- a third party vote is a wasted vote or is a vote to keep a
candidate who is even less preferable than the one you’re voting for- is part
of the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Saw this on an episode of the Big
Bang Theory last night. The characters brought up Buridan’s donkey- caught
equidistant between two equally appetizing bales of hay. The donkey risks
starvation if it is unable to choose to walk toward one bale of hay or another
and begin to eat. Yes, we, and the donkey, have free will, even if we don’t
know why we choose one bale of hay over another. I’m guessing everyone voting
has their reasons and I bet I’ve insulted anyone by questioning those reasons
in the course of this diatribe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In this case, I’m the donkey, the
stubborn ass . . . well, kind of. Not moving toward either bale is the
equivalent of not voting. I won’t walk to either bale of hay as I don’t find
either appetizing. But I’m not going to starve, because I’m not going to
continue to stand there. My bet is that we wouldn’t starve if we elected to
bypass both bales of hay on an errand to find something better to eat. After
all, the fact that there are two appetizing “bales” of hay, per the donkey, is
some indication that someone put them there. It is unlikely that the wind or
stream of water, or decline of a hill piled up the hay into two equal-sized
bales, strung them together and left them there. Where are those people, and
what are they eating?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Johnson, Stein and Mcmullin are
going to lose. Combined, they may receive 7-12% of the popular vote. See that,
let it sink in, even if the oasis four years from now makes it look like some
hipster democrat with a silver tongue or some republican with a great looking
haircut in an expensive suit has raised the bar. Think ahead, get it to 15-20%
in eight years. Grow up, and find the other way. You’re really only the
stubborn ass if you comply.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 39, the day after:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">Wow. I did not see that coming.
You know who else didn’t see that coming?: </span><a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/president/"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep…/latest_polls/president/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> Look at the “reputable” (media) names attached to the poll results-
ABC, Washington Post, Pew Research, LA Times, Reuters, Fox News. USA Today had
Clinton winning the general election by 10% on October 26th. Clinton either had
the lead or was tied in well over three-fourths of the polls dating back to
10/26. Who are these people talking to?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Also, I absolutely adore how many
times these polling agencies include a question about who would get your vote
if it is just between Clinton and Trump. The ELECTION WAS NOT JUST BETWEEN
CLINTON AND TRUMP! That is why they get it wrong- see the link below. Johnson
got 4+% of the popular vote, Stein got 1+%. If you look at each state from the
link above, minority parties consistently made up 4-7% of the popular vote, a
percentage that causes the margin of error in these polls to be more like 5%
than 2.5%. McMullin got 21% in Utah. Johnson and Stein combined to get 7% in
Maine, 5% in Michigan, a combined 222,000 votes where the margin of victory in
the state was less than 17,000 votes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If anyone says those are wasted
votes, they should have their head examined and I will examine it by reading
all these posts to Facebook over the last 40 days. Clinton lost the election
because she was a terrible candidate and Trump won it despite being one. And
the polling entities got it wrong because there was one candidate who received
at least 1% of the popular vote- in fact, there were 2. I wrote that was
Gallup’s problem in three of the elections they got wrong- 1948, 1968 and 1976-
see Day 28 of these posts. Gallup has an awful lot of company.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">People waking up today wondering
about how they shouldn’t have voted for a third or fourth party because it cost
Clinton the election . . . she cost herself the election! Your vote for Johnson
or Stein in Minnesota isn’t transferable to Michigan, Ohio, or Florida and just
as I have been unable to convince you, despite compelling and creditable
research, you cannot convince me of your opinion that I wasted my vote without
any compelling or creditable proof.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Who called this- <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/09/28/why-public-opinion-polls-are-increasingly-inaccurate"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.usnews.com/…/why-public-opinion-polls-are-increa…</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> Looks like the people over at Gallup have another committee to
convene on figuring out how their whole reason for being has crumbled all
around them.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Day 40 (Electoral College II)<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In presidential elections, there
is a thing called the Electoral College. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes
to win the presidency. We know that each state gets 2 electoral votes because
every state has 2 senators. Because there are 50 states, that is 100 electoral
votes, just based on senate representation. Then, each state gets electoral
votes based on population. California, New York, Florida, Texas have some of
the most electoral votes because they are the most populated. They are
separated into congressional districts for this reason. 1 congressional
district = 1 electoral vote.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When John King’s wizardry with
the red state, blue state map on election night was in full swing, he also
zoomed into which districts were going for either Clinton or Trump and whether
or not the leads in Florida, Michigan or Wisconsin could be narrowed by Clinton
once the districts for the more populated precincts, counties/congressional districts
were reported. Trump trounced her in outstate and she almost came back in
several states when their more densely populated returns, that presumably take
longer to count, were reported.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The major news stations Fox, ABC,
CNN, etc. predict who wins and loses a state based on the gaps in popular vote
and how many precincts have reported. They used to predict states for
candidates much sooner in the evening with far fewer of the precincts
reporting, but in tight races, such as in 2000, they can make mistakes so they
learned 16 years ago, to wait. They waited during this year’s election as well
and the final electoral vote count wasn’t known in a couple states until well
into the following morning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2016 was an election that was too
close to call and several political panelists commented on how wrong the poll
results were and how horribly the polls translated to the voting results. I
believe I called out that problem with at least four posts where the election
process is rigged due to the polls. It was somehow comforting to see the media
discuss how wrong many of the polls were and communicate their surprised
displeasure, which is rather like an apathetic lion thinking about slowly
gnawing off one of its lame paws despite it not being in peril from a disease that
might kill the whole staff-infected, gangrenous beast. There isn’t much of a
line between the problems of polls and media because many of the polls are
conducted by the media- CNN, USA Today, ABC News, Washington Post.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Since the technology for tracking
the electoral vote based on precinct, county and population area already
exists, and the benefit to the voter, as I’ll explain, will be more apparent if
we award electoral votes in a more fair, transparent and logical way, we should
change to a better way to measure who the better presidential candidates are in
the general election. Lucky for us, this idea is not without precedent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I have three words for you-
Nebraska and Maine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #16191f;">Chew on this as yet another
measure at how differently the election was supposed to turn out- </span><a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.electoral-vote.com%2F&h=ATOQhgVun7-OT4qj6bcnjH6HMMKe2jscqE2JTY87rlPBptNmATCipUNCzH_RO3mL4dLSL_GLox_ocw0qkZdg3ndAMoC75kt6Ltzt2QWisndPbdBQY_uH0coNUKgiK66zrFvW-hhFGjnw9rSU15KQI40YVSPDOnMHE08&enc=AZPF8jrkvZBZQD9IUvp1sad5HpI34Tvj1W_N94USUxUCy9u4ZutyFdwH71QzZvwaWbAliAp523cVqdDoc5qtmMok7nZFAK3qaPGIP5OLIT65vTykDxl7ENoGd8DW-XNQpOn6in99xocE4dOaJQ7aQfGHWqWUwtmeqm7eMy3ltG2KaNzNskVBmM2vylJkeS2I_rQ&s=1"><span style="color: #294387; text-decoration: none;">http://www.electoral-vote.com/</span></a><span style="color: #16191f;"> - on October 17th, </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Clinton was projected to beat Trump 352-186.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Not sure what polling entities
are going to do to improve their reach and influence on elections. They can’t
make people, not comfortable with English, answer the door and can’t make cell
phone users answer their phones. People polled who are more “likely to vote” in
November when you’re asking them in July can’t be made to actually vote, but
can be convinced to answer five minutes worth of questions if you do actually
get a hold of them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If it were up to me, polls would
be banned in this country because of the danger of influencing elections-
prompting people to get out to vote to prevent someone they hate from winning,
or stopping someone, like a third or fourth party candidate from gaining a VOTE
they have earned. All the Rachel Maddow types can preach down to
voters who chose the best among the candidates (Johnson, Stein, McMullin)
rather than choosing to try to avoid the least of them (Clinton or Trump).</span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-64474378209579310442016-10-21T06:11:00.001-05:002016-10-21T06:11:33.262-05:00Don't Read This-<br />
<br />
You're at a carnival, 10-15 feet from you are 6 metal milk jugs. You win a stuffed animal larger than an 8-year old if you can knock them all down. You paid $3 for this opportunity. Do you like your chances to succeed if you have two balls in your hand, or three?<br />
<br />
Trump is right- the election process is rigged, but not in the way he thinks. <br />
<br />
Words like oligarchy, propaganda and conspiracy theory will cause plenty of people to dismiss your viewpoint. If you run at them with expletive-laden, hair on fire talk about a rigged election- I too would dismiss you. The below is currently being largely ignored on my Facebook page, as I don't work at CNN, the Associated Press, or the Huffington Post. Hell, it'd be ignored even if I did work there. So, I am posting it here as well, so it can be ignored in two places instead of one.<br />
<br />
Overall topic is this election, but also the election process, polling, media coverage, and legitimacy of getting more options on the ballot that cannot be ignored by polls or the media.<br />
<br />
Instant Run-off Voting, John Stuart Mill mention, Representative Government- I'm in! Only thing he got wrong in this video is that we do not have a democracy, and the U.S. has never had one.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/09/10/how__why_other_countries_have_ended_the_2-party_system.html">http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/09/10/how__why_other_countries_have_ended_the_2-party_system.html</a><br />
<br />
The first 20 posts to Facebook dating back to October 2nd 2016:<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Posted Oct. 2<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 1<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
an effort to offer more digestible considerations, I will offer my
controversial opinions, historically relevant<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>facts, and educated conclusions every day until the election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Work with me here- and spoiler alert! On Lost
skip to the next paragraph if you are binge-watching the series on Netflix . .
. . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You didn’t know <u>Lost</u> was about
a group of passengers from a plane crash on an unidentified island being
ushered from purgatory either to heaven or to hell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Most
prevalently alluded to theories of the universe are derived from:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">1-Science
(biology, natural selection, Darwin), 2-religion (creationism, biblical, god) and
3-intelligent design – we are very familiar with the first two, but what is
that third one?:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“the theory holds that certain
features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an
intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put another way- “living organisms are so
complex that they must have been created by some kind of higher force.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Which
side are you on?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 2<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kitzmiller
v. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dover</b> – on December 20, 2005 “A
federal judge ruled . . . that it was unconstitutional for a Pennsylvania
school district to present intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in
high school biology courses because it is a religious viewpoint that advances
‘a particular version of Christianity.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 3<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“…the
Dover trial and its associated media coverage made me aware that I needed to
make my argument in a more prominent way. Many evolutionary biologists had
acknowledged that they could not explain the origin of the first life
beginnings of voter tendencies. Leading theories failed in large measure
because they could not explain where the mysterious information present in the
cell came from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it seemed there were
no good counterarguments to the case I wanted to make. Yet various avoidance
strategies continued to work because the argument did not have sufficient
public prominence to force a response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Too few people in the public, the scientific community, and the media
even knew about it. And yet it provided—arguably—one of the most important and
fundamental reasons for considering intelligent design.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Stephen C. Meyer<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pg. 6 of the prologue for <u>The Signature
in the Cell<o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 4<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">[<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>] brackets represent slight alterations to
Stephen C. Meyer’s reason for writing a 500+ page book concerning a third
possibility about how the universe was created; I hope he will forgive me for
co-opting most of his words to prove a point that has more bearing on your life
and life of future generations of Americans:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“…the
[presidential election] and its associated media coverage made me aware that I
needed to make my argument in a more prominent way. Many [political pundits]
had acknowledged that they could not explain the [beginnings of voter
tendencies]. Leading theories failed in large measure because they could not
explain where the mysterious information present in the [vote] came from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it seemed there were no good
counterarguments to the case I wanted to make. Yet various avoidance strategies
continued to work because the argument did not have sufficient public
prominence to force a response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too few
people in the public, the [political] community, and the media even knew about
it. And yet it provided—arguably—one of the most important and fundamental
reasons for considering [another political party].”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 5<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"A discriminating irreverence
is the creator and protector of human liberty." - Mark Twain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"If you never write anything
save what is already understood, the field of understanding will never be
expanded." - Ezra Pound<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“There are
seven sins in the world: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without
humanity, Worship without sacrifice and Politics without principle.” - Ghandi</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 6 (Clinton I)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hillary Clinton: "Every piece of
legislation, just about, that I ever introduced (in the U.S. Senate) had a
Republican co-sponsor." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“But if
someone says, as Clinton did, that ‘Just about every piece of legislation I
introduced had a Republican co-sponsor,’ we think most listeners would expect
better than 30 percent of the legislation introduced by Clinton would include a
GOP co-sponsor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/20/hillary-clinton/spot-check-hillary-clintons-senate-record-immolate/">http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/20/hillary-clinton/spot-check-hillary-clintons-senate-record-immolate/</a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Saying
that about (let’s say 90% = just about every piece of legislation had
bi-partisan support) when only 30% actually did- that is a tremendous
oversight, an awful assumption, and a terrible lie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I owned a rib joint and I advertised that
90% of my rib meat was from a cow or a pig when only 30% of it was, would you
eat there if later you found out that vole bladders were serially wood glued to
the femurs of shitzus?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
shouldn’t be able to make claims like that, have them not be true, and continue
to receive more support from the voters than the true percentage in any of your
claims (30%).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, her percentage
isn’t much higher than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, her election to the highest office in the nation is more
probable because . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 7 (Trump I)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">.
. . A major party’s nominee for president of the United States should not have
the below answer to the question asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Since I’m not running for president, my inability to answer the same
question should not be so striking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d
say that sporting the answer below about the nation’s monetary value is kind of
a bigger deal than whether or not a former governor has picked out a favorite
current world leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it is just
me, but I don’t grade on a curve when deciding who is more worthy of my vote
for president; I don’t penalize someone who hasn’t had his own reality
television show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See the link which
follows for more vague, ineffectual answers to legitimate questions:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<a href="http://2016election.procon.org/view.source.election.php?sourceID=13595"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://2016election.procon.org/view.source.election.php?sourceID=13595</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Should the US Return to the Gold Standard in Which Coin and
Currency Are Backed by Gold?</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
"<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">[Josh McElveen:] </b>Can you
envision a scenario that this country ever goes back to the gold standard? <br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Donald Trump:</b> Well, in some ways, I
like the gold standard. In some ways, I like the gold standard. There's
something very nice about the gold standard. And you have to go back at right
time when gold does the old crash-o. But, you know, there's something very nice
about having something solid. We used to have a very very solid country because
it was based on a gold standard. We don't have that anymore. There is something
very nice about the concept of that. It would be very very hard to do at this point.
And one of the problems is we don't have the gold. Other places have the
gold." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Source:</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Pittsburgh’s Action News 4,
"Conversation with the Candidate: Donald Trump," www.wtae.com, Mar.
31, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Should
you vote for someone whose answer to that question is indistinguishable from
the words your 6<sup>th</sup> grader would choose to include in a paper about
the same topic?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 8 (Johnson I)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So
far, I may have misspelled or cumbersomely-worded something or other; hopefully
that isn’t enough to make you discount every other thing I’ve gotten right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
has been a week since I started this daily post approach and most of you have
probably already tuned me out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can
play that game- I tuned out all the noise surrounding a presidential
candidate/former governor’s inability to name a favorite foreign leader, or his
failure to recognize the name of Aleppo, a Syrian city beset by war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thought “Aleppo” was an acronym for
something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Man, is he goofy- ‘I aint
votin’ fer him.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are those problems
equal to a candidate not knowing how to adequately answer a question about the
gold standard; a candidate’s playing dumb by using a private email server while
conducting international government business- despite 30+ years being given
credit for her savviness; a candidate’s failure to turn over tax records after
repeatedly being asked for them (if I have time later I’ll get back to that); a
candidate stating how often she has introduced and fought for bills in the
senate that were distinctly bi-partisan in nature, when it has been proven they
were not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No question mark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
you have three children- and one steals money from your purse to buy drugs, the
second lies by telling you they got an A- on a math test when they got a D+,
and the third accidentally drops a few grapes on the floor, do you punish them
all equally by sending all of them to their rooms for 2 hours, no cell phones,
television, driving privileges, or dessert for a week?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Jimmy
Kimmel- hilarious and thank you- because I can take a joke, and because a third
party candidate registered enough for you to dismiss him while accidentally
legitimizing him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When will Kimmel’s-
“Are you more corrupt than Hillary Clinton” skit dismiss her as a serious
candidate, or a sketch- “Are you less self-aware than Donald Trump” be offered
up to the 5% of the public who prefer Kimmel to Fallon?:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://time.com/4522623/jimmy-kimmel-gary-johnson-sketch/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://time.com/4522623/jimmy-kimmel-gary-johnson-sketch/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 9 (Clinton II)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Leaked Democratic
National Committee emails<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">General:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/politics/dnc-wikileaks-emails/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/politics/dnc-wikileaks-emails/</span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Specifics:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/24/politics/dnc-email-leak-wikileaks/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/24/politics/dnc-email-leak-wikileaks/</span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="zn-bodyparagraph">
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, following a chaotic scene
at a morning meeting where she was loudly jeered by Bernie Sanders supporters. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“[Debbie]
Wasserman Schultz [DNC chairwoman] changed her plans as the fallout deepened
from leaked DNC emails that appeared to show the committee favoring presumptive
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Sanders during the primary. It became
clear Monday that the convention floor could erupt in anger if she gaveled the
convention into session or sought to speak.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">"On
behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to
Sen. Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the
inexcusable remarks made over email," the statement said. "These
comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to
neutrality during the nominating process. The DNC does not -- and will not --
tolerate disrespectful language exhibited toward our candidates. Individual
staffers have also rightfully apologized for their comments, and the DNC is
taking appropriate action to ensure it never happens again."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
someone breaks into your house, defecates on the floor and steals your 4k
television you paid a month’s salary for . . . yeah, a simple apology ought to
do it- no investigation necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
has Hilary really done wrong?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 10 (Johnson II)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #16191f; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">See links below for information on Johnson. This isn’t just
about how you are voting for someone who doesn’t have a chance to win, who isn’t
the perfect candidate, who is a good option to spend your vote on in support of
your conscience, and on the big picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And if it were, that would be enough, not just in this election, but in
any of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your vote does have a
purpose larger than the next four years of making sure the candidate you hate,
doesn’t prevail over the candidate you extremely dislike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your attention span can’t be that short that
determining who most conspicuously aligns with your positions in the majority
of the top 50 issues isn’t worth 30 minutes of your time:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">60%
of the American people, all things being equal, would vote for a third party
candidate and the only reason you really won’t, at the end of the day, is
because he doesn’t have a chance to win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Again, that is the most obvious example of a self-fulfilling prophecy I
have ever encountered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We prove it every
year by voting for the two major party candidates and not voting purposefully:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.johnsonweld.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.johnsonweld.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/Gary_Johnson.htm"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.ontheissues.org/Gary_Johnson.htm</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Did
you not vote for your choice for prom king or queen because in highly
sanctioned and impressively questioned “in-crowd” debates, people in your
senior class weren’t planning on voting for your preferred candidate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not, good job not buckling under peer
pressure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your M.O. has changed since
then, that is unfortunate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your M.O.
is the same as it was back then, that is despicable; thing is, you not only
have more to lose now, you lose the right to be disgusted with the very process
you don’t have the collective will to change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 11 (Trump II)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
this point, I could probably leave Trump out of this, but he’s still polling at
38% nationally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was an episode of
the original Twilight Zone where a ship of aliens came to earth to bring people
back to their planet “for dinner.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
people still giving Trump their vote after the last week’s worth of news are
like the people who, in zombie-like fashion, keep getting on the alien’s ship,
after they are being told they are literally going to be eaten alive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
you watched, or heard about any of the issue “discussion” offered by the
republicans during their primary debates, where they talked about how much they
sweat, or the size of a man’s hands equating to the size of his manhood, again,
I laugh at the idea that third party candidates have exclusivity on crazy, or
incompetence, unkempt, or goofy. </span><a href="http://time.com/4242827/donald-trump-marco-rubio-insults/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://time.com/4242827/donald-trump-marco-rubio-insults/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<strong>Trump:</strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> “Little
Marco Rubio is just another Washington D.C. politician that is all talk and no
action #RobotRubio” (via </span><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/twitter\.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/704014599708876800\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Twitter</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<strong>Rubio: </strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“He’s
always calling me Little Marco. And I’ll admit he’s taller than me. He’s like
6’2″, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who
is 5’2″. Have you seen his hands? They’re like this. And you know what they say
about men with small hands? You can’t trust them.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<strong>Trump: </strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“He has
really large ears, the biggest ears I’ve ever seen.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<strong>Rubio: </strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Donald
is not going to make America great, he’s going to make America orange.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Anyone ever heard the rumor that
an additional party’s inclusion into elections has the very advantageous
benefit of raising the topics up for discussion and the level of issue
debate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How is that bad for us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And how is it good for the democrats and
republicans (including for Reagan, Carter, Bush II, Bill Clinton, Warren G.
