The Equalizer 2 [2018)

If Q was real, the operation probably emanated from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Year one of Trump’s Presidency.

Year two.

IMG_0660

Susan’s address book.

Proof that McCall was DIA Defense Clandestine Service?

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It definitely says “Defense Intelligence Agency” (although the logo is not quite right).

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Here’s the real one.

No extraneous fighter jet (different from previous).

IMG_0662

Dave at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Proof that McCall was military intelligence?

Establishing that he was USMC is much easier and obvious.

But something seems to have happened with this movie.

And Robert (Roberto?) McCall is suddenly DCS.

Suddenly a MILITARY covert operative.

HUMINT.

But mainly a hitman.

If Q was real, the operation probably emanated from within the Defense Intelligence Agency.

And it was possibly based in Brussels, Belgium.

Which would seem to suggest a NATO connection.

But not necessarily.

Perhaps NATO was a cover.

The Q posts started in Oct. of 2017.

The Equalizer 2 (in which the protagonist is suddenly not just a government hitman, but specifically a MILITARY “high-level paid government assassin” [outtake]) dropped less than a year later.

July of 2018.

I can think of only one well-known movie in which the hero or heroes are with the DIA.

And it’s a comedy (Spies Like Us).

EVERY movie is about the CIA.

Every spy movie.

The most obvious provenance of a “government hitman” would be the CIA.

CIA plots to assassinate world leaders have leaked over the years.

We know that the CIA has assassinated “unfortunates” (or sought to assassinate them) around the world.

We know this through declassified documents.

But very, very little is known about the DIA.

There are endless stacks of books on the CIA.

And several on the NSA.

But, as far as I know, NOT A SINGLE BOOK on the DIA.

That is remarkable.

It bears mentioning that a TS/SCI clearance at DIA is only good for DIA intelligence products.

Same for a TS/SCI clearance at the CIA (only clears a person to see CIA intelligence products of such a level).

And the same applies to a TS/SCI clearance at NSA (it is only good for accessing top secret/sensitive compartmented information intelligence products which emerge from the NSA itself).

These three agencies (DIA, CIA, and NSA) are seemingly compartmented from one another at least so far as civilian security clearances go.

Which means the CIA could be cooking up anything…and the DIA and NSA might not necessarily know about it.

It means that there is much about the NSA about which the CIA and DIA are ignorant.

And it means that an operation like Q might have been possible…and might have emanated from within the DIA.

[N.B.  military top-secret level is known as TS/SAP:  are DIA and NSA employees (both military) potentially holding civilian and military security clearances?]

The timing is interesting.

Q’s first post was Oct. 28, 2017.

The Equalizer suddenly became military intelligence on July 20, 2018.

He could have as easily been CIA.

It would have been the norm in Hollywood to make him CIA.

So how on earth did he become DIA?!?

If my research is correct, the CIA plays a much bigger role in Hollywood than does the Department of Defense.

And of all Defense Department entities to highlight in a film, DIA (Defense Clandestine Service) is a notably-odd choice.

Perhaps it was the zeitgeist.

Perhaps Q had soured the American public (and much of the world) to the idea of CIA.

So Antoine Fuqua and company decided to distance themselves from The Company and make the agency in question the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Perhaps.

No coincidences, right?

Which brings us to the DIA.

An agency started by JFK.

Go back and read the Q posts.

There are a few where the authors seem to be writing glowingly about JFK.

Make sense if their agency was formed by him (1961)?

We always figured INSCOM.  NSA.

But no one ever focused on DIA.

And they are the only military entity with covert operatives (as far as we know).

As for declassified records, we have no indication that the DIA has ever assassinated (or even sought to assassinate) anyone.

The same cannot be said for the CIA.

They sought to assassinate Castro (for starters).

We have declassified documents about poisoned scuba suits and exploding cigars.

Documents about the CIA recruiting mafia hitmen to whack Castro.

It’s pretty safe to say the CIA has assassinated quite a few people worldwide (including some world leaders).

But what about the DIA?

We don’t have the evidence to assume the same.

Operation Northwoods is very damning.

