NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio [2009)

Film directed by Andreas Pichler.

https://thoughtmaybe.com/natos-secret-armies/

Reference point:

http://www.journalof911studies.com/resources/2014GanserVol39May.pdf

Formed in 1956.

The year after the Warsaw Pact (Comecon [1955]).

A legitimate fear.

Let me be unequivocal.

In my opinion, communism is bad.

One might even say evil.

But no one should be killed or tortured for their political beliefs.

A crime must be committed in order for rule of law to come into play.

It is not a crime to hold naive theories (like communism) on what is a good economic system.

A Marxist can only be punished insofar as they promote the overthrow of the government.

I do not think Joe Biden was duly-elected.

But I am not calling for him to be overthrown.

That is not my place.

I could play no role in that.

The only entity which could overthrow Joe Biden’s regime would be the U.S. military.

They should do what they think is right.

They do, however, have an obligation to NOT FOLLOW illegal orders.

Would all orders emanating from a President who was not duly-elected be illegal?

I would think they would be.

But it is not my role to decide that.

Our military will either let us suffer and cease to exist as a country (under the criminal leadership of Joe Biden), or they will make their voices heard.

Every time our military follows an order of Joe Biden, they are making the choice that that order is legal and valid.

And that is their choice.

History will judge them.

It is not my place to give the military advice.

Even though they work for me.

And Joe Biden also derives his (stolen) power from me.

I repudiate Joe Biden.

He is not the legal President.

But what can I do about it?

Here’s what I CAN’T do about it.

I cannot act like a Marxist and encourage the overthrow of the government.

I don’t encourage that.

But I do encourage our military leaders to think.

I do encourage our military leaders to take the situation and condition of the country into consideration.

And I do encourage our military leaders to be abreast of the “irregularities” (to put it nicely) of the 2020 election.

It is up to them to decide what to do.

If they think they are following legal orders by carrying out the commands of Joe Biden, then there’s not much I can do about that.

Joe is right.

We the people would need nukes and fighter jets.

But we the people will only allow our rights to be infringed UP TO A POINT.

An unjust law is no law at all.

Natural law.

I reserve the right to peacefully protest and to utilize my First Amendment rights of free speech.

I wish Biden well.

I hope he keeps us out of WWIII.

I wish he would get us out of NATO.

But I know he won’t.

Because he’s a corrupt moron.

I hope the 2022 midterms actually happen.

I hope Bill Gates doesn’t unleash a smallpox attack.

I hope the 2022 elections are actually free and fair.

I believe the 2020 elections were neither free, nor fair.

Trump won.

I am very disappointed with Trump’s stance on the COVID vaccines.

I am also quite disappointed that Trump called Zelensky a hero.

But it doesn’t change the fact that Trump won.

Would I vote for Trump again?

I don’t know.

I voted for him two times.

I might prefer Ron DeSantis, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, RFK Jr., Robert Malone, Joe Rogan, Alex Jones…

I think any of these people would make a fine President.

And I am liking Tulsi Gabbard more and more.

Which brings us to NATO.

NATO is clearly (CLEARLY!) at fault in the Ukraine war.

NATO precipitated this war.

And the presence of the USA in NATO is unnecessary.

Being in NATO is an unnecessary danger for the United States.

NATO should not even exist anymore (because its enemies…the USSR and the Warsaw Pact alliance) no longer exist.

NATO is no longer a force for peace.

Was it ever?

That brings us to our current film.

Years of Lead.

Anni di piombo.

Italy.

Guido Salvini.

Good guy.

CIA using groups like Ordine Nuovo (fascists) in Italy.

New Order.

New World Order.

Britain wants to maintain that MI6 are choir boys.

P-26.

But what about SHAPE?

And SACEUR?

Gladio (Italy) reported (“responded”) to SACEUR.

It is GOOD to know how communist revolutions work.

It is GOOD to stop them before they happen.

But it is VERY, VERY BAD to murder innocent dumbasses who are wearing Che Guevara t-shirts.

And it is even worse to indiscriminately bomb banks and train stations to scare a population into not voting communist.

The formula was:

-NATO-led (right-wing) stay-behind networks commit terrorist attack on behalf of US/NATO

-attack blamed on leftists

-population avoids voting for communists out of fear

Children were killed in these operations.

Bombings.

Mass shootings.

All blamed on leftists.

And most (if not all) carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups under orders from US/NATO.

P26.

Switzerland.

Felice Casson.

Good guy.

Daniele Ganser (whose article I posted near the top of the page).

Good guy.

Italian intelligence may have stolen the 2020 U.S. election.

Via the military/satellite company Leonardo.

In the days of Gladio, the prime mover within Italy was SISMI.

Military intelligence.

Italy.

Switzerland.

Belgium.

Germany.

But Italy was hit the hardest.

Along with SISMI (which no longer exists per se), another suspect would be VSSE of Belgium.

Only the Vatican’s intelligence agency is older than VSSE.

VSSE is the CIA of Belgium.

Belgium also has a military intelligence organization (GISS).

Strategy of tension.

Look it up.

It dominated the USA in the years after 9/11/01.

And it has dominated the past two years of COVID (with biological warfare [disguised as a naturally-occurring pandemic] replacing higher-intensity forms of terrorism).

The W. Bush administration denies that the USA had anything to do with the terrorism of the stay-behind networks (like Gladio) which they set up in all NATO countries following WWII.

Yeah, sure.

This same Bush administration says it’s just all “made up” by the Russians.

All evidence points to the various security services in Europe (Italy, Belgium, etc.) protecting these stay behind networks from prosecution when they committed these acts of terrorism.

So the Bush administration was (in 2006) relying on an implausible deniabilty.

It’s possible, but highly unlikely, that the United States didn’t participate in these terror activities.

And it is even less possible that they didn’t know about them and condone them.

It remains to be discovered just what just the U.S. and NATO played in this terrorism.

There is no question that NATO/US set up these stay-behind networks.

And there is very little question that these stay-behind networks committed acts of terrorism upon European civilians.

Indeed, the original mission of these stay-behind networks appears to have changed from “use in case of emergency [a Soviet takeover of Western Europe]” to “use for any purpose which will cause Europeans to fear communist political candidates”.

This violence should not have been committed.

When children are killed (as they were by a bombing in Munich at the Octoberfest), then the end does not justify the means.

Try telling the father who lost his young son and daughter to that bombing.

The girl was ripped open by the bomb.

The boy had bomb fragments which went through his head.

They both suffered.

They did not die instantly.

They both spoke to their father.

The girl said, “Please help me, father.”

The boy said, “I’m ok. I’m just cold.”

They both died soon after.

And that father had to live with that grief.

All so that communists would not be voted into power in Western Europe.

Bullshit!

FUCK THAT!!!

SDRA8 in Belgium.

Absalon in Denmark.

TD BDJ in Germany (where a former Nazi, Gehlen, was head of post-war German intel).

LOK in Greece.

Stay-Behind in Luxembourg.

I&O in Netherlands.

ROC in Norway.

Aginter Press in Portugal.

Red Quantum in Spain.

P26 in Switzerland.

Özel Harp Dairesi in Turkey.

AGAG in Sweden.

Plan Bleu in France.

OWSGV in Austria.

The name of the Finnish version is unknown.

Italy.

Giulio Andreotti.

Vincenzo Vinciguerra.

Licio Gelli.

Propagada 2 (Masonic lodge).

Nazis and fascists in South America.

Operation Condor.

CIA-backed Nazis in Ukraine.

Lebed.

Stepan Bandera.

Azov Battalion.

Ihor Kolomoyskyi.

The second or third richest person in Ukraine.

A Jew.

Who supports (and funds) the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604

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Now why would a Jew support an anti-Semitic (goes without saying) Nazi group?

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS60927080220150505

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SISMI was preceded by SID.

Let’s get into the hideous details.

Piazza Fontana bombing.

Milan.

17 dead.

88 wounded.

Bomb went off in an agricultural bank.

Two farmers had just closed a deal with a bank manager.

Does that sound like the kind of target leftists would hit?

A bank for farmers?

No.

But that wasn’t the only bomb of the day.

Other than the 4:37 p.m. bombing of the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura, there were three other bombings that same afternoon in Rome and Milan.

AA11.

UA175.

“AA77”.

UA93.

Four in a day.

There was a U.S. Navy officer (David Carrett) indicted for his role in the Piazza Fontana bombing by the aformentioned Guido Salvini.

A US/NATO intel official (Sergio Minetto) was also indicted by Salvini.

The CIA coordinator for northeastern Italy (Carlo “Uncle Otto” Digilio) was likewise indicted by Salvini.

The head of SISMI (Sergio Siracusa) was charged by the aforementioned Felice Casson.

It seems the Piazza Fontana investigation was obstructed by SID (SISMI) director General Gianandelio Maletti (a P2 Masonic lodge member).

Neo-Nazi/neo-Fascist Franco Freda got life in prison in 1979 for the bombing.

As did Giovanni Ventura.

As did Italian secret agent Guido Gianettini.

All three were then acquitted on appeals in 1981.

Freda and Venturi still each got 15 years for bombings they committed in Padua and Milan.

Gianettini was acquitted in 1982.

All defendants acquitted in 1985 (including alleged conspirators Valpreda and Merlino).

Two members of the Italian secret services went to jail for misleading the investigation.

Now what possible reason might they have had for doing that?

I don’t know…maybe because the bombers were working for them???

Gian Adelio Maletti got one year in prison.

Antonio Labruna got 10 months.

For the death of 17 people.

But in 1987, here comes our good friend from Operation Condor.

Stefano Delle Chiaie.

Tried for the Piazza Fontana bombing.

Acquitted.

By 2000 it had come to Delfo Zorzi.

He received life in prison for the bombing.

Carlo Digilio received immunity in exchange for information.

Zorzi was then acquitted on appeal in 2004.

U.S. intelligence knew about the Piazza Fontana bombing (and the Piazza della Loggia bombing five years later in Brescia) before they happened.