Harding, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Nixon, Kennedy, Howard Taft or Abe
Lincoln)?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your continued compliance is
exactly what they need and there is no threat that you are going to stop giving
it to them.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Day
12 (Clinton III)<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">New York Has Done More for Hillary Than She Has for New Yorkers<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Clinton herself would be hard-pressed to come up with a list of actual
accomplishments achieved as Senator<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://observer.com/2016/04/new-york-has-done-more-for-hillary-than-she-has-for-new-yorkers/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://observer.com/2016/04/new-york-has-done-more-for-hillary-than-she-has-for-new-yorkers/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Ms.
Clinton had no ties to New York, but it was the safest bet to start her own
political career.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Of
the 189 Senate bills that their lobbyists identified as significant banking or
finance legislation, she cosponsored only 25,” wrote the </span><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022https\:\/\/www\.bostonglobe\.com\/news\/nation\/2016\/01\/16\/clinton-record-wall-street-laissez-faire\/Z2a3iOsj40wryeRN2iT6qK\/story\.html\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022 ";"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Boston Globe</span></i></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> this past January.
Of those 25 bills, most were backed by Senator Chuck Schumer of the Senate
Banking Committee. With Ms. Clinton stepping aside to let Mr. Schumer take the
lead, some of the largest financial firms including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup,
and Bank of America poured </span><a href="http://observer.com/2016/02/why-wall-street-gives-hillary-clinton-millions-of-dollars/"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">donations</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> into
the Clinton Foundation and paid exorbitant </span><a href="http://observer.com/2016/02/clinton-aligns-with-republicans-to-hide-wall-street-influences-in-speeches/"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">speaking
fees</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> to both Bill and Hillary.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Day 13 (Johnson III)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>October 14<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Very
few of my words this time- just click the links and play the video:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/opinion/gary-johnson-take-a-deep-breath-voters-there-is-a-third-way.html?_r=1"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/opinion/gary-johnson-take-a-deep-breath-voters-there-is-a-third-way.html?_r=1</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hit play: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="https://alibertarianfuture.com/big-government/propaganda/johnson-super-pacs-dead-abe-lincoln-video-is-2016s-most-viewed-political-ad/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://alibertarianfuture.com/big-government/propaganda/johnson-super-pacs-dead-abe-lincoln-video-is-2016s-most-viewed-political-ad/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
only political problem bigger than the one described in the link below, is the
utility (and outdated generalities) of the Constitution, and what type of
business those who choose to defend it, or to appeal to it, have transacted in
its name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gun control and campaign
finance are just two examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enjoy:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=overview"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=overview</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Day 14 (Trump III)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>October 15<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">If
you are voting for Trump because he is passionate and an outsider- well, no one
who has made the amount of money with the business deals he has, and avoided
paying taxes, with that much pride, is an outsider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not someone who thinks taxes should be
raised on the rich, just because they have a lot of money- until we cut
spending, cut donations to foreign nations, eliminate no-bid build military
contracts, stop presidents from vetoing, or congress from voting down, bills
mandating “buy American” clauses, and improve our trade policies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once we clear up all of that, we won’t need
to tax the rich anymore and we can give tax breaks to the middle class, which
is a promise many politicians declare and very few ever achieve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m
not including links to Joe.conservative.com’s blog or welfareRus’s Instagram
page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just
some random site pronouncing the words of Trump truth or lie:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Day 15 (Clinton IV)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>October 16<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
Clinton’s defense, in anyone’s decades-long involvement in politics some
conspicuous activity is bound to occur and for much of it, no amount of
truth-telling or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mea culpa</i> will
appease her detractors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the number
of smoke signals these issues have sent up is enough for me to find another
party to vote fire, er . . . for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Course, I’d be voting for another party if just one of the referred to
“scandals” was a thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/tracking-the-clinton-controversies-from-whitewater-to-benghazi/396182/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/tracking-the-clinton-controversies-from-whitewater-to-benghazi/396182/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
for the emails/server scandal, you cannot get to where she is and has been,
raise the money she does, brokering the deals, convincing this senator to side
with you and these legislators to change sides (regrettably, I’ve watched two
seasons of “House of Cards”) and then plead ignorance when plenty of your
career has been made by gaming the system.</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
this is a game of poker and you bet me an Aleppo, I will see that with a
Benghazi and raise you a Whitewater.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Day
16 (Fairness, Hypocrisy, Objectivity, Ineffectualness, Crazy, Corruptness,
Incompetence, Stupid) or FHOICCIS (pronounced- FOY-chees; derivation =
Portuguese)</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Gary
Johnson isn’t perfect, and his candidacy, like everyone else’s in the history
of politics, in any nation you could name, is not without its flaws.
Since Clinton and Trump voters don’t start with their candidate’s <i>obvious</i>
challenges, I didn’t feel compelled to shoot myself in the foot, by
highlighting Johnson’s <i>minimal</i> ones, before this train to nowhere ever
got started. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">My
logic on the big picture of revolutionizing the election process is still sound
despite the anecdotal, and legitimate, complaints expressed about Johnson in
the link below. If one negative report (or two or ten) scandals were
enough to derail a candidacy, no republican or democrat would have been elected
since the inception of the country. You lose discussions of any magnitude
by not knowing the other side as well as you know your own, by being a hypocrite,
by not conceding points where your side is weak, and if no one pays any
attention to what you’re saying/writing. Hello?</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/years-before-aleppo-moment-gary-johnson-showed-little-interest-in-details-of-governing/2016/10/03/f62a00fa-873d-11e6-92c2-14b64f3d453f_story.html"><span style="color: #285287; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/years-before-aleppo-moment-gary-johnson-showed-little-interest-in-details-of-governing/2016/10/03/f62a00fa-873d-11e6-92c2-14b64f3d453f_story.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">After
having read the above article (which I found because I am playing fair), let’s
play Red Rover? Yes? Here is how it would work: we get 3
lines of 20 negative things/scandals (examples are- [Clinton] private email
servers, [Trump] woman groping, [Johnson] no BFF in the world leader community);
next, we turn those “scandals” into humans, and have the three lines each hold
hands separately. Then, we take turns calling out the personified
scandals; the scandals run into one of the other two lines to see which lines
break. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">To be continued . . .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day
17 (Red Rover- FHOICCIS [pronounced- FOY-chees] continued)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
this version of Red Rover, there are five lines- one line for each candidate
you could vote for for president if all things were equal. In Clinton’s
line, to start, are all of her redeeming qualities, the things that would
ordinarily make us want to vote for her- she’s got experience, is tenacious, is
a woman, she’s done plenty for the downtrodden and the disabled, served in
plenty of offices- which does give her a good idea on what it would be like to
be president. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Jill
Stein, Gary Johnson and even Trump each also have their own lines, for each has
some requisite good qualities that have been, and are, appealing to hundreds of
thousands and millions of voters. If they weren’t that appealing they
wouldn’t even be at 1-2% of the vote according to polls, the construction of
which, themselves are as fraught with concerns as the candidates they
legitimize. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
fifth line I referred to is one massive line of crap, because it is populated
with all of the concerns a voter should, and does, have about the respective
candidates. This line isn’t any longer this election year, but we are
more familiar with these personified issues than we normally are. Since
there are about 50 people actually running for president and on the ballot in
at least one state, or seeking a write-in vote, and so I can keep this metaphor
palatable, I stopped at 4. You didn’t think a proponent of getting 1-4
more political parties legitimized would use a Red Rover metaphor featuring 2
lines did you? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
this fifth line are things we don’t like about each of the candidates-
Johnson’s lack of foreign policy knowledge, Clinton’s email server, Stein’s
inexperience, and Trump’s wall building ideas no matter the cost. Assume
that each candidate has all their own problems (let’s refer to them as
skeletons, as it is 2 weeks from Halloween); but we have to assume that Clinton
and Trump have more. Hey, they’ve been in power longer, and let’s face
it, when you get the reward of all that unbalanced media coverage, name
recognition, poll better because you have tens and hundreds of millions to
spend on an election, it is your fault you have more skeletons.
Legitimize a couple more candidates and parties by changing the coverage,
take them seriously, and do your worst. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Up Next . . .
Let’s play.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">October
19<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Day
18 (Red Rover- FHOICCIS [pronounced- FOY-chees] continued)</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Game
on!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Example:
“Red Rover, Red Rover, send Benghazi on over!” From what I
understand about this issue, it isn’t the end of the world. Is there
someone out there who thinks it is? Probably. So, I would assume
they couldn’t vote for Clinton because of it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
to be fair, when the Johnson line yells out “Red Rover, Red Rover, send Aleppo
right over!” the people in charge of the FHOICCIS rating would also judge that
faux pas as mildly incompetent, but abstain from nailing him to a cross or act
like he laced macaroni and cheese with Benadryl and fed it to the kids he was
babysitting when he was fourteen. If the personified issue causes the joined
hands to separate that implies the FHOICCI score was too high, and sheds light
on why someone inclined to vote for Clinton would still find her candidacy
defensible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If in a discussion with
someone on these issues is disgruntled by your challenge of their candidate
raises their voice or points fingers, their objectivity has to be questioned,
it just has to. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
more broken, and separated the respective lines (which, remember, were
populated by the qualities that make that candidate appealing) the less likely it
is that you should vote for them despite your conscience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
a game of Red Rover, Trump’s line will look like the aftermath of the
Hindenburg and Clinton’s like a car crash victim in the ER on life support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 19<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
more specific thing here on this subtopic, and it is important. Time, as
it always does, vets the unknowns- (after all, those who voted for Reagan
couldn’t have known that he would exchange weapons for hostages despite an
embargo, or Nixon would think secretly videotaping the events inside of the DNC
was a good idea). Looking at Nixon’s FHOICCIS score- well it is pretty
substantial- crazy, stupid, corrupt and incompetent- a quadruple FHOICCIS score.