It indicts the Joint Chiefs of Staff for planning terror attacks (real or simulated) on Americans as a casus belli to invade Cuba.

False-flags.

JFK rejected these options which CJCS Lemnitzer (Lyman L. Lemnitzer) presented to him.

So we can say that the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Kennedy’s era had few qualms about conducting REAL terror attacks (such as mass shootings) on the American mainland (in places such as Florida…blaming “Cubans”…and thus giving the USA a green light to take out Cuban missile sites, etc.).

Very, very little is known about the DIA.

Sure, they have a Twitter account (last time I checked), but nothing they post is substantive.

Well, then:  what DO we know about the Defense Intelligence Agency?

What little we know might be gleaned mainly from the biographies of current and former DIA Directors.

Beyond that, there isn’t much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_the_Defense_Intelligence_Agency

Practice your analysis skills.

Find a way.

Break a code.

Know the most commonly-used English letters.

And the % of time they occur.

Same for every other language on earth.

It was an Arab who realized this.

1000 years ago?

U.S. Army X I 11

USAF V I 6

U.S. Navy I I I 3

USMC I 1

CIA I 1

The Defense Intelligence Agency is primarily a U.S. Army institution (judging by the preponderance of leaders from that service branch).

With quite a bit of Air Force influence (at times).

Occasional Navy leadership.

And extremely rare Marine leadership.

The DIA also briefly had a former CIA operative for a Director.

[we are not going to get out of this morass until everyone reads The Secret Team by L. Fletcher Prouty]

From Prouty, we know that even the CJCS can be a CIA operative (as in Maxwell Taylor).

Who else has recently acted more like woke CIA operatives than patriotic military men?

Mark Milley?

Lloyd Austin?

Michael Gilday?

Next we want to find nodes.

Nexuses.

Choke points.

If we want to understand.

My gut tells me QAnon is bullshit cooked up by Russian intelligence or (more likely) the FBI.

But it could just as well have been a CIA operation.

Indeed, that is what the most famous DIA Director (Michael Flynn) intimated in this article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10252807/Lin-Wood-Releases-Michael-Flynn-audio-calling-QAnon-CIA-disinformation-plot-total-nonsense.html

The problem with intelligence work is that you would say the same thing (for different reasons) whether you were lying, or telling the truth.

Flynn:  “I think it’s a disinformation campaign. I think it’s a disinformation campaign that the CIA created. That’s what I believe. Now, I don’t know that for a fact, but that’s what I think it is.”

Is that the truth?  Or does he know that Lin Wood is recording him?

I think it’s the truth (i.e. Q is bullshit).

But it would make a nice cover.

What connects the current and former Directors of the DIA?

Two institutions:  the Command and General Staff College in Kansas.

And the National War College at Fort McNair in D.C.

And who taught at those two institutions?

When did they teach there?

Maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Hijack the hijackers.

What else connects the Directors of the DIA?

Army G-2.

What aforementioned erstwhile teacher connects to that entity?

Probably just a coincidence, right?

Of the 20 historical Directors of the DIA, only one was black:  Vincent R. Stewart.

He also happened to be a U.S. Marine (like Robert McCall).

He’s also dead.

Or is he?

He was appointed by the only black President in U.S. history.

Why is it significant that he is dead?

Because he was only 64 when he died.

How did he die?

I don’t know.

When did he die?

A few months ago.

April 28, 2023.

The Equalizer 3 came out on September 1, 2023.

Did General Stewart die suddenly because he had taken one of the three COVID vaccines which were rushed through testing and given Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA?

Why did the Commandant of the USMC (Eric Smith) have a heart attack and go into cardiac arrest on October 29, 2023 at the age of 58 or 59?

Was he too vaccinated with one of the Operation Warp Speed vaccines??

Eric Smith is still alive.

General Stewart is dead.

Why is it notable that he is dead?

When was the last time a Director of the DIA died (prior to Stewart)?

Funny you should ask.

Stewart was the first Director of the DIA to die so far THIS YEAR.

The second was Dennis M. Nagy (who was briefly with the Air Force before a long career with DIA).

Nagy died on August 5, 2023.

He was 80.