But they did nothing to stop them.

Why?

This sounds awful similar to what the CIA did in South America with Operation Condor.

In Brescia, it appears that the target was even more stupid.

Why would right-wing false-flaggers bomb an anti-fascist protect?

That makes no sense.

France was the only member of NATO to ever withdraw from the alliance.

And if they had been smart (which they evidently are not), they would have stayed out.

But they didn’t stay out.

Nevertheless, SHAPE was forced by France’s withdrawal in 1967 to move to Mons, Belgium.

The Brabant massacres.

The Brabant killers.

The Nivelles gang.

De Bende van Nijvel.

Les Tueurs fous du Brabant.

Delhaize grocery stores.

28 deaths.

Burglary.

Etterbeek. 1981

Theft.

Dinant. 1982

Armed robbery (grocery store).

Maubeuge (France). 1982

Armed robbery.

Wavre. 1982

Death of policeman.

Armed robbery (restaurant).

Employee tortured and killed.

Beersel. 1982

Robbery.

Murder of taxi driver.

Brussels. 1983

[car found in Mons {SHAPE}]

Armed robbery (grocery store).

Rixensart. 1983

Armed robbery (grocery store).

Uccle. 1983

Armed robbery (grocery store).

One employee killed.

Halle. 1983

Armed robbery (grocery store).

Houdeng-Gougnies. 1983

Armed robbery (textile factory).

One worker killed.

Temse. 1983

Service station robberies.

More murders.

Armed robbery (restaurant).

Owner killed.

Ohain. 1983

Armed robbery.

One customer killed.

Beersel (again). 1983

Armed robbery.

Two owners of shop killed.

Anderlues. 1983

AND THEN IT ALL STOPPED?!?

Nothing in 1984.

Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).

Three people killed.

Braine-l’Alleud. 1985

Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).

Five people killed.

Overijse. 1985

Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).

Father, mother, and daughter killed in the parking lot.

Son ran back into the shop and was shot at point blank.

Eight deaths today during this robbery.

Aalst. 1985

Buckshot in 12-gauge Winchester pump shotguns was a rare type similar to a former Belgian special forces unit called Group Diane.

SDRA8.

SDRAVIII.

S.D.R.A. VIII.

In Greece, there was CIA coordination with General Lucian Truscott.

LOK is Greek special forces.

There is some evidence they were involved in the Greek military coup of 1967.

This coup happened one month before national elections.

There were 10,000 arrests in this coup.

This ushered in the Regime of the Colonels which lasted in Greece from 1967-1974.

A secret NATO army in Greece appears to have been named Red Sheepskin (or Operation Sheepskin).

Arms cashes of the stay-behinds were found near Arnhem, Netherlands.

Operation Gladio again connects to Operation Condor by was of Stefano Delle Chiae.

In Spain (where many Nazis hid out before fleeing to South America).

We also find another connection to Vincenzo Vinciguerra.

William Colby is the only CIA Director that I like.

-PD

Jojo Rabbit [2019)

Something is collapsing.

Where did Stephane Bancel go?

BioMérieux.

Moderna.

The Spartacus Letter.

https://www.infowars.com/posts/damn-you-to-hell-you-will-not-destroy-america-read-the-spartacus-covid-letter-thats-gone-viral/

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The same people who created the vaccines created the virus.

And Bourla couldn’t get into Israel…because he hadn’t taken his own company’s vaccine.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/pfizer-ceos-israel-visit-cancelled-because-he-is-unvaccinated-report-661100

A tale of two CEOs.

Two of the most evil people to ever live.

They won’t give us Ivermectin.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2FmXOcurWKJBtAMI128acf?si=5XvMCHfVReOdAUYudHeFQg&nd=1

They won’t give us hydroxychloroquine to put with our zinc.

[it must be the same dose of HCQ as used for other ailments…too much HCQ was used in New York State…USE THE SAME DOSAGE AS WITH MALARIA]

So we are prisoners in our own houses.

They want us to go to the hospitals and get pumped full of Remdesivir.

https://dailyexpose.uk/2021/09/02/remdesivir-causes-renal-failure-hospital-protocols-are-killing-people/

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No fucking thanks.

I’d rather die at home.

[excursus on Bangladesh:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33278625/ ]

So we are the Jews hiding out.

The whole world.

People like me with asthma and high blood pressure.

And a heart condition.

There were two months in a row this year where I didn’t leave the house.

[and I am approaching another two months where I haven’t left the house]

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34513523/

I have asked two doctors (my own physician, and a friend) to prescribe me Ivermectin to be taken prophylactically.

Both refused.

So I am a prisoner in my own home.

With my two elderly parents.

Whom I love with all my heart.

I am not going to go out flippantly and get sick.

And I am not taking these #NeitherSafeNorEffective vaccines.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-covid-deaths-2021-vaccines-b1963790.html

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Uttar Pradesh did it right.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7G3u2PJ87Lu91GI5fnEqOe?si=-lA76m7GQPKX60jEJCnRjA&nd=1

Japan did a great job embracing Ivermectin.

So you can tell me India is a backwards country (they are not…many brilliant doctors).

But you cannot tell me Japan is a backwards country.

https://c19ivermectin.com/

Your anti-Ivermectin narrative is falling apart.

But the truckers are the heroes.

Canada is on the brink of revolution.

And America is on the brink of war.

Russia is forcing Biden’s hand.

I believe Putin is trying to force the U.S. military to remove Joe Biden from the Presidency.

It is my belief that Putin is attempting to prove to the U.S. military that Biden is corrupt SPECIFICALLY IN RELATION TO UKRAINE (and he is!):

https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/

If Russia invades Ukraine and Joe Biden chooses to send U.S. troops to die in defense of non-NATO Ukraine, this will be proof #1 for the U.S. military.

If Russia invades Ukraine, Xi Jinping will not be able to pass up the irresistible chance to invade Taiwan.

This will be proof #2 for the U.S. military because Joe Biden is corrupt SPECIFICALLY IN RELATION TO CHINA:

https://nypost.com/2020/10/15/emails-reveal-how-hunter-biden-tried-to-cash-in-big-with-chinese-firm/

If Biden fails to defend Taiwan, this will be the second proof to the U.S. military.

But I must be fair.

Whether it is deception (is Joe Biden even capable of that in his currently deteriorated mental state?) or not, the POTUS said something which was actually sensible the other day.

To paraphrase, “We will not be able to rescue Americans inside Ukraine if Russia invades because if Americans and Russians start shooting at each other, that is very bad.”

This is the first thing Joe Biden has said during his Presidency which is both true and wise.

Is this some kind of ploy to garner votes?

Like the sudden back-off from the COVID restrictions?

But Justin Trudeau is not backing off.

Because he is a fucking retard.

And the Canadian people are showing more SPIRIT and COURAGE and FORTITUDE than any people in the entire world!!!

Previously, the Dutch had been the avant-garde.

And the Australian truckers were the FIRST to REALLY put the screws to their government by shutting down roads.

Also, don’t count out the French.

They did a similar thing near the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel).

But what the Canadians are doing is of a WHOLE OTHER MAGNITUDE ALTOGETHER!

People are wondering why Americans are not doing anything.

Black people are letting their rights be trampled in New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities because they think that rocking the boat will prevent those sweet, sweet reparations from coming down the pipe.

UPDATE:  all you are getting from the Biden administration and Obama-black Kamala is crack pipes.

These politicians are liars.

They tricked you.

STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS NOW!!!

Where’s BLM???

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I love my black brothers and sisters.

I’m not saying you don’t deserve reparations for slavery.

But I am saying this:  you ain’t getting shit from the Democrats and the Democratic Party.

AOC is a fucking fake.

Bernie Sanders is a fucking fake.

Barack Obama is a fucking fake.

Joe Biden is WAY MORE RACIST than Donald Trump could ever dream of being.

Speaking of which.

Justin “Blackface” Trudeau has no business calling any of these truckers “racists”.

https://nypost.com/2021/09/20/new-trudeau-blackface-photo-lands-on-eve-of-canada-election/

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How many times has Trudeau (likely the illegitimate son of Fidel Castro [is his governing style starting to make sense?]) been photographed in blackface?

https://medium.com/@leibowitt/of-course-fidel-castro-is-justin-trudeaus-dad-nobody-has-debunked-anything-4db6fc8a9042

But I am going to keep giving Trump hell until he calls out the COVID vaccines as the bullshit they are.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3VXsCvRbs1B6BmsVoeAvrQ?si=fbr_E1PFTIi_d304xfSSRw&nd=1

He hasn’t done that.

Instead, his dumb ass has PROMOTED these killer vaccines.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html

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https://openvaers.com/covid-data/mortality

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https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/02/underreporting-vaccine-adverse-events

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So Trump does not get a pass.

Not now.

Not yet.

He did a GREAT job as President.

But he is shirking his duty by extolling these vaccines.

If there are Nuremberg tribunals, Trump will be tried as well.

His actions have been assuring that that will happen.

He had plenty of opportunity to say that he had been tricked about these vaccines.

He STILL could throw the people REALLY responsible for these killer vaccines under the bus.

But he is not doing that.

Why?

This is why I cannot support Trump in 2024.

I will support DeSantis.

I will support Rand Paul (unless he recommended these vaccines to Trump).

I will support Tucker Carlson.

I will support Candace Owens.

I will support Robert Malone.

I will support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

No one else is qualified right now to be President aside from these six.

But why aren’t American truckers doing what Canadian truckers are doing?

Because of January 6.

The FBI and corrupt agenda-setting (fake) news framed Americans.

https://www.revolver.news/2021/02/maga-blood-libel-why-are-they-hiding-the-medical-report/

The FBI provocateured the January 6 event.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/09/accused-oath-keepers-capitol-rioter-worked-for-fbi-lawyer/

https://www.revolver.news/2021/10/meet-ray-epps-the-fed-protected-provocateur-who-appears-to-have-led-the-very-first-1-6-attack-on-the-u-s-capitol/

https://www.revolver.news/2021/12/damning-new-details-massive-web-unindicted-operators-january-6/

FULL-Transcript-of-Whistleblower-Interview

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There are some good FBI field offices.