You couldn’t have predicted that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let’s
assume Presidents Johnson or Stein may turn out to be highly ineffectual,
registering something on the FHOICCIS scale. I include fairness and
objectivity as measurables in the FHOICCIS calculation for a reason, because we
need a way to judge the other six. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">All
I am getting at here, the crux of the problem, is that you can’t give Clinton a
pass on the 25 things that raise her FHOICCIS score to unheard of levels, if
candidate Trump wasn’t around, and denigrate a third party candidate because of
the 5 you heard someone mention, who heard it from someone else who watched the
48 seconds the local news devoted to its political update.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Assuming
a third party candidate gets elected at some point in the next 40 years, ask
yourself, in all fairness, were the non-traditional candidates (Green, Libertarian,
Independent, or one that doesn’t exist yet) ineffectual because they don’t know
anything about the dichotomy of inner city violence and racial outrage? Is
it because the currently ancillary parties can’t figure out how the poor, the
hunyucks, or the 2<sup>nd</sup> amendment fanatics, still obtain semi-automatic
A15 rifles, or did they fail because the NRA has spent tens of millions to
discredit their views, beat down any opposition by any lawmaker that would
co-author a bill to limit rifle sales at gun shows because the NRA funnels
millions into the re-election campaign of the republican or democrat who has
much to gain if the additional party politicians are ineffectual should they
actually beat this system I’m about to start showing is actually rigged (though
not in the way Trump contends)? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
a response to one of my tweets in support of voting for a third party, someone
tweeted something about how we should ask the people in Maine how that worked
out for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look, you go out to eat
often enough, and you are eventually not going to like the service, the food,
the experience, the location, or the cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But you still go out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem
here is, too many people keep going to the same damn restaurant, complain about
the same things, try a new restaurant one time and go back to the same
restaurant that they forgot they hated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep
trying- now, I think that is a pretty good tip.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day 20 (Blast from the
Past-Gore)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Source
of the quotes within this post courtesy of:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/us/politics/hillary-clinton-presidential-race.html?_r=0"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/us/politics/hillary-clinton-presidential-race.html?_r=0</span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="story-body-text">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Mrs.
Clinton may also get an assist from one Democrat who has been largely quiet
about the race, but can testify to the importance of resisting the third-party
temptation: former Vice President Al Gore.”</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Seriously,
she is appealing to the logic of Gore, who lost the election of 2000 because he
was a horrible candidate, who was beaten by another horrible candidate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If she loses this election, she is to blame,
not someone who is trying to keep the other candidates, two entirely deficient
political parties, and one overtly corrupt election process in check.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“ . . . after spending much of the
summer hammering Mr. Trump, through both ads and stump speeches, it appears
Mrs. Clinton has convinced many voters that Mr. Trump is not qualified to be
president but has failed to win them over to her own candidacy.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-65124007992226346102016-09-16T14:36:00.001-05:002016-10-21T05:32:57.267-05:00<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">Ipolitics:
Part 2</span></span></strong><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">I am sam- sam
I am, I Robot, I-ambic pentameter, I am legend, eye for an eye, bart simpson’s
I-corumba (embarrassed enlightenment)</span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt 0.5in;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">Foolish
Consistency:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Reasons Voters Continue
to Make the Same Mistakes</span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria";"><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Note:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">This
article also appeared on the 2<sup>nd</sup> Congressional Districts website
some years ago- 2010-ish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The meaning in
the use of the word “Independent” should be broadened to include any third
party (Populist, Progressive, Independent, Green, Libertarian).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I’ll stop well short of applying it
to Socialists and Communists, who are in a different category.</span></strong></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt 0.5in;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">Last time- I offered 6 reasons why a voter,
otherwise inclined to vote for an Independence party candidate, might withhold a
meaningful vote for a party that might actually do this nation some good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time, I will list some reasons why
people, whose convictions are often based on far more narrow-minded assertions,
proudly continue to vote for republicans or democrats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt 0.5in;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">There is, after all, something to be said for
consistency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lucky for us, a pretty
bright guy- Ralph Waldo Emerson, did say something about it, namely this: “A
foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some think that Emerson was speaking ill of
consistency, but it is rather “a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">foolish</i>
consistency” he devalued. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider that
the Emerson quote and the Einstein quote from last time, about insanity, work
in tandem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may suspect that the act
of continuing to vote for the status quo isn’t good for us, yet we consistently
continue to do it. </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt 0.5in;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">It is absurd to believe that democrats and republicans,
together, or separately, have adequately imagined or implemented a solution to
every political issue that confronts American citizens and politicians
alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will call upon Jon Stewart
again for the rational justification for finding fault with the ideologies of
two of the other political parties; he put that sentiment this way:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Each party has a platform, a . . . menu of beliefs making up its
worldview. The candidate can choose one of the two platforms, but remember – no
substitutions. For example, do you support universal health care? Then you must
also want a ban on assault weapons. Pro-limited government? Congratulations,
you are also anti-abortion. Luckily, all human opinion falls neatly into one of
the two clearly defined camps. Thus, the two-party system elegantly reflects the
bichromatic rainbow that is American political thought.” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">America</i>, pg. 108)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Here
are some reasons why democratic and republican voters have remained so
consistent. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot claim that these
are all of the reasons:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They are voting
for ghosts.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan probably aren’t
walking into an election any time soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If they do, I’m sure democrats and republicans, respectively, will vote
for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve heard Reagan’s name
thrown around so often lately that you would think he created the world in six
days and we’re just waiting for his messianic son to deliver us from evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even President Obama genuflected at the
Reagan political altar during the 2008 presidential election.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<ol style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: decimal;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Consistency’s
hobgoblins.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People are habitual creatures and will
continue to do things which are harmful to them, like smoke, eat bad foods, or vote
for the same types of candidates every election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there a legacy reward clause for not
letting our former selves down, for consistently voting for a democrat for 30
years straight?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Worse yet, perhaps
voters don’t want to let the dear spirit of their father down, who was a democrat
all his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no reward for
ancestral futility of this magnitude- only punishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A quality sticker that’s ideal location is
the bumper of a 2007 Prius that reads: “Liberal” probably won’t be suitably
transferred to a granite headstone after a lifetime of ineffectual voting.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Promises,
Promises.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the frozen hamburger patty of
reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Restaurants indicate that they
have a ½ pound burger on the menu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is only the size <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i> it is
cooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The likely fulfillment of a
politician’s promises diminish the longer the reason you voted for them is left
on the grill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If what you ordered based
on the picture on the menu looks nothing like what you got on your tray, try
something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consistently voting for
major party candidates when they don’t represent your beliefs, is like showing
up to a party of pygmies every two years, and asking if you can borrow
someone’s pants.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I Robot.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Say these words slowly in your head using
your best robot voice- Limbaugh said that Obama is a socialist . . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Must vote for republican . . . must vote republican.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Issues.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a relative who votes for candidates
based on the issue of abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
aren’t identifying how a politician feels on at least your five biggest issues,
you are wasting your vote, especially when it is an issue that is largely out
of their control. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just a quick follow
up- when a woman is already pregnant- I tend to not want to tell her what she
can do with her own body, unless removing your larynx is something with which you
want a woman to have a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">say</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I feel therefore
I am.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These pundits, prognosticators and talk show
hosts are far too convincingly animated in their passion against the other side,
far too radioactive; they yuyulate more heartily than a soccer play-by-play announcer-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider Limbaugh, Hannity, and, locally (MN),
Jason Lewis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we all know,
vindictiveness is always the source of truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some voters feel compelled to vote for the candidate the host’s
vehemently endorse- I suppose because the foolishly consistent voter believes
the talk show host has properly vetted the candidate of his choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To clarify- vetting in this case means: does
the candidate have a giant “D” or “R” right next to their name (see #10 below).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is unfortunate that the average voter
hasn’t recognized that the talk show host has even fewer <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">goals</i> to announce than the soccer game announcer, (only one
really)- to whine about the other side until the voter submits out of some
collective negativity obligation quotient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Typically, the average real soccer match ends 1-0.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After two hours of listening to your average
political radio persona, with the conservative or liberal using his brain as a
megaphone, the game ends just as uneventfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Seems like a waste for all of that diametrically opposed brow-beating in
the political game to end with so few highlights; it is too bad that no one
keeping score knows who is winning.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Change,
again?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, again.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t believe either of these two parties
can say they can offer change to the voter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One party is nearly as old as the country itself and the other can trace
its roots back to before the Civil War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But change is another thing that keeps working, so they keep using
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine there is a boy, who after
four years is tired of climbing the same tree; telling him he can change the experience
by finding a different route to the same highest point, so he can see all the
same things, isn’t change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell him the
trees he’ll want to scale in 20 years will require that he plant them now, so
his son can climb them.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The bad times
are here to stay.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The talk show hosts very adeptly excuse their
own side’s flaws, and there are many, while accentuating the missteps of the
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, like the eye,
political blowhards can’t focus on two things at once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The likelihood of us finding a well-meaning,
objective cable news or political radio talk show host in this country are