Here’s the problem.

Half of the Directors of the DIA are still alive.

Each and every one that surrounds General Stewart.

Of the 10 most-recent Directors of the Defense Intelligence Agency, only General Stewart is deceased.

Most DIA Directors die in their 80s.

Some die in their 90s.

A couple died in their 70s.

General Stewart was the youngest Director of the DIA to ever die.

The current DIA Director and his predecessor are both from Army G-2 (Army intelligence).

The most recent DIA Director to be educated at the CGSC (Fort Leavenworth) is General Flynn.

His predecessor was also educated there.

The DIA also has quite a connection to Texas.

General Maples was from Texas.

Back to the CGSC, General Hughes was an alumnus (that’s 3).

Hughes also connects to NGA and NRO.

General Minihan is from Pampa, Texas (that’s 2).

[Clapper]

General Soyster is an alumnus of both CGSC (4) and the National War College.

It should be noted that multiple DIA Directors went to work for L-3 Communications after retiring.

Soyster’s predecessor’s predecessor (General Williams) was also an alumnus of CGSC (5) and the National War College (2).

Not long before, General Wilson had headed the DIA.

He too was an alumnus of CGSC (6) and the National War College (3).

His predecessor was an alumnus of CGSC (7).

Admiral de Poix (who is a bit further back on the roll of former Directors) was a National War College alumnus (4).

General Bennett, the 2nd Director of DIA, was an alumnus of CGSC (8).

Bias check:  Texas does not play that big of a role in the DIA.

Confirmed:  almost half of the DIA Directors graduated from the CGSC.

In recent times, there appears to be a shift towards the USAWC in Carlisle Barracks, PA being the premier educational institution for DIA Directors.

So The Equalizer series can be seen as a gigantic recruitment commercial for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Or as an adjunct to Q.

Q hasn’t posted in 11 months.

McCall posted 2 months ago.

Interesting.

Maybe we are “literally” watching a movie?

The Equalizer series can also be seen as a gigantic Suunto watch commercial.

Which could be Finnish propaganda.

If that Finnish company weren’t owned by a Chinese company (it is).

Which brings us back to NATO.

Did Sam Rubinstein teach at the CGSC?

Good military vs. evil military.

Good guys (like L. Fletcher Prouty [Colonel X]) vs. private contractors within government.

The “private contractors” trope can also be read as CIA infiltration of the Pentagon.

This is PRECISELY what Prouty was writing about in 1973.

And perhaps the mechanism by which the CIA used DoD materiel to stage the 9/11 false-flag.

And then there is the overarching theme.

The storm.

Antoine Fuqua lets it bubble and simmer like a cauldron for much of this film.

Building background tension.

America needs hope.

America needs to reexamine itself.

Nothing shameful about that.

I find myself relating to thinkers I previously found revolting.

We get caught up in things.

PSYOPs.

But America is special.

It is worth saving.

But its survival is not guaranteed.

Rethink your assumptions.

About everything.

Body, mind, spirit.

The storm is here.

–PD

Argo [2012)

Q in Joseph Murphy.

MCIA.

Marine Corps Intelligence Activity.

Unclassified files from DARPA.

Now held at Quantico.

Project Veritas.

NCIS.

File name “jag”.

Ron DeSantis.

Navy SEAL.

JAG.

Quantico.

CYBERCOM outed two pedophile producers at CNN.

Drip drip drip.

We have it all.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7IgbjPtUs3iUnf5eWcCb1Z?si=lsb_L_5TRvqAOGNb1FqU0A&nd=1

release_good

https://open.spotify.com/track/2qtyA0aoLHNjChD3aNr2Dd?si=JF6LHX23SgC7uCdXZ7S58Q&nd=1

George Kaplan.

Roger Thornhill.

You can never tell anyone what you do.

Can you keep a secret?

Maybe I stayed home for two months.

Didn’t leave the house.

Or maybe I left the country.

Phone farm.

Replica of house.

Internally consistent.

Who can check?

Two rooms.

Three.

Four.

Four is easy.

One, two, and three are more effort than it’s worth.

Because this possibility never seemed plausible to any analysts.