Here’s my favorites (in order from best to not quite as good):

#1  FBI Albany

#2  FBI Buffalo

#3  FBI St. Louis

#4  FBI Cleveland

#5  FBI Cincinnati 

#6  FBI Pittsburgh

#7  FBI Omaha

#8  FBI Oklahoma City

#9  FBI Philadelphia

#10  FBI Kansas City

Honorable mention:  FBI Little Rock

FBI Minneapolis and FBI Newark are also not bad.

What do you notice here?

Here’s what I notice (and suspect).

The “good agents” are sent to the Midwest.

Chicago?

No.

Notice the pattern.

Philadelphia is a pretty good field office.

But Pittsburgh is much better.

Do you get it?

Send the good agents to the middle of nowhere.

Omaha.

Oklahoma City.

Little Rock.

St. Louis.

Detroit?

No.

Milwaukee?

No.

Send them to small towns.

New York City?

No.

Albany?

Yes.

Boston?

No.

Buffalo?

Yes.

The FBI learned their lesson with Ted Gunderson (who almost became Director).

He was the best agent in the history of the Bureau.

Because he had INTEGRITY.

He was in some smaller places.

New Haven.  Memphis.  Dallas.

And he almost brought the whole house of cards down on the ruling class which wields power through the blackmail of pedophilia.

Ted rose to be the Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles field office.

Never again would an agent of such integrity rise so high.

Let’s talk about the worst, most corrupt, useless field offices.

Seattle?

Yes.

They solve art crimes.

What a bunch of poseurs.

Same with FBI Portland.

Totally worthless.

FBI Los Angeles is where you send the corrupt agents.

FBI Phoenix are fighting windmills.

And where do you send the MOST-CORRUPT agents?

Well, FBI Washington (D.C.) Field Office, of course.

They see no evil.  Hear no evil.  Speak no evil.

And the FBI has come after ordinary Americans RUTHLESSLY for the past year.

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Think of all the things FBI Baltimore could have been investigating…

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Think of all the things FBI Chicago could have been investigating…

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Not every field office went along.

Kudos to FBI Denver.

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Think of all the things FBI Detroit could have been investigating…

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Think of all the things FBI El Paso could have been investigating…

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Think of all the things FBI Los Angeles could have been investigating…

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Think of all the things FBI Las Vegas could have been investigating…

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In addition to FBI Denver, FBI Miami was not having this bullshit.

Kudos to them and to the memory of these two special agents who lost their lives investigating real crimes.

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The FBI’s Most Wanted Twitter account was busy posting photos of grandmas in ugly American flag sweaters.  These were a priority for the Most Wanted program.  Enough to tweet about it.  And pin it.  Forget drug kingpins.  Gotta find those grandmas that wandered through the Capital and took selfies with Capitol Police.

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Think of all the things FBI New Haven (truly a shithole town) could have been investigating…

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Think of all the things FBI New Orleans could have been investigating…

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Even in crime-riddled San Juan, Puerto Rico, the FBI made #Jan6 their top priority.  Even up to three months after the event.

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FBI San Diego is actually a decent field office.  They do investigate real crimes.  And yet, under the pitiable leadership of Christopher Wray, the Bureau continued the same kind of lawless law enforcement that typified the James Comey years.

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[The FBI at no time ever had a pinned tweet (for three months) in reference to the George Floyd riots.  It should be noted that Mark Milley urged Trump to NOT invoke the Insurrection Act in the summer of 2020 because he characterized the riots in Portland, Minneapolis, and other places as just “penny packet protests” and that it wasn’t an insurrection because they only “used spray paint”.  Milley told President Trump that the George Floyd rioters were not “burning it down” (it being America), but Trump was right.  We sat back and watched America burn.  https://nypost.com/2021/09/17/milley-told-trump-the-george-floyd-protests-were-no-big-deal/ ]

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Flashback.

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Back to summer 2020.

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The chilling effect has created an atmosphere where American truckers can be assured that THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT will come after them mercilessly if they dare stand up and exercise their right to symbolic speech in protest of vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, mask mandates, etc.

Canada still thinks their government will do the right thing when the chips are down.

We will see.

I will say this:

either the RCMP and CSIS greatly underestimated the scope and potential for success of the Freedom Convoy,

or those institutions are far less corrupt than the FBI and CIA.

Why do i say that?

Because there have been no major false-flags or provacateuring inflicted upon the Freedom Convoy AS OF YET.

But Canada is at an impasse.

If Trudeau uses Canadian troops against the peacefully-protesting truckers, it may force the Canadian military to remove Trudeau from power.

If that happens, the American military might be doubly (or trebly) convinced that now is the right time for them to remove Joe Biden from the Presidency.

This would be unprecedented in Canadian and American history.

This would be an unprecedented pair of “coups”.

But it would be most similar to removing the Nazis from power in Germany.

All of these leaders (including Trudeau and Biden) should be tried for war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.

https://open.spotify.com/track/0MzTHxuzAqgGhkcukKDsBf?si=zxW7nf-wSIeOEN5E2oE-2A&nd=1

These are war criminals.

They have been waging war on their own populations.

What good is the Canadian and/or American military if they are not protecting their populations from DOMESTIC ENEMIES?

I cannot speak to the structure in Canada concerning their charter rights, but Joe Biden is unequivocally an enemy of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Joe Biden is allowing the southern border to be invaded (just as Obama before him did).

If there is not a radical change in the balance of power in America (particularly in regards to what role the military plays), there is a very real chance the republic will fall.

Can we wait until the midterms?

Will the elections even be fair?

Has the election apparatus been sufficiently shored up to only allow American CITIZENS to vote ONCE apiece?

Have the vectors of fraud been eliminated?

I am not convinced that they have.

What happened in Virginia with Youngkin and company was hopeful.

But the other question is this:

will Joe Biden and his globalist criminal conspirators even allow the midterms to happen?

Will Bill Gates and company release smallpox in the U.S. (as they have been telegraphing they may)?

November 9, 2021

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/bill-gates-smallpox-terror-attack-b1958789.html

November 18, 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/18/philadelphia-lab-smallpox-vials-freezer

Context [from the same people who brought you Event 201]

https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/events-archive/2001_dark-winter/

Is DARPA trying to cover their asses?

Or are they really the good guys in this story?

JAG_Docs_pt1_Og_WATERMARK_OVER_Redacted 2

Think about all the people to have died in the shadows of spook world.

The microbiologists.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/scientists-deaths-are-under-the-microscope/article4134797/

John P. Wheeler III.

Delaware, you say?

Hmmm…

Took the Amtrak like Biden???

Hmmm…

Why are WE THE PEOPLE having to do the job we pay our government to do?

Our government is not protecting us.

Our government is not meting out justice.

This is highly-problematic.

All of the attempts to curb COVID have been WORSE than failures.

They have allowed for a change in power in the United States.

Trump would not have lost had it not been for COVID and mail-in ballots.

Which is to say (not even getting our hands on those Maricopa routers), that he indeed WON the election.

But he is not in power.

Unless there is some incredibly weird dual-government situation playing out.

And at any rate, Trump sounds like a fucking retard when he talks about the vaccines.

And he has talked about them a lot.

Plenty!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-i-got-the-pfizer-125703879.html

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Casually dropping his booster status right after a crowd had sung the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art”.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-played-conspiracy-theory-hits-024518810.html

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https://www.axios.com/trump-candace-owens-dying-vaccine-covid-92fd3eb3-f5ec-4167-8649-113903119de1.html

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-roasts-gutless-desantis-for-keeping-his-booster-status-a-secret

Trump is on THE WRONG SIDE of the most important issue plaguing us right now.

Why?

Are we supposed to be assured that Trump is Sun Tzu’s bastard child?

And Trump is some international chess champion?

And he’s gonna swoop in at the last moment and do the right thing?

He and what army?

Our woke joke army of Mark Milley, Lloyd Austin, Michael Gilday, Bishop Garrison, and Richard Torres-Estrada?

That woke joke military???

Milley is absolutely a traitor to the United States of America.

Calling China behind Trump’s back to tell them that he would give them a “heads up” if Trump was going to attack was the definition of treason and espionage.

https://nypost.com/2021/09/17/milley-claims-china-calls-perfectly-within-the-duties-of-his-role/

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Lloyd Austin is absolutely a traitor to the United States of America.

Forcing our troops to take vaccines that are neither safe, nor effective, is criminal.

Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley are, and have been, destroying the readiness and lethality of our soldiers.

Michael Gilday did this by recommending that our troops read America-hating Ibram X. Kendi.

To “enlighten” them about the struggle of black people in America.

Nope.

Sorry.

We don’t need to recommend our soldiers read a book by someone who hates the very idea of America.

Gilday actively destroyed morale.

Whether it is because he is a moron, or a saboteur, I cannot say with certainty.

Bishop Garrison is about as useful as Rosa Brooks.

https://www.revolver.news/2021/05/bishop-garrison-pentagon-hatchet-man/

Neither of them should have ever been let anywhere near the Department of Defense.

As for Richard Torres-Estrada, special operations is one area where “diversity” should not matter one bit.

Give me THE BEST soldiers.

If they are all women, fine.

If they are all men, fine.

If they are all black, fine.

If they are all white, fine.

And those leading them (SOCOM [USSOCOM]) should also be THE BEST administrators and leaders.

There should be no “diversity hires”.

Fuck your feelings.

The world is on edge.

So many dominoes which could trigger lightening-fast cataclysms.

The American judiciary is no longer functioning.

It is time for martial law.

But the American military has been infiltrated at the highest level by communists and traitors.

All of the institutions which “dealt with” the Nazis have been infiltrated by globalists like Klaus Schwab (whose own father was a Nazi collaborator).

https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/02/investigative-reports/schwab-family-values/

NATO cannot be depended upon or trusted.