comparable to the odds that another Icelandic volcano will erupt this year,
causing thousands of commercial flights to be cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Determining the least guilty of political
vagary from among the democrats and republicans is like trying to determine the
loser in a fight between two computer generated swarms of gnats in a future
James Cameron movie. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each side proclaims
the sound judgment of their own side, without excusing their own faults.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They excuse their own faults by not referring
to them.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Unidentifiable
hypocrisy.</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chris
Tucker from the first Rush Hour movie, which is the George H.W. Bush, “Read my
Lips” comment on steroids- “Do you understand the words that are coming out of
my mouth?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I’m pretty sure
Tucker wasn’t promising to not raise taxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No politician, that a democrat or republican voter would support, would
lie and no conservative or liberal talk show host would steer the voter the
wrong way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an exercise- listen to <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Olberman, Mathews</span>, Limbaugh,
Hannity, O’Reilly, Jason Lewis, and count the number of times their party is to
blame for something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The best defense
is a good offense,” say many in the sports world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The combined acrimony fueled by accusations
and rhetoric spewed out by liberals and conservatives would power all kinds of
New York city landmarks and energize subway sludge to come alive, ready made
with evil intent in a colossal Ghostbusters sequel we’ll never pay the money to
see, but somehow, in the political realm, we keep paying, quite literally to
see the same disaster which is way over budget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>People that hypocritical are without the one thing they should be
saddled with in order to recover from rote hatred that intense, not a physical
mirror, but some <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self</i>-reflection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></strong></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">There are frauds, hypocrites, ego-maniacs,
sociopaths, thieves, cheaters, and elitists everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most democrats and republicans know virtually
nothing about self-reflection, and have no concept of individual responsibility,
or objectivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The democrats ignorantly
defend the abuses of entitlement programs (often by ignoring them) as
ignominiously as the republicans arrogantly protect all aspects of the free
market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know actual people who think
that republicans are completely blameless in any political issue anyone could
think of, even issues that haven’t been invented yet; Tweety Bird didn’t even
think Sylvester was that bad a cat, and he was swallowed whole four times every
six minutes.</span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> 10. R and D.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Those
don’t stand for research and development, though the typical voter is in dire
need of some as it relates to the future of their favored political parties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, R and D stand for republican and democrat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people lend more credence to a
politician’s opinions depending on what letter precedes or follows their
name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fairly recent cry of
conservative talk show hosts, and certain republican politicians, for more
conservatism in the republican platform may confound some voters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></strong><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";">A few months ago, a former colleague, noting that I
used the words republican and conservative nearly interchangeably, mentioned
that there was a difference between them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I replied- any conservative politician who is sincerely concerned about
being misrepresented as a typical republican, should just go ahead and form
another party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they won’t, and the
reason why is because they would lose votes (see numbers 1 and 2 above). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conservative in them doesn’t want to lose
for being both almost unrecognizably nostalgic and progressive, and feel they
can only win by remaining sneakily affiliated with the republicans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives should have the courage of
their convictions, or accept the liability that is an affiliation with the republican
party. </span></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: "cambria";"> </span></span></strong></div>
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 11. </span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The alternative.</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People contend, erroneously by the way, that the
Independents don’t have a platform that obviously distinguishes it from the
other two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if the principles and
platform of the IP were exactly the same as the reps and dems in every
meaningful area, wouldn’t it be worth a few votes to get some IP candidates
elected to see if they could do something the status quo only promise to
do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answer is no- (see #12) directly
below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you take a test that meant
you earned another $5,000 a year and not study for it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You simply cannot have the opinion that there
is no difference between what types of ideas additional party candidates have
vs. what the two major party platforms represent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you have that opinion, you shouldn’t have
a vote, just like when you don’t show up for work, you don’t get paid.</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> 12. </span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mandate.</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Independence party candidates and politicians
won’t be considered successes, because there is not a healthy Independent
constituency whether from the public or the politicians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An Independent politician, until he is joined
by a dozen of his like-minded friends in a legislature, will be like the Lone
Ranger in the governor’s mansion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Former
Governor Ventura was just that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Admittedly,
half of Ventura’s problems were of his own causing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The democrats and republicans colluding
together to ensure his failure didn’t help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unless, and until, multiple Independents are elected in a state
legislature and across the country, no one will be able to say whether a viable
third party is a success or failure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
a society, we embraced the pet rock, the Rubik’s Cube and ABBA, but voting meaningfully
for an Independent is beneath us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very
sensible.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> 13. </span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The media made me do it.</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aside from political extremists like
Limbaugh, Olberman, Matthews, O’Reilly, Hannity and Lewis, among many others,
the somewhat less offensive media, both local and national, lead viewers to
believe there are only two candidates running for any elective office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dean Barkley spent a fraction of the money of
Coleman and Franken for the 2008 U.S. Senate seat and still got 15% of the
vote, but CNN never put his name, image, or popular vote count on its board on
election night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People say that the news
doesn’t cover Independents because they don’t poll well; they don’t poll well
because the media doesn’t cover them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
logic is as simple as the rules for tetherball, a game people stopped playing
in the 1970s; too bad the media’s foolishly consistent game-playing is still
going on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The print
media is no less restrictive on who shall be covered in their news or opinion
sections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an article which appeared in
the Opinion Exchange section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune on April 18, 2010
“True Believers & Trail Blazers” D.J. Price writes about how wide open is
the Minnesota governor’s race, but neglects to mention a single Independent
candidate until the last two paragraphs of the article, and then only
dismissively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the election is filled
with such an abundance of wildcards and the race is to be so unpredictably
interesting, why wait so long to include a candidate that could help decide, or
be, the eventual winner?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the visage
of Tom Horner (Independent) on the state capital’s balcony seems annexed from
the rest of the competitors.</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong><br />
<ol style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: decimal;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The
article found by this link about Tom Horner’s candidacy </span></strong><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business-special-reports/ci_15018047"><span style="color: black;">http://www.mercurynews.com/business-special-reports/ci_15018047</span></a><strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, includes criticisms of
him by leading republicans and democrats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Until the media pursues, and the voters accept, criticisms of statements
and maneuvers made by democrats and republicans by Independents, our state and
nation won’t advance out of the foolishly consistent political mindset we’ve
created.</span></strong></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></strong></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 4pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We change our clothes, our sleeping positions, spouses,
our mailing address, jobs, change traffic lanes on 494, hunting for the right
one that will get us home sooner, change our mind about what dish we order at
the restaurant after the waiter has mentioned the specials, but change our
voting practice and seek an alternative to the hobgoblins represented by the status
quo- why not?</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-57725524433602229552016-07-24T07:23:00.003-05:002016-07-24T07:23:50.111-05:00iPolitics: Additional Party Legitimacy- Part 1: Voter Logic<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
his 2004 book <u>America</u>, Jon Stewart makes the following point about
today’s two major political parties:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“The Republican Party is the party of nostalgia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seeks to return America to a simpler, more
innocent and moral past that never actually existed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Democrats are utopians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They seek to create an America so fair and
non-judgmental that life becomes an unbearable series of apologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together, the two parties function like giant
down comforters, allowing the candidates to disappear into the enveloping
softness<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">, <strong>protecting them from
exposure to the harsh weather of independent thought.</strong></b>” (pg.
107)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Independent thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>iPolitics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are Ipads,
Iphones, Ipods, will Smith movies- I, Robot and I am Legend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Individuality starts with an <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is where I start.</span></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b><br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
adore Stewart’s practical irreverence, and his witty and disarming smarts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too bad he’s not an Independent who could
humorously justify to the masses the value in casting a vote that makes more
sense than continuing to vote for the status quo each election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A citizen’s vote should be more productive;
anyone over the age of four knows there is little use in using a white crayon
on a white page.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
dismissed conservatives years ago as having no sense of their own hypocrisy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They tout the republican staples of personal
freedom and fiscal responsibility, while being unaware of how selectively they
apply those staples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives are only
interested in protecting personal freedoms from being infringed upon by the
government until someone they don’t know wants to have an abortion, two members
of the same sex want to get married to each other, or a nicotine addict wants
to pollute a bar, restaurant or casino with smoke that others will invariably
breathe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their self-righteous ideas significantly
impact the freedoms of those who are either societally conscious,
irresponsible, or disadvantaged (abortion), GLBT members, (same sex) or employees
or patrons who do not want to suffer from second hand smoke inhalation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conservatives consider being fiscally
responsible only when they aren’t in office or when they can protect the bottom
lines of corporations or the richest 10% of U.S. citizens from a capital gains
or progressive income tax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Having
learned that the typical conservative’s idea of fiscal responsibility has the
shelf life of a package of strawberries . . . the Independent’s issue with the
democrats should be just as pronounced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The democrat’s willingness to hand our country over to the unassimilated
or entitlement program abusers, for votes = power, has made our American
financial house look like the changing room at Kohl’s after an indecisive, unemployed,
color blind guy on a budget is done shopping for interview clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a mess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fraud is rampant- pants can pass themselves off as 67% polyester, or as