Ghost Army were decoys.

But their chatter was real.

A ghost army is still an army.

https://nypost.com/2021/05/18/pentagon-reportedly-running-secret-global-army-of-60000/

FISA renewed.

Australia loophole.

McCrystal is butthurt that we highjacked his idea.

Because he used our truth.

Military intelligence is far superior to CIA.

With some caveats.

Old CIA < New CIA.

William Burns good.

Trust operation.

Counter-info op turned into info op.

Counter-info op that hijacked a LARP.

Is it a cover story to protect DTRA and make DARPA look honorable?

Maybe.

Or maybe DoD are less scumbags than CIA are.

War between NSA and CIA.

Hacking capabilities.

Tailored access (Fort Meade).

Vault7.

Frankfurt consulate.

https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/

CIA attempt to usurp NSA area of expertise.

DIA pushback against CIA via DCS.

COVID as bat vaccine.

Aerosolized.

To be sprayed in caves.

Escaped Wuhan lab before it was finished.

EcoHealth Alliance (run by Peter Daszak [check out his opera singer brother]) offered GoF project to DARPA.

DARPA declined.

EcoHealth’s proposal was on a top secret drive.

TS/SCI.

TS/SAP.

Documents not classified.

Pushed off site by Major Joseph Murphy (USMC).

Aide to Commandant Berger.

General staff.

MCIA as intel support to Berger.

In his role on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (who have certainly fucked things up before [Operation Northwoods proposal for false-flag terror attacks {real casualties} on American citizens]).

Now led by traitor Mark Milley.

Also populated by subversive Michael Gilday.

Civilian control by Lloyd Austin (traitor for pushing killer vaccines on troops).

IMG_6157

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

IMG_6158

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

Why is CDC parsing HHS VAERS data to make it look half as bad as it actually is?

IMG_6193

How passive is the surveillance of VAERS (historically)?

Let’s take something serious such as Kawasaki Disease as an example.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4599698/

Underreporting of severe adverse events to VAERS appears to be by a factor of 10.

If CDC admits 10,688 #VaccineDeaths , the actual number may be 106,880.

If OpenVAERS gives the real number in the VAERS system (21,382 vaccine deaths), the actual number may be 213,820 vaccine deaths so far in the USA from this portfolio of COVID vaccines (JnJ, Moderna, and Pfizer).

Pfizer is clearly the most deadly (as the above picture shows).

CDC tries to play the “correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation” card, but that doesn’t wash.

Consider this:

IMG_6198

https://openvaers.com/covid-data

For free, techno fog.

Major Murphy makes it clear why this is.

Thank you, James O’Keefe:

https://assets.ctfassets.net/syq3snmxclc9/2mVob3c1aDd8CNvVnyei6n/95af7dbfd2958d4c2b8494048b4889b5/JAG_Docs_pt1_Og_WATERMARK_OVER_Redacted.pdf

The above document deserves extreme scrutiny.

If it is a cover story, it is a good one.

It may provide some cover for the military.

But I think it is largely true.

There is, unfortunately, a reason the military might need cover.

What the fuck is this (ongoing program)?

https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_HDTRA11710064_9761

The “highlights”:

IMG_6249

IMG_6250

IMG_6251

IMG_6252

How could INSCOM not know about this?

DTRA is literally co-located with them at Fort Belvoir.

Do you need the CliffsNotes?

No problem:

https://amgreatness.com/2022/01/11/former-darpa-official-covid-19-was-designed-to-be-an-aerosolized-synthetic-spike-protein-vaccine-for-bats/

https://uncoverdc.com/2022/01/12/project-veritas-former-darpa-fellow-pens-letter-exposing-govt-secrets/

Flynn is definitely doing the Lord’s work.

As is Colonel Sellin:

https://www.survivethenews.com/lawrence-sellin-new-pentagon-papers-show-covid-is-bioweapon-made-in-china-paid-for-and-developed-by-us-scientists-who-then-covered-it-up-while-pushing-flawed-public-health-policies/

The Canadian Caper.

Of course it’s CIA propaganda.

But Godard said some of the best (because of their passion) movies ever made were propaganda.