The same for the United Nations.

The same for the International Criminal Court.

All institutions of international law in The Hague have been corrupted and coopted.

China does some things well.

But China is very flawed.

China’s treatment of Hong Kong is inhumane.

China should coexist with Taiwan.

Taiwan should not be FORCED to become a part of China.

And then there is the abomination of what China did to Tibet.

And what they are doing to the Uyghurs.

And how they dealt with their Freedom Convoy (Tiananmen Square [8964]).

Anne Frank as a comedy.

Tragicomedy.

A rather mediocre movie.

A clever idea.

But not a very good movie.

The real Nazis are the ones in Ottawa taking pictures of license plates and fanatically passing this info onto the police.

It must suck to have your first movie (Eagle vs Shark) be not only your best movie, but the only perfect film you’ve made.

This is, likewise, no Last Night in Soho.

Not by a long shot.

Jojo Rabbit is a pretty fucking stupid film.

-PD

 

Introversion [2021)

Teenage Fanclub.

That glow in The World’s End.

But a sadness.

THE sadness.

Emily Dickinson.

Unrequited.

Unattainable.

My Bloody Valentine.

Sloshy grunge hats.

Edge echo.

Chris Bell.

I Am the Cosmos.

Yerself Is Steam.

Slowdive.

Rutti.

Brian Eno.

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Tom Petty.

You don’t know how it feels.

J. Spaceman.

Abbey Road.

Air.

George Martin.

Beck.

Badfinger suicides.

Loser.

Spiritualized.

Royal Albert.

I can only give you everything.

Rick Danko.

Loping.

The Delgados.

Dave Fridmann.

Black magic warded off by honesty.

Good timing.

Divine.

Sigur Rós.

Nigel Godrich.

Pocket symphonies.

Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Serge on the way.

Lenny Bruce, even.

Hit to Death in the Future Head.

Wait at least until track three to break it down.

Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.

Gorecki.

Arvo Pärt.

Deserter’s Songs.

Absolutely.

The confusion of ridiculous counterpoint.

Aaron Copland.

Tonal, yet dissonant.

Thick Billy Corgan.

Siamese Dream.

Definitely a sadness here.

Dawn Upshaw.

Tabula rasa.

Death.

Immense Mellotron.

Tchaikovsky.

Abrupt modulation.

Sugar plum.

Lou Reed.

Ennio Morricone.

Cinema Paradiso.

All you need is hate.

Upstate.

Chaliapin.

Basso profundo.

Jussi Björling.

Dvořák.

Memorial day.

The Inflated Tear.

Columbus, Ohio with duct tape.

Debussy.

Posing with a bass clarinet.

Primal Scream.

Get Duffy.

Rock ferry.

Smokey Robinson.

Sad clown.

Dead clown.

Kinks.

Grasshopper.

Suzanne.

Woodwind quintet.

Did I ever write one?

Yes, I did.

César Franck.

Saint-Saëns.

Organ symphony.

Or is it contrabassoon?

Nadia Boulanger can tell you.

My teacher’s teacher (twice over).

The Left Banke.

LSD.

Herb Alpert?

Hummel.

Handel.

Strawberry fields.

Stereolab.

Unequivocally.

Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements.

A little lo-fi.

Vocal doubled.

Vox continental.

Great hook.

Changes that pull at your heartstrings.

More melancholy.

A fucking marimba solo?!?

Are you kidding me???

Makes sense.

Pauly Deathwish collaboration with Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes.

Lost Bayou Ramblers.

Gordon knew him as Death.

I have become death.

96 Tears.

Farfisa.

Partials.

Tim Gane tone.

Faust IV.

Doogie Howser?

Scary.

Impending.

Suspense.

Rock bass.

Ozzy.

Black Sabbath.

Amazing Grace.

Pete Townshend.

Front.

Back to J. Spaceman.

Dirty ass rock and roll with pristine horns.

Expensive drugs.

Sophisticated changes.

Éminence grise?

Is this the artist we’ve been waiting for?

Rodriguez?

R. Stevie Moore?

Wesley Willis?

Sounds like Jack Nitzsche.

Major Velvet vibes.

Suck-ceed twice.

Dylan with P-bass.

Mick Taylor.

Too much attitude.

Keith Richards.

Let it Come Down.

Shakespeare.

Fucker kicked the bucket.

First to be vaxxed.

Maricopa.

First Suicide album.

Bossa nova.

The Soft Bulletin.

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.

Gimme some lovin’?

Steve Winwood?

How old?

La Monte Young.

Slow changes.

First rehearsal tapes.

Alan Vega.

Martin Rev.

New York City heroin.

Warhol Factory torn down.

Across from YMCA.

Trump dances.

Great throwaway lyrics.

George Harrison.

Sound of universe.

Spacemen 3.

Savage tone.

Revolution.

Direct into mixing console.

Fried signal.

White album.

Sonic Youth.

Derek Bailey.

Lou ecstacy.

Late Lou.

European son.

Blood pressure rising.

Brutal.

Frankie Teardrop.

I think I’m in love.

Dub bass.

Will the circle remain unbroken?

When I had dinner with Roky.

13th Floor.

First Velvets album.

Heroin.

Drug rush.

Invincible.

But you gotta buy it.

Dirty Baltimore.

Cop shoot cop.

Cheree.

On the jukebox.

Eat at the gas station.

On tour.

First time in Texas.

American Supreme.

Iceland.

13 Angels.

It’s definitely Bowie.

New career.

Same town.

New old.

Old is new again.

Mercury Rev.

Savvy programming.

Dynamics.

Break beat.

A fuck ton of flutes.

Flute loops literally.

Bowie sax.

Little fluffy clouds.

Every drop.

Gay glam chorus.

Tony Visconti.

Don’t underestimate.

Pere Ubu.

First album.

Méliès.

Boys peel out.

Boces.

Inspector Clouseau.

Phone.

French ambulance.

Pants.

Gives me pants.

Videogames.

Cutting hole.

Pink Panther.

Herbert Lom.

A Shot in the Dark.

Grandaddy.

Under the Western Freeway.

Weeping willow.

Under that.

With Sean Mackowiak.

Square waves.

WarGames.

Tympani.

Rollerskate Skinny.

Dublin.

Kevin Shields.

Comes back loud.

One song mastered soft.

Definitely Low.

The main influence of Pauly Deathwish’s debut album.

Honegger.

Pacific 231.

Chariots of fire.

Vangelis.

Such a groove.

Nancarrow.

Polyrhythm.

Immense sadness.

By the side of a freeway.

Under an underpass.

Not like RHCP.

Much darker.

Like Godspeed.

Philip Glass.

Eno.

Blackstar.

How did a Trump supporter make this album?!?

I thought all Trump supporters were redneck morons???

This is way fucking better than Ariel Pink’s dabblings.

This sounds like a debut album.

Songs saved up.

Like The Strokes.

Cinematic as fuck.

Glitch Radiohead.

Trail of Dead.

Makes sense.

Because Pauly wrote the string arrangement on IX.

Dark.

Killers.

Disco compression.

Distressed.

These lyrics!

Johnny Rotten.

Trump 2021.

Snot on the crowd.

Arcade Fire.

Makes sense.

Lost Bayou Ramblers lost sessions.

Montreal studio.

This was all made on an iPhone?!?

Guy Debord.

Aladdin Sane.

Time.

Rick Wakeman?

Olivier Messiaen.

Major 7ths in uppermost range of piano.

Almost indistinguishable from octaves.

Eerie.

Slight.

Only for the sensuous ear.

The Wall.

Waters delayed bass.

No nonsense drums.

Humble Pie reference?!?

Ha!

Great lyrics!!

Predating new Bob Dylan album.

Check SoundCloud timestamp.

This is definitely the QAnon anthem.

This hook should be on a million conspiracy videos.

“10 Days of Darkness”.

Tell ’em Large Marge sent ya!

My end is my beginning is my end.

Grinderman.

No pussy.

Early-’90s.

Nirvana’s wake.

Finnegans Wake.

Great debut album (if I do say so myself).

Usual suspects.

Spotify.

iTunes.

Pauly Deathwish.

-PD

Red Dawn [1984)

Wikipedia wants to focus on NATO.

“–Soviet Union suffers worst wheat harvest in 55 years.

–labor and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops invade.

–Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000.

El Salvador and Honduras fall.

–Greens [sic] Party gains control of West German parliament.

Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil.

–Mexico plunged into revolution.

–NATO dissolves.

United States stands alone.”

Gist correct.

Minor typographical errors possible.

Agenda set by Joi Ito’s sister Mimi.

Jeffrey.

Benjamin Mako Hill.

MIT Media Lab.

One Laptop per Child.

What could possibly go wrong?

Nicholas Negroponte.

Epstein.

John Negroponte.

First DNI.

Beneficiary of 9/11.

Now Avril Haines.

Rewarded for being a “player” in Event 201.

Mexico and Honduras.

Davenport College.

Yale.

George H.W. Bush (Skull and Bones [CIA]).

George W. Bush (Skull and Bones).

William F. Buckley Jr. (Skull and Bones [CIA]).

Samantha Power.

Trevor Neilson (Gates Foundation).

Craig Newmark (Obama/Biden).

Melissa Hagemann (Soros).

Essa’a Al Shafei (MIT Media Lab [WEF]).

How snow looks in Texas from a 4th grade window.

Gets a bit ridiculous quite quickly.

A bit implausible.

Thinking Soviet.

Red.

They heard some Spanish.

Find the gun owners.

Confiscation.

Lots of batteries.

Soda water.

Cereal.

Arrows.

Ammunition.

7,000 Bell helicopters in the Vietnam War.

Re-education at the drive-in.

Harry Dean Stanton.

Film on repeat.

Saying how America was never great.*

120/124 #FlagOfficers4America .

Boykin.

Bolduc.

72 special operators from USSOCAF lost under Bolduc’s command.

4thPOG.