having a 32-inch inseam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dress shirts
take more time to extricate from their pin-infested existence than the bug
collection of the average 4<sup>th</sup> grader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two major political parties, and those
they cater to, are also a mess, but the average voter doesn’t seem to realize
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they did, they would mend their
ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So why don’t they?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are some fairly suspect reasons people
might give for avoiding the reasonable course of voting for Independent
candidates, along with a fairly reasonable rejoinder:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<ol style="direction: ltr; list-style-type: decimal;">
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Independents
cost other candidates elections</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">- I read a <span style="color: black;">Joel
Stein column on the back page of the March 10, 2008 issue of <u>Time</u>
magazine (about the then forthcoming 2008 election) with the heading “How Sorry
is this Guy? If Ralph Nader wants any votes in this election, he should cop to
the last one he screwed up.” (pg. 72).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
wondered why Stein would write an entire column about how easily someone like
Nader could be dismissed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn’t it
easier to dismiss someone if you never actually pay any attention to them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Stein, and thousands of other
political pundits, Nader “[took] key votes from Al Gore.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People on food stamps, receiving housing aid,
who haven’t worked in five years, but are fully capable, feel less entitled to
the bounty the U.S. government provides, and believe me, they have been
conditioned to, than a republican or democrat running for political office.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Stein
continued: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Nader just can’t admit that
he’s at least a little responsible for Gore’s loss.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stein finds Nader culpable for what we, as
Americans, were put through between 2001-2008<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><strong>It isn’t the Independent’s
fault that the major parties put up two very average candidates in 2000; they
put up pretty average candidates every four years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not surprised it goes unrecognized by
the voters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gore had every chance to </strong></b><strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">prevail over</span> Bush,
the rhetorical juggernaut, but was unable to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That isn’t Nader’s fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stein also contends:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></strong>“. . . It’s important for people who
feel they’re not being heard to have the option to vote for insane, incapable
candidates . . . <strong>a two-party system is designed to eliminate extreme
ideas . . .”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That brings me to the
typical voter’s second objection . . . </strong></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Independent
candidates are kooky and crazy (code words for insane and incapable).</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This objection is easy to counter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone ever heard of Dennis Kucinich-
democrat, Larry Craig- republican, Michelle Bachman- republican, Rod
Blagojevich- democrat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Extreme
ideas?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peculiar behaviors?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sitting vice-president whispered an
expletive into the president’s ear next to a live microphone, a device that is thought
to amplify sound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You would think that
Independents all looked like Carrot Top or acted like Pit Bull (I’m embarrassed
I even know who he is, but not as embarrassed as if I were caught using this as
a reason to continue to vote for a democrat or republican).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listen to the Hannity, Limbaugh, or Chris
Matthews types and you would think that all Independents offer a twerk in
response to every question put to them in debates event organizers condescended
to invite them to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The craziness of
infidelity offers these examples: Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, and John Edwards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I don’t have the
space to enumerate the list of candidates from the so called “two major
parties” who acted inappropriately in one way or another- F.D.R. tried to pack
the supreme court and Nixon resigned before being impeached for the Watergate
scandal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The RNC reimbursed a member of
the committee nearly $2000 after a night spent at a bondage-themed nightclub a
few years back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clinton had sex with an
intern in the oval office, G.W. Bush ordered illegal wiretapping of phones and
Obama claimed executive privilege in the Fast and Furious scandal, which
involved the sale of licensed firearms to gun mules who may distribute them to
Mexican drug cartel leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder
how every Independent can be dismissed, by the voters and the media, for being
different, and republicans and democrats can continue to be rewarded, with
political victories, for all being the same.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Independents don’t have a chance to win.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This rationale would make more sense if the
American public were choosing the high school prom king.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is quite probably the most obvious case
of a self-fulfilling prophecy I’ve ever seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I explained to a former colleague who referred to this as his reason for
not voting for Independents when he was somewhat inclined toward Dean Barkley
in 2008.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I explained to him, that in
fact, an Independent does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> have a
chance to win if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> don’t vote for
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If 10% of the voters who thought
this way would amend their thinking, the Independent popular vote would begin
to grow each election, locally and nationally, and people would legitimize more
options, be able to complain about three or four candidates, instead of two,
and would see the flaw in their- for lack of a better term- logic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A vote for an
Independent is a wasted vote.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This one isn’t that different from #s 1 and 3. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After being informed that Nader would receive
my vote in the 2008 presidential election, I received a wry-smiled response:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“So, you’re wasting your vote.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Typically, I vote my conscience and do not
feel compelled to choose between the lesser of two evils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He let me know he was voting for McCain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That evening, I asked one of his relatives the same
question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His son was voting for Obama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I leaned forward, touched his father gently
on the shoulder and said- “it looks like you will be wasting your vote
too.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If neither one of them voted, it
wouldn’t make any more of a difference as my well-intentioned vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a voter merely chooses from among the two
major parties every election, and the nation as a whole continues to be only
17-25% satisfied with congress, year in and year out, it looks like a quorum of
voters, since 38-50% of the electorate actually participate, are wasting their
vote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Consider going
to Applebee’s once every four years, and only having the same two dishes
(vegetable lasagna and medium rare chicken) from which to choose, only choosing
to eat, and pay for, the same one every time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wouldn’t it make more sense to find out if there is a different eatery,
where something a little more palatable would be served?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Folks, if voting for democrats and
republicans is so unappetizing, as ¾ of the country is chronically dissatisfied
with congress, why not try a candidate from a party that raises the level of
issue debate, someone who is a little more filling. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A “wasted” vote is something Jeff Spicoli
would cast for class president after he has taken a couple hits from his doobie.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mob logic, a</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">further discussion of #4.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consider that millions of voters are more disgusted with the continued
failure of the democrats and republicans than Yoda was when Luke Skywalker
couldn’t use the force to lift his X-Wing out of the swamp on Dagobah in <u>The
</u>"Empire Strikes Back".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the
corner the conscientious voter has been backed into by a typical voter’s logic-
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A)</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many of the self-righteous voters deride and belittle anyone who
refrains from voting for any reason, even when the non-voter has no clue what
the candidates stand for; <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">B)</b> The
conscientious voter cannot vote for someone that doesn’t have a chance to win
(see #3) as that is a wasted vote (see #4) and we wouldn’t want to cost someone
the election (see #1)- as Nader and Perot were blamed for doing in 2000 and
1992 respectively;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">C)</b> The conscientious voter may mundanely vote for a democrat or a
republican because they have to vote, and they have to vote for a candidate
that has a chance to win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the
conscientious voter chooses a democrat over a republican and the democrat is
perceived to be ineffectual, is having intercourse with interns or
unconstitutionally wiretapping phone lines, or invading countries without
congressional approval, then the voter is said to have only himself to blame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For, of course, the duped voter should take
the responsibility for any action, or inaction, of the politician who “earned”
his vote. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately, voters are the
only people really held accountable for the mistakes of the politicians whether
we voted at all, or voted for one of two candidates rather than the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some voters who cast protest votes, with
principles, have longer range goals and are simply waiting for the rest of the
disgruntled citizenry to catch up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ten million
protest votes will likely secure for the country multiple additional political
parties that may help hold the other two accountable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
<li style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Voting for
change that makes a difference.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Almost every politician who has run for elected office has used the word
“change” to describe how their approach to solving difficult problems would be
different than the incumbent’s or predecessor’s. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heck, Woody Boyd, on the advice of Frasier,
used that as his slogan when he ran for city council on <u>Cheers</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he won, so we know it works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Every two years,
many voters, if they consider the majority party had every chance to put
through some meaningful legislation, but failed, and the voters will exchange
them for republicans, just as they had exchanged republicans for democrats two
or four years earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This result is
obvious, except to the average voter who will not question their logic or make a
call to their temporal lobe (the part of the brain that controls memory).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure what kind of “Groundhog Day”
hell the average voter adores, but if I picked up the same kind of apple, and
it was always infested with worms, I’d pick one from the tree, like Sean
Connery advised a very green Kevin Costner to do in the “Untouchables”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Voting for change makes it seem as if the
voter has some control, as if those who take this approach are all converting
to Catholicism for the day and seek to punish the party in power by sending
them to some imagined hell that even Dante never detailed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But neither party is ever really punished, as
they know that redemption is only an election or two away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A 2-4 year stint in purgatory, as everyone
knows, is very intolerable.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Note:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
declined to capitalize words like democrats, republicans and supreme court on
purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the same reason, I don’t
capitalize the word god.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The-can-of-worms justifications for those decisions isn’t important enough to get into
with this subject matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until words like “Progressive”, “Independent”,
“Populist” and “Libertarian”, when they are being used to introduce or clarify
a party, movement, or specific candidate are capitalized in kind, my