Mosaddegh.

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

SAVAK.

The original Joe Biden (Jimmy Carter).

Inflation (Bidenflation).

Gas price.

Afghanistan and Yemen now substituting for Tehran.

2012.

Obama.

John Kerry.

Pallets of cash (Iran Deal).

Heavily invested in Big Pharma.

It appears Joe Kennedy III took over where the “Climate Envoy” left off:

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/pfizer-inc/members-invested?id=D000000138

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/johnson-johnson/members-invested?id=D000000386

I disagree with Major Murphy on Remdesivir.

Causes fluid in lungs.

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

Completely unsuitable as a treatment for COVID.

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/gilead-sciences/members-invested?id=D000026221

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/merck-co/members-invested?id=D000000275

Problem is Moderna IPO in Dec. 2018 and BioNTech IPO about ten days before #Event201 in October 2019.

Open Secrets (Congressional stock holdings) lagging approximately four years right now.

Kerry just as deep in Burisma as Joe and Hunter Biden.

Ukraine blew it.

They could have blown the whistle on Biden.

They caved.

Now Russia will own them.

They dug their own grave.

Corruption has consequences.

RE:  BioNTech (and Event 201 foreknowledge).

Gates Foundation invested $55 mil. in BioNTech the month before their NASDAQ IPO.

To reiterate, that IPO then preceded the coronavirus war game (sponsored by Gates Foundation and World Economic Forum with help from Johns Hopkins CHS) by about a week and a half.

https://investors.biontech.de/news-releases/news-release-details/biontech-announces-new-collaboration-develop-hiv-and/

IMG_5583

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-biontech-ipo-idUSKBN1WO29B

IMG_5584

https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/

IMG_6261

https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/scenario.html

IMG_6262

https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/players/haines.html

 

IMG_6263

IMG_6264

#AvrilHaines (John Brennan).

Avril Haines now promoted (by Biden) from extremely-suspicious pandemic exercise RIGHT BEFORE THE REAL PANDEMIC BROKE OUT to head the entire U.S. intelligence community (ODNI).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cias-deputy-director-to-be-replaced-with-white-house-lawyer/2013/06/12/8fc2118e-d383-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html

John Brennan and Michael Hayden are, for all intents and purposes, the same traitorous piece of shit.

No reason for either of them to publicly (a huge break in precedent for CIA and NSA) berate Trump for four-straight years on Twitter.

Brennan’s protege at Event 201.

IMG_5588

IMG_5589

IMG_5591

 

Joint Chiefs of Staff fuckery:

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf

I thought Lyman L. Lemnitzer was the worst CJCS.

That was until Mark Milley came along.

T-R-E-A-S-O-N.

Like Tammy Wynette might have sung:

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

IMG_6265

But Trump is a fucking retard as well.

Latest proof:

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

#DeSantis2024 #Rand2024

A history of Trump’s retardation and #CrimesAgainstHumanity .

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

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

IMG_6266

Trump had to nonchalantly mention his booster status in what was basically a church setting.

This is about as close to being Hochul-level-evil as one can get.

https://nypost.com/2021/10/05/gov-kathy-hochul-defends-calling-nyc-churchgoers-my-apostles/

IMG_6267

Kinda like how England vaccinated people in cathedrals with organ music playing to calm their nerves (slaughterhouse).

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-21/organists-offer-soundtrack-to-jabs-at-medieval-uk-cathedral

Who’s more objectionable now:  Milley (absolutely a traitor) or Trump (absolutely encouraging crimes against humanity [the administration of killer vaccines] when he should know better)?

Milley is a straight-up traitor to the United States of America…and he might be a better person than Donald Trump.

I’ve already demonstrated that the COVID vaccines are dangerous.

Now let me remind you that they don’t work.

[#NeitherSafeNorEffective]

https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2306

IMG_5753

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

IMG_5785

What would make Trump go from being the best President in modern history (he was!) to a vaccine-worshipping, sell-out cunt?

Some really tortured logisticians postulate that it’s all about “optics”.

Hm.  Perhaps.

But to what end?