Avenge me!

Avenge me!

Toni and Erica join up.

Hidden in the cellar.

Like Jews.

Because of an invading force of pillaging rapists.

A constant in war.

Lea Thompson gunner.

Headless.

Jennifer Grey nade.

Keep me warm.

No surgery now.

No surviving a wound of this sort.

Multiple gunshots.

Abdomen.

Chest.

Bleeding out of mouth.

Pull the pin for me.

Wolverines.

Michigan.

Matthew DePerno.

Families of rebels killed.

Break the spirit of the rebels.

Mayor Bates is Mike Pence.

Powers Boothe.

F-15 ejection St. Louis on runway.

https://www.businessinsider.com/st-louis-airport-f15-pilots-reportedly-ejected-2021-5

Southwest Texas State.

Me too.

Year two.

Later return.

Texas State.

Omaha (Offutt) overrun by Cubans [STRATCOM].

D.C. nuked.

Invasion across U.S. southern AND northern borders.

Middle of country taken.

Stopped at Rockies and Mississippi.

Conventional warfare prevails.

Asymmetrical wolverines.

Legendary on the coasts.

In California.

In the mountains of Colorado.

Northwestern Canada seized by Soviets.

Most important line.

600,000,000 Chinese on our side.

Give me a fucking break.

Wait for the remake.

China has never been a U.S. ally.

Wikipedia riddled with subtle propaganda.

Shaffer.

Sellin.

10th Mountain.

Fort Drum.

A chopper from Rambo III.

Where were they getting these things?

Iraq?

Israel?

Defectors?

MIGs at Area 51.

Must be willing to fly vertical.

Looked like Erica shot Daryl.

Mil Mi-24.

Ravenous.

Apples.

Cereal.

Pour in mouth.

Milk later.

Squeeze rind to flirt.

A moment of joy in the mountain sun.

Orange freshly.

A bit maudlin.

Propaganda.

Cuban revolutionary cannot kill other revolutionaries.

Actually, a very interesting theoretical conundrum.

John Milius more writer than director?

Dirty Harry.

Apocalypse Now.

The Hunt for Red October.

Clear and Present Danger.

The film peaks.

By the swing set.

What we never thought we’d become.

Soldiers.

In a war.

China is the threat and the invader.

The war is now.

Bio psywar economic sabotage Marxist divide and conquer British bolsheviks.

Bolsheviks

Cheney out.

Operation moving.

1 by 1.

Just sayin’.

-PD

Redoubtable [2017)

Formidable.

Inspiring fear and respect.

Impressive.

Intense.

Capable.

That Swiss-Maoist asshole is my hero.

In many ways.

But which Godard?

If I were to say “late Godard” (and that would be my natural, truthful answer), Monsieur Godard would likely point out the merits of his early films…just to annoy me.

If I spoke lovingly of Vivre sa vie, he would probably proclaim that it is shit.

Jean-Luc Godard is a very complex individual.

And I can wholeheartedly identify with that.

A walking civil war.

This film never makes reference to Cahiers du cinéma.  

It doesn’t need to.

This film covers a period of time which Wikipedia classifies as Godard’s “revolutionary period”.

When did Godard stop writing for Cahiers?

He never stopped being a critic.

We know that.

And I see his point.

This is shit.

Because we want to invent new forms.

Breathless was like his “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”.

Or his Bolero.

He couldn’t escape it.

Couldn’t lose it.

Must be nice.

But maybe not.

“Play the hits!”

Did politics ruin Jean-Luc Godard?

Sure.

But it was necessary.

It was his process of growing up.

His process of attaining wisdom.

Trial and error.

Formative years.

But not the last word.

I don’t agree with Godard’s politics.

Perhaps at some point in my youth I did.

But not very much.

Because I never really understood them.

I dabbled.

But I too am a revolutionary.

In these days.

After the 2020 election.

You may call me a reactionary.

I don’t care what you call me.

I think George Washington is cool.

I think the United States of America is worth saving.

And the American Revolution has recommenced.

Same goals as the founders had.

Love it or leave it.

Godard did not show up in 2010 to receive his honorary Academy Award.

Good for him.

Fuck Hollywood!

Give me the old stuff.

Hitchcock.

Howard Hawks.

Not this new crap.

Tripe.

Perhaps you see where me and Godard overlap?

Too rashes like a Venn diagram…with a particularly-irritated common ground.

The skin is red and peeling.

Weeping.

Scratching.

Itching.

I scratch my arms.

I’m running out of real estate on my body for these nicotine patches.

Yes.

You thought it was something more interesting?

More taboo?

No.

Where does the former President of Peru come in?

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Godard’s first cousin.

I too had cousins.

Who are as far off as Peru.

But always close in my heart.

Kuczynski is 82.

Godard will be 90 in one week.

I will be 44 when the Electoral College meets.

Anna Karina died on my birthday last year.

She was 79.

But this film doesn’t deal with the wonderful Ms. Karina.

No, this film deals with another stunning beauty:  Anne Wiazemsky.

Wiazemsky died three years ago.

The same year Redoubtable came out.

In the English-speaking world, we know it (ironically) as Godard Mon Amour.

Sounds more sophisticated to have the subtitled film with a more commercial FRENCH product label.

Redoubtable is too vague.

Godard Mon Amour sells itself.

[that’s what the advertising guys must have said]

Godard and Wiazemsky were married for 12 years.

Godard and Karina married for a mere 4.

I’ve never read Mauriac.

I have nothing against Catholics.

I adore Olivier Messiaen’s music.

So it bears mentioning that one of the smartest, most unique artists in the history of the world was a French Catholic [Messiaen].

Which is to say, believing in God does not make you boring.

I believe in God.

The same God.

The Christian God.

God who gave us Jesus.

God who gave us synesthesia.

Combat didn’t like La Chinoise.

De Gaulle withdrew from NATO.

Will Trump win?

De Gaulle supported sovereignty.

The European Union is the antithesis of what de Gaulle wanted.

De Gaulle criticized America’s war in Vietnam.

But that wasn’t enough for revolutionaries like Godard.

Too lukewarm.

De Gaulle wanted Québec to be free from Canada.

If you’ve ever been to Québec, you might see why.

It is unlike the rest of Canada.

Except for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

But not really.

Île de Chêne?

1755-1764.

Conservatism.

De Gaulle.

Biography.

Mauriac.

Wiazemsky.

Mauriac’s granddaughter.

Starring in a Maoist film directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

La Chinoise.

And then they married.

Godard was correct.

Au Hasard Balthazar is the antithesis of the Central Intelligence Agency.

But Godard never said that.

I did.

So Anne Wiazemsky wrote a book called Un An Après which was published in 2015.

She died two years later.

The same year her book was adapted for film as Redoubtable.

She died of breast cancer.

Less than a month after Redoubtable was released in France.

This film proves that Michel Hazanavicius is a very talented filmmaker.

It proves that he knows his Godard.

But it is flawed.

Aren’t all masterpieces?

Maybe not.

Is Redoubtable a masterpiece?

In some ways, yes.

In some ways, no.

It is probably most similar to Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock.

Both of them are films of “exorbitant privilege”.

Which is to say, a little out of touch with their subject matter.

Was Pablo Picasso ever called an asshole?

Not if we take Jonathan Richman at his word.

Art contains deeper layers of meaning.

Usually.

Unless you’re Warhol.

In which case, the meaning MAY be found closer to the surface.

Stravinsky liked this too.

Music has no meaning.

It is just tones.

Timbres.

Rhythms.

Harmonies.

Little dots on a page.

So we are told.

By Igor.

Jean-Luc Godard and Igor Stravinsky both embraced MANY different approaches to their craft over their long careers.

Because they loved their crafts.

They were addicted.

It was a compulsion.

And, for Godard, it remains so.

Godard married the girl who rejected Robert Bresson.

Do not underestimate the thrill of this.

The thrill of it all.

Bresson was a genius too.

But she was only 18 when Bresson made his advances.

Girls want to live.

Bresson was 65.

Bold.

Numbers can lie.

Godard and Wiazemsky were only together as man and wife for three years.

Though they were married for 12.

Three years was enough, apparently.

The divorce appears to have been more a formality.

Anna.

Anne.

Anne-Marie.

I spoke to Anne-Marie on the phone once.

In exceedingly-broken French.

She was saintly in her patience.

All I wished to convey, as I called Rolle (Switzerland) on my flip phone, was that Godard was my intellectual hero.  [it is true]  And that his LATE films mattered.  That they mattered THE MOST.  That he had created beauty.  That he had plumbed the depths.  I owed it to my master to deliver this message before I (or he) died (God forbid).

I was compelled.

Jean-Luc Godard is my favorite creator this side of heaven.

Even though I don’t agree with his politics.

Bob Dylan is neck-and-neck for this honor.

Dylan is, no doubt, my favorite musician to have ever lived.

Neck-and-neck with Roland Kirk (perhaps).

My favorite jazz artist.

My favorite instrumentalist.

It is never noted that Wiazemsky was in Les Gauloises bleues.

And Godard could be an asshole.

So can I.

So can Trump.

Trump is my ideological hero.

My political hero.

I DO agree with his political philosophy.

Wholeheartedly.

And yet, my favorite film director (auteur) remains Godard.

No one is even neck-and-neck with JLG for me.

Brakhage is a distant second.

Welles is formidable.

But they do not hit the mark like Jean-Luc.

Il seme dell’uomo.

Nothing suggestive there.

Global plague.

Marco Ferreri.

Marco Margine?

Shot-reverse shot.

And then I gave Jacques Demy’s grandson piano lessons.

Or Agnès Varda’s grandson.

Same difference.

More like organ lessons.

Booker T.

You should use Belmondo again.

Funny films.

We see Coutard’s hair early.

Politics entered soon.

Le Petit soldat.

Shadow war.

The perfection of Vivre sa vie.

The jaunty, carefree, playful anarchy of Breathless.

And a sadness tied to beauty.