capitalization-strike will continue.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-39801897119734484102010-03-04T06:25:00.001-06:002010-03-04T06:35:40.987-06:00Echo MorningI haven't posted anything in nearly 4 months. I found out in early December that my services would no longer be required at my former employer. Ironically, due to the REALITY of GLOBALIZATION I wrote about in my last two posts but one. Yeah, who could have seen that coming? So, figuring I would be in violation of my severance agreement for comments I had planned to incorporate into my final posting on my middle class bloga (i.e. blog saga), I decided to play it safe and redirect my creative juices, such as they are, into the fictionalized version (a book, with actual characters, a story, etc.) of all the research I'd done over the past four years on the various subtopics. All of the postings, the non-fiction version can still be found along the left side of this site. The book is progressing at a steady pace, and with any luck, given that I have a third child on the way, I'll complete it at some point in 2016. By that time, I expect its release to be more anticipated than the next winter olympics, or not.<br />
<br />
I've been too busy with looking for a new job, taking care of the kids, writing my book, going on a vacation, and attending to all of the things life has to throw at you, and have had no time to continue with the bloga, I also haven't had time to consider, or write intelligently or amusingly, about any other topic. With that said, I decided I would post something different. Below is a poem I wrote in October of 2006 in the basement in the early morning. HTML treats the appearance of words arranged in a poem horribly, but I don't know that the average reader would take that into consideration, supposing they consider the words themselves. This poem is one of my less cryptic offerings. The two main versions of the mythological story of Echo are included below and I simply allude to them both as different in terms of origin, repurcussions and connotations with one version something that the mythical Echo would be reverred for and the other a version she might be ashamed of. I used Echo as one part of my term for political pundits who are in love with the sound of their own voice and their opinions, and created the term- Echo Narcissists (and Jack- you will love this one- <strong>please see part 16</strong>. Actually if you Google- "Echo Narcissism" [remember to include the quotes], you are taken immediately to that post).<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Echo Morning</span></strong><br />
<br />
We bow our heads once in reverence<br />
and once more in shame;<br />
no metaphor can honor-placate the mind<br />
for the declines appear the same.<br />
<br />
The same sound in the ear, the ear that has a stomach<br />
And must die jest-<br />
just as the eyes must digest<br />
just as the hands must digest, as the mouth must digest,<br />
the ears must digest.<br />
<br />
The ears consume the sound of a hollow foot fall<br />
on frosty grasses on a mid October morning, amid the cold-covered dawn-<br />
the blades encased in a veil of frost,<br />
for where is nature<br />
there is god!<br />
and for that<br />
the ears of the world applaud.<br />
We seek a sound that is lost and that is found.<br />
<br />
Elsewhere (not meanwhile), a poet, who at least once <br />
has written what he has said-<br />
that memories echo, they echo, they resound in his head<br />
until he can no longer stand-<br />
his imagination- “the mind can grasp more than the hand.”<br />
<br />
Soft thing, you whisper and I hear you years later . . . in the morning-<br />
When words are there, and not there,<br />
And are naught but air,<br />
When, if there were angels, they would meet- in the cold stillness,<br />
Where it is too frigid for our hours to leave us.<br />
Anything that moves here is moved by the wind and regret.<br />
<br />
You might say this, this is elusive, abstract stuff,<br />
but should know<br />
of the excess of anonymity that is love-<br />
the cigarette satisfaction of one memory after another,<br />
gone in a puff of smoke,<br />
that came without a fire to stoke,<br />
that upon all good ears confer,<br />
some words that yesterday’s prefer.<br />
We know not which hours to keep<br />
And are, someone else before we wake and sleep.<br />
<br />
This is evening-morning.<br />
pink clouds in the autumn to east and west, (the evening like the morning)<br />
from a sun that shines too late and sets too soon,<br />
so lost are days . . . <br />
and like begging fury- ears chase the previous tune.<br />
<br />
So, mythologically we bow our heads once in reverence for Echo-<br />
grimly torn to pieces, revenged by Pan (via shepherds, whom he drove mad) for being unreceptive to advances; and her voice remains<br />
<br />
And we bow our heads in shame for Echo-<br />
because false Zeus was repeatedly warned of Hera’s approach by Echo who was then made to repeat the words of others.<br />
<br />
In shame and reverence is the echo, the story.<br />
A faint voice survived,<br />
or the recall of other voices so derived.<br />
<br />
Little boys and girls asleep before the dawn<br />
so some can contemplate an echo marathon.<br />
A repeat of a yesterday so gradually gone,<br />
of mimicked scenes, pregnant pauses-<br />
of days as soldiers gaunt and wan.<br />
<br />
We imitate the theoretical-inimical,<br />
For it is work to think of criminal royalty, to think of plebian slight,<br />
To change an echo for a fainter echo because our ears are awake at night.<br />
And my former self can write nothing that makes sense<br />
of what has passed heretofore, or what will pass hence.<br />
we know nothing of the color of the rain, <br />
but know the sound of the sane-<br />
which is the pretense for the storm,<br />
a weather entity without a form,<br />
much like an echo- no symbolic, meaty words to give it shape,<br />
just grasping, empty, semi-soundless words<br />
in a mind ill-equipped to make them live-<br />
just lost, disheveled, elusive, somewhat re-cognized rarities,<br />
milk after the cereal is eaten kind of words,<br />
light bulbs after the filament breaks kind of words,<br />
the sky after the sun descends,<br />
the trees after the leaves are gone,<br />
the pockets after the bet is played,<br />
the sleep after the bed is made,<br />
the sound after the chord is struck,<br />
the wine bottle after the guests have left,<br />
the idea of the old song after the new one begins,<br />
a mountain lost in the waves,<br />
the mirror after the ghost passes,<br />
the ear after the laugh fades- kind of words.<br />
<br />
We were, we are<br />
comprised of an entourage of hours,<br />
and as we never are who we are going to be<br />
we are not still who we were- and some of us hate ourselves for that.<br />
<br />
The echo is the promise of a bubble’s life,<br />
Whose end comes by cold departure, <br />
not by the blade of a knife.<br />
It is a sound that fades in the morning,<br />
Our ears straining to hear,<br />
its’ presence is no symptom, its’ absence is no cure.<br />
<br />
Just as the prince is guilty of the cobbler’s crimes, <br />
We enliven mornings- we are echo paradigms.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5296078328487592200.post-70463972928327104752009-12-07T11:09:00.008-06:002009-12-25T14:30:21.981-06:00All Hail, the Fruits of WinterI figured I would take at least one more break from the grind of contributing 11 pages to the wasteland of my <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">bloga</span> and offer a timely homage to winter.<br /><br />Most people don't accomplish much during winter and many people in the colder regions prefer spring and summer to winter. I am no exception. I don't ski, snowboard, ice skate or snowmobile. If I didn't have two kids, I wouldn't go outside, even on temperate days, to play in the snow. I do little more during the winter than a bear that hibernates for four months. But, because it is expected to be under 30 degrees for many of the next 90 days, I thought I would think positively for a change. I'm a glass is full kind of guy . . . if the glass is half full of Captain Morgan and Coke. Here are my reasons to like winter:<br /><br /><strong>1) Spend less money @ Home Depot and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gertens</span>.</strong> I can always find many reasons to go to Home Depot. In the spring and summer you need fertilizer for the grass, tar patch for the driveway, paint to touch up the deck, rocks for the rock garden, gardening supplies, building supplies for the shed, tree trimming equipment, weed killer, varmint or pest control, or cement block to frame in a planter so your yard has decent curb appeal. At <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Gertens</span>, someone can spend a fortune on yews, lilacs, arborvitaes, grasses, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">hostas</span>, or trees of any kind. Then there is root stimulator, rock garden gnomes, bird baths, more fertilizer, especially if your yard is the weed zoo that mine is. It never ends. I would guess that I spend about a third of the money in October through March that I spend in April through September at Home Depot and Gertens. In the winter, about the only Home Depot products I might buy are a snow shovel or <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span> lights and I haven't yet needed to replace the shovel I got eight years ago. I am very into having projects to do I almost bought supplies to build a pergola for the grub worms that were living in our back yard- (see #3).<br /><br /><strong>2) Less time spent on yard work.</strong> If it snows, you shovel-that's it. It takes me, on average, an hour and fifteen minutes to mow the lawn, walking behind my self-propelled mower. And about once a month I weed whip. That contraption isn't the easiest thing in the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">world</span> to start and I get grass clipping all over my legs and shoot the occasional small rock or piece of sand at my legs. If the Home Depot sold shin guards or nut cups I would spend more winter money there. In the winter there is no worrying about whether it is going to rain, so you don't have to spend time moving the sprinklers on the south side of the lawn (we have underground sprinklers that take care of most of the lawn). There are no weeds to contend with that come between our patio blocks and none that <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">are</span> nuisances coming through the rock garden landscape fabric that was <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">supposed to</span> curtail weeds for ten years. Each spring, I put down a ring of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">Triazicide</span> that keeps the ants from invading my house and some years there are other lawn insects to contend with or a mole that tunnels its way underground. This past year, I put a wire fence underneath my deck to keep a rabbit from living there. The rabbit kept growing and had to chew several (and bigger) holes in my lattice so it could get its fat arse through. There is no end to the number of projects a guy like me can dream up- even accidentally.<br /><br /><strong>3) No ants or mosquitoes.</strong> During the warmest time of summer, no matter how much you've spent on caulking, and especially if you have young kids that can unwittingly feed several ant colonies by dropping crumbs on the floor, you have that pest to contend with. So there is <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">Terro</span> to purchase, after the caulk you purchased has failed- see #1 above. You want to spend a nice evening on the patio or deck. Well, you better get out there quick, before the mosquitoes arrive. This past summer was very nice, because it didn't rain a lot, so there were fewer bugs overall. But, see #2- time spent and money spent watering the lawn and dragging the hose around, perhaps even buying a new sprinkler head- (see #1).<br /><br /><strong>4) You are expected to overeat.</strong> With Halloween, Thanksgiving, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span> proper and any and all holiday events surrounding <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span>, there is a ton of food. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">I always</span> show up at my sister's for Thanksgiving with my big pants on. We <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">used</span> to eat two Thanksgiving meals on turkey day-going to my sister's and the in-laws. This year, we had three. We celebrated double at the in-laws because of some availability issues. Ham, turkey, dressing, yams, potatoes, gravy, rolls, butter, baked corn, pecan pie. <strong>I'm not going to list off the number of good things there are to eat around <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span>, when you've still got leftover Halloween candy in a bowl on the top of the fridge that you've confiscated from the kids. I feel like a lord that takes a percentage of chocolate from my little serfs.</strong><br /><br /><strong>5) Basketball and hockey tournaments and the Super Bowl</strong>. The biggest event, outside of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span>, is watching the Super Bowl. People nest in their houses, eating pizza, guacamole, chicken wings, and chips and drink beer- (see #4). I love NBA fantasy hoops, even if I've only won one title in 15 years. In March you get the best sports s<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_16" class="blsp-spelling-error">een</span> in the country- March Madness and the NCAA basketball tournament, which my Tar Heels won l<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_17" class="blsp-spelling-error">ast</span> year. <strong>This <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_18" class="blsp-spelling-error">tournament</span> is everything its counterpart in NCAA football is not. Where the former decides the games on the court, after all the complaining about who is in and out of the tournament, and where someone is seeded- the latter has a computer and an algorithm decide the champion.</strong> That approach makes less sense than why people still think they need to vote for one of two political parties. A team from a smaller conference that goes undefeated has no chance to win a national championship because the good old boys won't let them play for it. So, I like winter in this area, because <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_19" class="blsp-spelling-error">I get</span> to stop hearing about college football on ESPN. In Minnesota, there is the high school hockey tournament. I've been watching that since I was 7 years old. Even winter can remind one of their youth.<br /><br /><strong>6) Reading and writing and shopping for <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_20" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span>, sometimes even for you.</strong> With all of the things you don't have to do in #2 above, even with two small kids, there is more time to watch TV, read and write.<br /><br /><strong>7) Sweat and shirts.</strong> Now granted, you freeze your behind off in the winter and I would far prefer the summer heat to the winter cold, but in the winter you don't pit <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_21" class="blsp-spelling-error">out</span> any of your shirts and with that you don't smell as much. I think I sweat an <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_22" class="blsp-spelling-error">average</span> amount for a guy, but I might be more annoyed by it. Well, you don't have to worry about that when you are so cold that your nuts won't descend for <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_23" class="blsp-spelling-error">days</span> at a time, unless you sit by a fire. Also, I hate ironing; I'm terrible at it. By the time I iron the second half of a long sleeve shirt, the first half I ironed is wrinkled again. In the summer, you don't have to iron long-sleeve shirts, because you aren't wearing them. Hey, I'm trying to think positively.