Politics again with Les Carabiniers.

An attempt at commercialism with Contempt.

Equivalent to Nirvana’s In Utero album.

Big-budget negation.

Nihilism.

A thorough disdain for the Hollywood system.

And the “tradition of quality” in France.

But something deeper…and more bitter.

Bande à part more like Breathless.

A little like Vivre sa vie.

Dancing.

Pinball.

Billiards.

Cafe culture.

Down and out in Paris.

Life at the margin of society.

YOUTH!

Hazanavicius first really gets going with Une Femme mariée.

Stacy Martin in the nude.

Stunning.

Cinematography.

Grabbing the bedsheets.

Clutch.

Brace brace brace.

The resemblance to Charlotte Gainsbourg is striking.

A little Alphaville.

Someone who nibbles Godard’s neck.

The Samuel Fuller scene from Pierrot le fou turned into a fistfight.

Politics.

Don’t insult me!

A bit of Macha Méril in the hair.

And a bit more of Chantal Goya.

Getting shouted down by a situationist during the May ’68 occupation of the Sorbonne.  Lumped in with Coca-Cola.

Things go dark with insults.

Swiss-Maoist jerk.

On the blink.

“Ruby’s Arms”.

It hurts.

Made in U.S.A.

Two or Three Things I Know About Her.

Urbanism.

“You ruined my shot!”

Ciné-tracts.

Eating Chinese food.

A rather unfortunate outburst directed at a war hero.

And his wife.

These are the things we do.

When we’re young.

And stupid.

And fiery.

What is striking is the humor in Redoubtable.

The broken eyeglasses.

The slipping shoes.

And their replacement.

I must give credit to Louis Garrel.

He really does convey the mania and eccentricity of Godard.

While Stacy Martin is very good here, it is a shame that Hazanavicius chose to lovingly evoke every detail of Godard’s life…except Wiazemsky’s red hair.

 

-PD

Beynelmilel [2006)

Wow 🙂

What a beautiful and perfect movie!

The International.

Yes, we are back to Turkey.

But this film is very much about the passions of youthful revolution.

Is Trump a revolutionary?

Of course.

Was George Washington a revolutionary?

Of course.

But the strain of revolutionary verve in this film is that of communism.

I don’t hate communism.

I don’t hate anything.

But I think some things are not so good.

With communism, I mainly criticize it on an economic level.

Have I read Marx?

Not very much.

But I’ve read enough Debord to get the late-60s version of Marxism.

I would argue that Debord, one of my three favorite writers, was at his best when he was NOT talking about Marxism.

When he goes off on Marxist tangents, he loses me.

I find it boring.

And, as I’ve said, I object to it on economic grounds.

I have a college degree in music.

[which will be very important in reviewing this film]

But I have an advanced degree (above and beyond that) in business.

Am I a genius of economics?  No.

But I questioned.  I was skeptical.  I studied Marx.

And I found the capitalist system to be the best system.

It is, by no means, perfect.

And so why, then, do I like Guy Debord?

Perhaps no one in history hated capitalism more than Guy Debord 🙂

I respect Debord because he was a brilliant social critic.

I do not agree with his economic assumptions.

I do not agree with his Marxist assumptions.

But when it comes to a critique of capitalism (which is the underpinning of globalism), no one has found the flaws like Debord.

No one has completely dismantled the matrix in which we live (the “spectacle”) quite like Debord.

And so his book The Society of the Spectacle is essential reading in my opinion.

At least the first few chapters.

As I said, Debord gets a bit bogged down in Marxism and loses his poetic divining power concomitantly.

But let’s discuss this film.

This is, by far, the best Turkish film I’ve ever seen.

Granted, I think this is only the fourth I’ve ever watched 🙂

But this is really a special movie!

Wikipedia says that it is set in a small town near Adana.

For that, I will say hi to the American soldiers at Incirlik Air Base 🙂

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for representing the United States.  Thank you for your service.  We love you and we pray for your safety and happiness!

It is true.

I love our American troops.

Most of my life I did not appreciate these wonderful people.

I took it for granted…

“Somebody will do that job…”

But in my older age, I respect these soldiers very much.

But let us shift back to this film.

First, let us thank the two directors:  Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Muharrem Gülmez.

They have made an almost perfect movie.

Really, this film is so, so good!

But you must be warned, my dear friends:  it is simple.

It you are looking for a complex, confusing film, then you will be disappointed.

Such that, you must be like a child–like a youth to appreciate the naïveté of this masterwork.

So I would say this:  it’s a bit like a Turkish version of Cinema Paradiso.

Do you see what I am getting at?

It is poetic.

The mise-en-scène is a bit like what we might expect from Claude Monet (were he still alive).

It is loving.

Large swaths of color.

And, perhaps most quintessential, it is unassuming.

Down to earth.

There’s no condescension in this film.

Come as you are.

First movie you’ve ever seen?

No problem 🙂

It is that sort of loving masterpiece!

It is set in Turkey in 1982.

Cassettes 🙂

80s-style clothing.  The Turkish version 🙂

A junta is in place.  A military government.  Martial law.

And one band of musicians gets rooked into being a “marching band” (of sorts).

But these are folk musicians 🙂

They don’t play brass instruments.  They don’t play the sousaphone.

So it is a very steep learning curve (which sounds a lot like Charles Ives in its beginning stages) 🙂

But let’s get to the most important point.

“I fell in love with the actress/She was playing a part that I could understand”

[Neil Young]

Yes.

Özgü Namal.

Just two years younger than me.

She is the star of this film.

Amazing facility as an actress.

But really just a glow–a vibrance in her every gesture.

Here is someone who is glad to be alive 🙂

And it made me glad to be alive!!!

But let me tell you the other star:  Cezmi Baskın!

This man!

He has no Wikipedia page in English, but he is a wiseman.

A humanist.

A saint of an actor.

A craftsman.

He plays the bandleader.

And his daughter in the film is Özgü Namal.

Umut Kurt does a very good job as the young communist.

And, hence, the title of the film:  The International.

“L’Internationale” 🙂

The most famous of communist anthems.

Yes, dear friends, it is that melody written in 1888 by Pierre De Geyter which is the MacGuffin of this film.

The whole plot hinges on it.

Derrida would call it the brisure (if film were a text).

To deconstruct.

The hinge.

I will say this:  the struggles in this film are very real to this day for the people of Turkey.

I would say our communist character would probably today be a member of the CHP party in Turkey:  Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi.

The Republican People’s Party 🙂

Which is funny because in the U.S., the Republicans (whom I support…more or less) are conservative or “right wing”.

So, yes:  the CHP is “left wing”.

But as I say, this is a very fine film.

It shows very much the love which a father can have for his daughter.

It shows the sacrifices which parents make for their children.

Parents will even die to save their children.

This is a funny movie, but it has this tone of seriousness as well.

Actually, the whole film is like a brilliant joke 🙂

It starts very serious…

But the it becomes festive and ridiculous!

Most of all, there are so many poetic camera shots of Turkish life.

Little things which we don’t see in America.

So an American can learn some of another culture.

But also, we see that people all around the world have similar worries and dreams as us.

Well, I don’t want to tell you too much.

I will just say that this is well-worth watching.

It is a bit long, but I watched it in two installments.

And the subtitles are good 🙂

Anyway, it is on Netflix streaming in the U.S. currently as Beynelmilel.

I am so glad I found this film 🙂

Güle güle

 

-PD

Democrats [2014)

For so long I dreamed.

Of visiting Africa.

Merely in film.

To say that I was not narrow-minded.

And to honor the one friend I have ever known from that beautiful continent.

A native of Chad.

Tchad.

And a former resident of Côte d’Ivoire.

Because I love geography.

But, even more, I love people.

And I am pleased to report that this documentary, about ZIMBABWE, is a masterpiece.

Directed by a Dane (as in Denmark) by the name of Camilla Nielsson.

And currently available in the U.S. for streaming on Netflix.

It is a recursive process.

For so long I cried.

When I thought of slavery.

When I saw the beautiful face of a black man.

And the teeth with many gaps.

I now know.

I can say.

My dear friend.

You look like you may have come from Zimbabwe.

But recursion may become tiresome.

So we will plop with geography for a moment.

Sadly ignoring Chad and Ivory Coast for the time being, we must locate (firmly) Zimbabwe on a map.

Champagne Castle.

Remove your sanctions.

Remove your sunshades.

Looks like South Africa (south)…and Botswana (west)…additionally Mozambique (east)…and gets hairy from there.

But you needs must only remember that the two Zs flock together:  Zimbabwe and Zambia.

And so to the north (by way of northwest [not possible]) is Zambia.

Lusaka.

And over Angola is Luanda.

Lusaka.

Luanda.

You are really getting the hang of this 🙂

Have you thought about working for the State Department?

Recursive.

Going back.

But wait…there’s less!

Just remember that Zimbabwe is southeast Afrique.

Not on the coast.

That’s -zambique.

But landlocked.

Have you ever heard the rot of colonialism?

No no.

Have you ever heard a landlocked brass band?

The pitiful, wailing clarinets…

Landlocked is potentially poverty.

At the mercy of your neighbors.

Over land.  Over sea.

One.  Two.  If.

Recur thyself!

No…

We must say it:  MUGABE!

A big, fucking rockstar of totalitarianism.

Nah…

Dictatorshit!

Yes.  His dictator shit!

As when the Dalai Lama was a boy.

And they kept his turds.

Because he was some kind of golden child.

But President Mugabe (since 1980) will forever have the ignominy of that desafinado military band behind him.

Celebrations like dirges.

Gloriously out of tune!

Nothing slight about it!!

And every head bows…and every knee genuflects in fealty.

A spry 93 years old.

And President of Zimbabwe for a mere 37 years.

He ain’t a king.

And worse:  he’s only 4th on the list of usurping motherfuckers!

You’d have to go to shitholes like Angola (ahh, Luanda…), Cameroon, and the kicker (!) Equatorial Guinea to find jerks who have managed to outlast the black Hitler.

But I like Mugabe.

[what?????????]

No, no…let me explain.

First:  the guy does have a Hitler mustache.  More or less.

But that’s not why I like him.  I don’t dig Hitler.

Wait…do I like Mugabe?

Well, there’s a time and place for everything (and everyone).

As you watch Democrats (mercifully…for all involved…NOT about the U.S. Democratic Party), you might grow attached to the various fuckers involved.

Politicians.

Lawyers!

But Third World lawyers.

Some sad shit…

But most importantly:  brave, noble human beings.

You wanna see a real revolution?

Watch this film.

You wanna see some real sacrifices for democracy?

Watch this film.

To be sure…democracy is ugly!

And we Americans are the best at it.

Anything goes!

Fight, fuck, kill…but more like lie, cheat, deceive…yeah.

Democracy brings out the worst in people.

But it arrives at the best result.

It’s a goddamned crucible.

Just to think…that the master copy of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (ostensibly the subject of this film) was on a fucking Dell laptop.

Dell.

Right up the road from me.

Round Rock.

In the Westerns…

&

Michael Dell’s Horatio Alger story…at UT-Austin.

Even closer to me.

And #vault7.

So that we know that every scintilla–every Oxford comma was hacked by the CIA and/or NSA and known throughout the Five Eyes…even before the leaked hard copy hit newsstands in Harare.

Ah!

Another capital…

Reçu.

I can never go back.  Enough.  TO give you a full telling.

I guess Paul Mangwana is still alive.

This.

The character that grows on you.

From chuckling social engineer.

To political operative shitting his pants.

How do you say “damage control” in Shona?

Exactly.

And Susan Rice is a bitch.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Because Democrats so precisely parallels the recent U.S. election.

The drama.  Allegations.

The swaggering strongman.

Yeah…Juan Williams would ride to town on that correlation.

So is Trump Mugabe?

Fuck no.

Not yet.

And probably not ever.

But liberals will have a field day with this possibility.

Social justice warriors will mouth off like the surly reporter from South Africa.

What an asshole!

And so we sympathize with Mr. Mangwana.

What a precarious position he was put in!

To try and bring the illusion of constitutionality to the ZANU-PF party.

But wait a minute…wait a minute…you ain’t heard nothing yet!

Remember, remember…that a black leader can repress black people.

America thought it was fine and dandy…and candy-shop clean when it elected CIA agent Barack Obama.

That turned out to be a big mistake.

One doesn’t investigate one’s own employer pursuant to crimes against humanity (9/11) when such equates to biting the hand that feeds.

Obama lost control.

And tried to get a little African in his lame-duck months.

Oops.

Yes…only democracy in the Middle East?  Israel?  You’ve got to be joking.

And Zimbabweans were so hopeful after the Mwangana/Mwonzora conclave wrapped up its two-year-overlong constitutional convention.

Got a little #MAGA in you?

Check out how a constitution is crafted.

If wasn’t all ass-kissing in Philadelphia.

Some genuinely contentious points.

And the Obamacare “Repeal and Replace” that just narrowly failed.

Think that wasn’t stressful?

Freedom Caucus gonna be outta jobs.

Saving their butts.

Sorry fuckers…

But I wouldn’t take their job for anything.

To be in that position.

Because.

We live a little while.

And then we die.

And so Camilla Nielsson deserves a Nobel (or at least a can of General Snus)…because she captured REAL, FUCKING LIFE here.

She doesn’t tell you what to think.

She says (in effect):  “figure it out”.

Here’s the facts. Figure it out.

“I have seen what I have seen”, wrote Ezra Pound in his second Canto.

I can’t explain it.

Some drumming.

Women making turkey noises.

Weird, macarena dances.

And a little boy gets beaten to death.

All to write a new constitution.

And Douglas Mwonzora is right:  Mugabe is evil.

That is a totally valid perspective.

Having seen this film.

[ahh…]

One source.

Never was anything decided on the basis of one source.

But circumstantial runs up against direct.

Very good, Eric Bolling!

And Tony Shaffer was better with MacGuffin.

But that’s just because this is Dossier du cinema.

Not cool enough for diacritics.

One final word…

Mugabe persists from the Soviet era.

Figure it out.

Is he a friend of NATO?

Do the geopolitical math.

Ruminate on AFRICOM.

Pound…was no patriot.  Of his own country.  In a traditional sense.

And the most I can bring you is this.

This attestation to genius.

The genius of Democrats by Camilla Nielsson.

And the sad face of former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai…leader of the opposition MDC party.

Sad.

Like his face had been bashed in few too many times.

And maybe we don’t wanna know.

But the cowed look says it all.

And Douglas Mwonzora risks it all.

Three days in jail without food or water.  Plus another 18 days to make it a full three weeks.

Mr. Mwonzora.

So calm.

Collected.

That cool we see in Jafar Panahi.

Yes.

You can jail me.

But you will have to thoroughly kill me.

To stop me.

From doing what I love.

-PD

Chuck Norris vs Communism [2015)

Dear Ilinca Călugăreanu,

You have made a beautiful film.

Which the world needed to see.

And the title made me think it would be imperialist propaganda directed at North Korea.

But I could not have been more wrong.

Because Romania has touched my heart so many times.

And so I am glad to add another name to the list of auteurs.

Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Cătălin Mitulescu, Cristian Mungiu…

And now Ilinca Călugăreanu.

Yes, it is only right that a young female director should bring us this story.

This documentary.

Ms. Călugăreanu, born in 1981.

Because this film is very much about the 1980s.

VHS.

Videocassettes.

And the situation in Romania.

Chuck Norris is merely a placeholder.

A meme which has undergone a certain détournement.

But there is no substitute for communism in this tale.

Perhaps, authoritarianism.

You see…

if you tell people to do one thing…and you’re really heavy-handed about it,

they will almost certainly do the opposite.

At some point.

And Ms. Călugăreanu’s very persuasive hypothesis is that videocassettes brought down the Ceaușescu regime.

And so there is very little way around this impasse without talking political economy.

First, let us address the very astute current Russian minister of culture Vladimir Medinsky.

The esteemed Mr. Medinsky has famously (?) called Netflix “U.S. government…mind control”.

Or at least that’s how The Washington Times (who needs the Post?) framed it.

But let’s investigate.

Let’s have Mr. Medinsky’s words and not just a CliffsNotes, elevator-pitch summation of them.

He says [translated],

“And, what, you thought these gigantic startups emerge by themselves? One schoolboy sat down, thought for a bit, and then billions of dollars rained down from above?”

That is pursuant to the funding which helped birth Netflix (and, presumably, other American companies with what Mr. Medinsky feels is a global, insidious reach).

He continues [translated],

“It turns out that that our ideological friends [the U.S. government] understand perfectly well that this is the art form that is the most important…”

Ahh, cinema…

And Vladimir Lenin himself knew it!

Mr. Medinsky then seems to evoke the Leonard Cohen of “Tower of Song” when he says [translated],

“They understand how to enter everyone’s homes by getting into every television with the help of Netflix…”

Leonard Cohen (God rest his soul) said it thus:

“Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure
The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor.”

Ah!

What a lyric!!

And that was in 1988!!!

So our director, Ilinca Călugăreanu, knows that of which she speaks.

Because the grip of Ceaușescu was beginning to slip.

But let’s give Mr. Medinsky one more say [translated],

“And through this television, [they get into] the heads of everyone on Earth. But [Russians] don’t grasp this.”

Ok.

Now why was Mr. Medinsky so upset?

Well, because Netflix undertook a vast expansion this past summer.

Indeed, the article from which I’m pirating these quotes (yes, translations are intellectual property) dates from June 23, 2016.

The same article notes pointedly that Netflix’s expansion into Russia, plus a vast number of new territories, means that the streaming service is now available in 190 countries worldwide.

Wait a minute…

How many countries are there, you might ask?  196.  Or 195.

Poor Taiwan, they just can’t catch a break.

So then you might say, well…what the fuck?!?

What countries is Netflix NOT in???

It appears those countries are China, North Korea, Syria, and…Crimea?

Suffice it to say, the international “community” is not unanimous in their appraisal of Crimean statehood.

Is it part of Russia?

Is it part of Ukraine?

What do the words Republic of Crimea even mean if its not an independent country?

Which brings up the specter of “frozen conflict zones”.

I’m guessing that Netflix might be unavailable in Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Transnistria.

But I digress…

Because we are on to more specific matters.

There are at least two major ways in which Americans can view the Romanian communist period as it has been depicted in motion pictures.

First, Americans can sympathize with the repression of the Romanian people.

Any doubters should do a little digging on the PATRIOT Act.

Indeed, the psychosis of surveillance (which is mentioned in Chuck Norris vs Communism) could not field a more forbidding bogeyman than the National Security Agency.

And so, dear peoples of the world, would you feel more or less safe living in the same country in which the NSA is headquartered?

Exactly.

Second, Americans could extrapolate Ms. Călugăreanu’s hypothesis to mean that countries such as China will eventually implode as a result of the fulminating combination of repression and technology (even, perhaps, with a starring role for entertainment).

All of that is to say that movies COULD bring down China or North Korea or even Iran.

[Notice the non-Netflix countries…Syria is without, but apparently Iran does have the service.]

Which is to ultimately say, Mr. Medinsky’s fear is completely warranted.

What is at stake in Russia?

The fall of Putin.

A sea change in leadership.

And I will be quite frank.

There is no doubt that Netflix’s catalog is heavily biased towards globalist propaganda.

One of the most glaring areas is India.

I can’t tell you how many watery, transparent premises there are on Netflix which are some permutation of a young person rebelling against a repressive culture.

It’s almost like they’re churning these formulaic films out in a factory.

Boy marries girl from lower caste.  Mayhem follows.

Girl goes to human rights court.  Happily ever after…

Boy rebels against father’s traditional ways [read:  religion].

I mean, at a certain point it’s just pathetic.

But we must hand it to Netflix for some (SOME) of their selections.