<br /><br /><strong>Slamming winter interlude:</strong> Because I couldn't go all the way without complaining about winter or the events that <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_24" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">traditionally</span> take place during winter, I wanted to get those Scrooges <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_25" class="blsp-spelling-error">out</span> there a mental pacifier. Sure it's cold; you can't be outside; cook food on the grill; the roads are covered in ice; we must endure holiday decorations at retailers from mid August until the third week of January, given all the clearance items they have to sell; there are only reruns on television because everyone knows televisions stop working between Thanksgiving and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_26" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span> when it is cold and dark outside and there is often (literally) nothing else to do; you have holiday lights to put up; a dog peed in the snow your daughter just ate (see #8); you can't gun the engine fast enough to get the car up the driveway because of all the snow; <strong>you have to wear a jacket that weighs as much as a dog from the toy group</strong>; you gain eleven pounds in three months, and you contract seasonal affective disorder once the leaves start falling.<br /><br />All that said and- can someone please, please tell me why they play all of the holiday shows so early in the season? <strong>Someone went to the trouble of making a Madagascar <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_27" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span> special this year and then someone made the brilliant decision to play it the week BEFORE Thanksgiving!</strong> Morons! If you are going to play all of the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_28" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span> shows so early because we're all so busy freezing our butts off shopping, play the damn things again, when any self-respecting holiday-loving personage is in the mood to watch them. And don't cite viewership numbers and contend no one watches television between the 10<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_29" class="blsp-spelling-error">th</span> and 20<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_30" class="blsp-spelling-error">th</span> of December. You can't tell me those <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_31" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span> shows- Rudolph, The Grinch, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_32" class="blsp-spelling-error">Shrek</span> the Halls, Charlie Brown, Frosty, etc. won't get better numbers than Dinner Impossible on the Food Network or the 15<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_33" class="blsp-spelling-error">th</span> incarnation of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_34" class="blsp-spelling-error">CSI</span> on CBS. Watching these shows reminds me of my youth. What doesn't?<br /><br />Whew. Lucky I'm half done or this grammar check on Microsoft Word would drive me nuts, changing my lowercase "<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_35" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span>" to the upper case version.<br /><br /><strong>8) Snow.</strong> I have two kids, and provided it isn't 10 below, they like to get at that snow. I think we could feed our kids a couple meals a week by telling them to eat the snow. I have some good memories of playing in the snow when I was a kid and everyone does- king of the hill, fumble football, snowball fights, snow forts, flooding the backyard for a rink, boot hockey in the driveway, where slap-shots weren't allowed, even before I was hit with someone <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_36" class="blsp-spelling-error">else's</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_37" class="blsp-spelling-error">backswing</span> and needed a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_38" class="blsp-spelling-error">patch</span> over my left eye. <strong>Now, even though it takes 12 1/2 minutes to get two kids under the age of five ready to go outside, there is fun to be had. You can build your kids forts and drag them around on the sled, while avoiding a heart attack, and laugh when they do a face plant in the snow, after which their lower lip puffs out so far a buzzard could take refuge upon it.</strong><br /><br /><strong>9) Warm showers.</strong> They just feel that much better don't they? Never mind that you freeze your butt off until you're dry and in warm clothes- there is just something about a warm shower in the middle of winter. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_39" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ok</span>, yeah, I oversold that one and I'm reaching. <strong>But if not for the cold, I would never have learned that my son's favorite water temperature is warm. Good to know.</strong><br /><p><strong>10) Cold Nipples. </strong>Sorry for the touchy-<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_40" class="blsp-spelling-error">feely</span> winter positive next to this R-rated alternative. It is cold in the winter; I know that doesn't come as any surprise to people. <strong>So, for all of the skimpy clothing that can be worn during the summer months, about the best that can be said for winter is that you might have a chance of spotting a substantial protuberance.</strong> Thankfully for us males, who may have hot women withdrawals in winter when everyone is putting on layers of clothing, many female <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_41" class="blsp-spelling-error">areolas</span> are too sensitive to be contained. If it weren't for wool and I were ranking this list, I would have to put this one pretty high up. Honey, when I wrote "us" I meant all men but me of course.</p><p><strong>11) Parades.</strong> This is a double-edged sword and I advise people to heed my advice. Do not begin watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in the first hour. They've sold this as a parade, with Smurfs, Mickey Mouse and Spider Man balloons and Sesame Street and Dora floats, but most of what you get is a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_42" class="blsp-spelling-error">round table</span> discussion where the hosts find themselves amusing, discussing with Michael <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_43" class="blsp-spelling-error">Mckean</span> what fine work he's doing in his off Broadway play about narcissism, and how great he thinks the writing and the cast (which you've never heard of) are doing. <strong>Dude, tell me when you are coming out with something like "Spinal Tap" or "Best in Show" or get out of the way- a Handy Manny balloon is coming down 34<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_44" class="blsp-spelling-error">th</span> Street- and my kids don't even like Handy Manny.</strong> I would rather listen to Boris Yeltsin, who is still alive by the way, tell me about his favorite childhood moments growing up in Siberia in Yiddish, a language I'm pretty confident he doesn't speak. Watching parades does bring me back to my y<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_45" class="blsp-spelling-error">outh</span>- (see #5); it w<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_46" class="blsp-spelling-error">ould</span> be something I was doing waiting for the football pregame show to come on. <strong>Hey, we didn't have cable, and it isn't my fault they fit some of the worst lip-<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_47" class="blsp-spelling-error">sync</span> artists in the world in between the Old Mother Hubbard float and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_48" class="blsp-spelling-error">Darkwing</span> Duck balloon- a fellow who stole his irritable cartoon duck act from either Daffy or Donald- take your pick. </strong>Here's another clue- don't put an advertisement for General Motors, even though they need all the help they can get, over the Disney Princesses float I promised my daughter she'd see fifteen minutes ago. Morons! <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_49" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ok</span>, that turned a little negative. It snowed last night . . . I'm trying.</p><p><strong>12) Hot chocolate.</strong> Besides beer, Captain-Coke, Mountain Dew, and UV Blue Vodka and lemonade, my favorite drink is that old water and chocolate powder drink heated for two minutes in the microwave. Sometimes I even have a few stale miniature marshmallows to add. I have the circulation, in my hands and feet, of a giant cuttlefish with type II diabetes (ah, that doesn't actually have hands or feet), so being <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_50" class="blsp-spelling-error">able</span> to warm my hands against a cup of hot chocolate is good stuff. Never mind that I scald my lips and tongue impatiently testing the temperature of my concoction. <strong>It turns out, my favorite hot chocolate temperature- is warm (see #9) and if you are a man- read #10 again just for the hell of it.</strong></p><p><strong>13) The second refrigerator or freezer.</strong> You don't have to refrigerate pop or have ice cubes to cool a room temperature soda. In the winter, if you want a drink, open up the door to the garage . . . it's cold man. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_51" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ok</span>, so when it freezes, you must remember to bring in the garage beverages or you will be left with a frozen pop you have to wait 45 minutes to thaw, but other than that, it's all good. If you're having a party, you can store all of the beverages on the deck- and that leaves more room in the fridge for food (see #4). <strong>You don't even need to worry about drunken squirrels stealing your stuff. They don't have the arm strength and I hear the punishment for reckless tree climbing in the squirrel community is crippling to their social life.</strong> Also, if you go out to eat and have other errands to run, you can leave the leftovers in the car without worrying about them spoiling. Course, a lot of people decide it is too cold outside to leave the house to go out to eat, but to hell with them anyway.</p><p><strong>14) <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_52" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span> music . . . both the good and the bad.</strong> Sure, they start playing this stuff way too early and too often, and some of it, especially if your wife has an I-Pod and knows how to use the favorites <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_53" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">play list</span> that isn't populated with nearly enough songs, can drive you insane. But the music (at least some of it) reminds me of my youth. Some of it makes me long for the silence of the isolation room in some fictitious prison, but I digress. Every time I hear <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_54" class="blsp-spelling-error">Mariah</span> Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" I think of her showing some cleavage on the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_55" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">CD</span> jacket of her holiday album back before she was completely <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_56" class="blsp-spelling-error">skanky</span> and before she had decided to only hang out with American-African <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_57" class="blsp-spelling-error">gentlemen</span>. (Note to the guys- seeing the nipple back then was a little much to hope for- read #10 again if you're depressed or if you aren't.) However, there are a few songs I can't stand and they exist only to make others seem more palatable by comparison. <strong>The most offensive of these holiday eardrum-numbing songs is Barbara Streisand's version of "Jingle Bells". This is 2 minutes of pure, perhaps LSD-induced torture. But at least it is only 2 minutes.</strong> Then, what little is left of my holiday spirit, after discovering a number of gifts I received that I can't and won't use and didn't ask for did not come with receipts and which I can't return, comes back to me. <strong>Seriously, if you have never heard this <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_58" class="blsp-spelling-error">version</span> of the popular song- do it once and compare the effects to this central nervous system disorder: "A common condition arising from compression of, or damage to, a nerve or nerve root. Usually caused by degeneration of an <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_59" class="blsp-spelling-error">intervertebral</span> disc, which protrudes laterally to compress a lower lumbar or an upper sacral spinal nerve root. The onset may be sudden, brought on by an awkward lifting or twisting movement". People, you either have Sciatica or have just listened to Streisand's version of Jingle Bells too often during one holiday season.</strong> Also, "there may be numbness and weakness in the leg." People might think I'm kidding. Give it a listen if you dare. The horror!</p><p><strong>15) Holidays.</strong> I already mentioned the overeating and the shopping, both of which are fun and dangerous at the same time. But the holidays are actually much more than that, especially if you have kids. I'm going to ignore the fact that some people who shop for gifts go out and buy people what they want them to have, that think that providing a list of gifts one wants is rude and all that stuff I covered in the the second post I wrote way back in 2006- "Ungratefulness and Steak with Ketchup" but forgetting that for a minute- the holidays are all about family and drinking and little kids and drinking and eating and drinking and opening presents and drinking. And let's be honest, sometimes we should drink before we get to the eating or the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_60" class="blsp-spelling-error">little</span> kids or the family events. The holidays- especially <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_61" class="blsp-spelling-error">christmas</span>, are all about kids. <strong>Nothing is more rewarding than the innocence and excitement of seeing a child glow more than any string of lights available at the Home Depot, at least until the latter is 70% off. Now, either the children have actually swallowed a string of lights, (I wouldn't put it past my little guy), or the anticipation of Santa and toys and fun and being able to share days and weeks with them at this time, which is something people should never forget, is too overwhelming to keep it inside.</strong> Now, it isn't until they're about 8 or 9 when they wonder why their I-Tunes or Best Buy gift card is only for $20 that we realize the loss of child-like innocence- which reminds us of our age and we again lose our childhood again. Until then though appreciate the fruits of winter, drink it up, and this time I'm not just talking about the alcohol.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3