Actually, I have found a good many gems on the site.

But it is a very biased (and historically-uninformed collection).

In general, history doesn’t exist for Netflix.

Unless that history is the Holocaust.

Then, of course, there are a plethora of scenarios to “inform” you about the Nazis.

Make no mistake (my best Obama voice), the Nazis were bad.

Really bad.

But do we need 10 fucking films about the Holocaust?

And if Schindler’s List is the zenith of the genre, God help us…

But I digress again…

Chuck Norris vs Communism is a very beautiful film.

It’s about rebellion.

It’s about the little things we do to assert our existence.

And in this case, it’s about a translator (a voiceover dubbing artist) who reached the hearts of innumerable Romanians.

Irina Nistor.

Whether it was Chuck Norris, or Jean-Claude Van Damme, or Sylvester Stallone, Irina’s voice made the dialogue come alive in Romanian.

But it was a subversive activity.

“Imperialist” films were not allowed in Romania.

But Romania was falling apart.

To take the interviewees of our documentary at their word, their lives sucked…without “video” night.

But we must be clear.

Everything (EVERYTHING) about this enterprise was illegal in Romania.

First, the videos had to be smuggled across the border.

Then they had to be copied and dubbed (voiceover).

Then they had to be distributed.

Then some brave schmucks took the risk of screening these films on their TV sets (for a few lei, of course).

But it was dangerous business.

Especially if you were the kingpin.

So it is then strange to meet this kingpin of video piracy face to face.

Zamfir.

Not the guy with the panpipes.

No, this was Teodor Zamfir.

Made a pretty penny.

But the fascinating thing (by Călugăreanu’s hypothesis) is that he completely changed Romanian culture.

The seeds of revolution were sown by Dirty Dancing, Last Tango in Paris, The King of Comedy

And especially by the action films.

Rocky, Rambo, Lone Wolf McQuade…

And so, if you want to piss off a communist (or socialist, or whatever they’re going by these days), you can go with the familiar tack,

“Didn’t they already try that?  Wasn’t it an immense failure?”

I don’t know.

But I don’t doubt the faces of those who lived through Ceaușescu.

No national cinema has been nearly as effective as the Romanian in communicating to the West just what life under communism was like.

And so Romania becomes our lens into the Soviet Union and its satellite states.

I know there are Russians who fondly remember communism.

Let’s be clear:  capitalism can also suck.

Change and upheaval can be deadly.

They say, “Watch the price of eggs” (to demonstrate how a free market dictates prices).

But we see a very similar discontent in the Middle East.

Is this democracy?

Fuck this!

Yes, America has made some mistakes.

And so we should watch everything with a critical eye.

Be your own critic.

Be like Emerson.

Be bold.

And then double back.

Waffle.

Live by palimpsest.

Because you are the ultimate philosopher.

For your life.

I can’t tell you.

And you can’t tell me.

We have to learn.

It must be the right time.

To receive a particular lesson.

I draw courage from Irina Margareta Nistor.

But most of all, I draw courage from the Romanian people.

Perhaps my country’s Hollywood crap (the stuff I took for granted) was just the stuff necessary in the dark times.

Entertainment.  Ass kicking.  Escape.

But the Romanian cinema of today inspires me beyond words.

And so let us remember, whether we are capitalists or socialists, the price paid by the people of Romania in December 1989.

Was it 1,100 people?

11,000 people?

110,000 people?

It’s troubling that nobody knows for sure.

But even if it was a thousand people.

They didn’t just get trampled by goats or run over by garbage trucks.

It wasn’t a bloodless revolution.

At least 1000 people.

They saw their moment.

They seized on a moment.

They capitalized on their opportunity.

There was something which impelled them not to just sit at home and listen.

I salute these brave souls who went out into the streets.

For a thousand people to have died, it seems rather inconceivable that there wasn’t an attempt made by the government to “restore order”.

That’s the line which can’t be crossed.

That’s when a government has lost its legitimacy.

Some stories are twisted.

And full-blown civil wars do erupt.

But it appears, in the end, that repression lost.

And repression, censorship, and heavy-handed tactics (whether adopted by socialists or capitalists) should, by historical lesson, be most strictly avoided.

It is human nature.

The people will not tolerate being treated like livestock.

And something as seemingly inconsequential as VHS tapes can tip the balance.

-PD

Chronique d’un été [1961)

Capture capture capture.

Always capture the emotion of what you’ve just seen.

You have to take a piss?

It can wait.

[ok, sometimes it can’t]

But here it must wait.

Because Chronicle of a Summer is beyond the level of masterpiece.

For so long, I wanted to see a film of Jean Rouch.

Et voilà…ici!

Joined by another genius = Edgar Morin.

Where Nuit et brouillard fails, Chronique d’un été succeeds.

The reality (yes) of the Holocaust is in Marceline.

Marceline who does not want to sleep with an African.

Marceline with the concentration camp tattoo.

Marceline and her memories of her dear papa.

In this moment, the Holocaust becomes true.

We believe it…because it is not the same bullshit propaganda we have heard a million times.

Propaganda meant to amplify a truth can actually succeed (fail) in negating a truth.

Such is with the Holocaust.

It is where Spielberg fails with Schindler’s List.

It’s the Titanic of Holocaust historiography.

Titanic might be a good film (I believe it is), but it is certainly not cinema.

It is popcorn viewing.

That’s what Spielberg (of Jaws) did with the Jews.

He knew no other way.

He made a pop song out of Berg’s Violin Concerto.

Not even that.

Worse.

But Rouch (rouxsch) and Morin (more on, not moron) do the opposite.

Here we see all the techniques which would dominate the work of Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s.

And Godard has admitted the debt to Rouch.

Ethnography.

What is that?

Ethnic and graphs?

Might be some false cognation in there.

But yes:  this is a film from the social sciences.

Morin, the sociologist.

Rouch, the anthropologist (always mentioned as an “ethnographic filmmaker”).

It you want to see a film that doesn’t suck, see this one.

It has everything.

But it is not forced.

It is Paris, but it is also Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, Belgian Congo, colonial Algeria, jungles, leaves over the “sex” [genitals]).

Yet, all of this is merely talked about.

We are taken there by dialogue.  Language.

Immigrants.  Africans.

High and low.

A Renault factory.  Saint-Tropez.

Up and down.

Youth happy because the sun is shining and they are young.

Elderly who have lost their spouses or siblings.

Down and up.

Immigrants from Italy.  Depression.  REAL FUCKING DEPRESSION.

But beauty.  La bohème.  Attic apartments.

Bullfighting.  Rock climbing.  Bananas.

Fruit and //furniture forgeries.

Cooked books.  Accounting irregularities.

Leisure.  The revolution of doing nothing. [or at least something surreal]

You can’t just buy one book and expect to have it tell you “how the French think”.

No, my friends…

You must work at it.

You must study for years.  Study a culture.

And that’s what I’ve done with the French.  Because I love them.

 

-PD

 

Rozmarné léto [1968)

I’m not going to blow smoke up your ass.

This one starts out slowly.

Too long at the first location.

The river bathhouse.

The dread of boredom begins to creep in.

No girl.  No gun.

Until Jana Preissová makes her first appearance.

It was unbearable.

A rainy summer.

Every day the same as the last.

In a small town.

A closed circle.

But like Fellini, the circus comes to town.

Thank God for the circus.

Cotton candy.  شعر البنات

Is it girl’s hair?  Pink.  A one-piece pajama.

Or a pig.

It is like the sweet words of the beautiful Haneen Elhaj in Bethlehem.

Girl’s hair.

Running on the electricity of a car battery.

Spinning sugary magic.

Sandy stone (when the mirror of translate is turned upon itself).

We want to know literally what Heidegger Derrida was talking about.

And so it only took director Jiří Menzel two years to lose his voice.

It was perfection in ’66.

Ostře sledované vlaky.

That is the cynical view.

But we must realize that Menzel was literally walking a tightrope.

It’s not funny.

It’s not engaging.

It’s slow.

It’s effective.

By the end you see that Fellini is the right reference.

Capricious Summer (our film) bridges the gap between the antics of La Strada and the lovable freak show of local color that would be Amarcord (1973).

But this was 1968.

A very serious year.

The Czech and Slovak (respectively) socialist republics came into being the following year.

We know the legend.

Mai ’68.

All hell broke luce.

Even Cannes was cancelled.

[Cannescelled]

But what is a film festival compared to an invasion?

Before our Capricious Summer was the Prague Spring of 1968.

Lasting well into the summer.

And blooming well before winter had ended.

January 5 – August 21.

Then the invasion.  The Warsaw Pact countries.

Operation Danube.

Romania (and Albania), to their credit, refused to participate.

108 Czechoslovak civilians killed.

Liberalization.  Decentralization.  Democratization.

Like the beautiful Anna.  Fleeting.

Because the circus always has to pack up and leave town.

Our film.

Released May 24.  During the Prague Spring.

Pražské jaro (or jar).

Czech.  Slovak.

The only difference between my bank balance and Bill Gates’.

More zeros at the end.

Infinitely more.

Later these “Springs” would become manufactured (if they weren’t already).

Libya…

We all know about color revolutions…but the Czechs would have a textured revolution in 1989.

From velvet…we could have had the corduroy revolution (ribbed, for her pleasure), silk revolution, cotton (the revolution of our lives)…etc.

The “nonviolent” Prague Spring resulted in the deaths of 96 Soviet soldiers.

84 of them by “accident” (friendly fire?)

and the accidental/”suicide” deaths of 10 Poles.

Apparently none of the Poles died conventionally.

At least the two Bulgar soldiers killed perished from intent.

The four Hungarians all slipped on banana peels in front of Škodas.

This is the tone.

Lola Montès.

Plucking the feathers from chickens.

The chubby wife returns.

Drench the nubile.

Menzel, then, was many months ahead.

Knowing that summer would really begin when autumn usually fell.

Another 20 years before the circus returned.

 

-PD