What is the strategic advantage of Trump alienating his own base?

Does he really think he’s going to win over liberals?

Is he winning them over by sucking the dick of Big Pharma?

I don’t think so.

The heat is now on Fauci.

-PD

 

Top Secret! [1984)

And so we come full-circle.

As in the olden days.

When we first started.

Writing about spy spoofs.

And this is a doozy!

Val Kilmer’s first film.

As Nick Rivers.

Very much Elvis, but equally Beach Boys (at least on the opening number “Skeet Surfing”).

I would call this style of filmmaking “kitchen sink”.

It was a particular type of American comedy in the 1980s.

Fast jokes.

Set pieces.

Elaborate puns.

General silliness.

The setting is East Germany.

In the time of Markus Wolf and the Stasi.

Wolf retired in 1986.

The year after this film (1985), Vladimir Putin started his KGB career in East Germany.

But let’s talk about more important stuff…like how beautiful Lucy Gutteridge is!

A girl and a gun, said Godard.

And for a sequel, another girl and another gun…

Said I.

Port Said.

Fuad II.

Yes, Ms. Gutteridge plays the stunning Hillary.

Which roughly translates to “she whose breasts defy gravity”.

That’s a direct paraphrase.

What?

We almost get the Lawrence Welk Orchestra doing “Sister Ray”, but Nick Rivers and “Tutti Frutti” is close enough to alienate the visiting Russian operatic singer and his caricature faux-Nazi patron.

General Streck.

Not to be confused with Colonel Sturm or Sergeant Drang.

Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers (David and Jerry) strung us along the whole time.

And they directed a fairly decent film here…the triumvirate.

The Nutcracker turns out to be a ballet of literal protrusions.

The prop room is equally literal.

It’s both Joycean and daft.

But I had some genuine chuckles during this film.

They execute a priest as a demonstration.

And his Latin is a knee-slapping litany.

A greatest hits of that dead language.

Legal.  Medical.  String it together.  Make it flow.

Pig Latin.  Cow Latin.  Pidgin Latin.

Yes Elvis.  Yes Beach Boys.  And yes Beatlemania.

Sullivan.  Hysteria.  Hip sway.  Swooning.

Is it a bit of Fritz Lang with the magnifying glass?

Certainly prefigures the backmasking of Twin Peaks.

Swedish as a backwards language.

Like those hidden messages on (back to the) Beatles records.

I want to live in that loft of that Swedish bookstore…

clutching a volume of Strindberg and holding a Ms. Gutteridge.

How could anyone dream of more than two fireplaces at the top of a firehouse pole?

Many references.  The Blue Lagoon.  When Brooke Shields was just 14.

Like the Podestas, we end up next in the script at a pizza restaurant.

(!)

“Straighten Out the Rug” pulls out all the stops…and all the rugs…like Pejman Nozad on vitamins.

An incredibly detailed mock-up of the prison grounds complete with a toy train.

Bovine infiltration.

Eggs Benedict Arnold.

When instead of hollandaise, they’ve secretly replaced the sauce with Folger’s crystal gravy (on loan from the struggling PepsiCo).

While Trump protestors boycott every snack and cranny of this MNE.

But the dénouement is the underwater saloon brawl.

It is actually artful.  Postmodern.  High art in spite of itself.  Dodoism.

We must not forget the yeoman efforts of the great Omar Sharif in this film.

Sadly, Mr. Sharif passed away just this past year in his home country of Egypt.

At least he did not (presumably) need two hours of surgery to wipe the smile off his face.

“Who do you root for in the Virginia Slims tournament?”

“I always root against the heterosexual.”

“Do you know any good, white basketball players?”

“There are no good, white basketball players.”

All of this from the “Match?  Lighter.  Better still.” line which Robert Shaw sweated out of someone to fool his way into James Bond’s presence and trust for a short time…before he chose fish with red wine.

One wonders whether the East Berliners had the jelly-faced joy of seeing this arrogant Hollywood slap at the time of its release?

Most importantly, “kitchen sink” was the style of the ZAZ directors mentioned previously:  Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker.

Kentucky Fried Movie.  Airplane!  The Naked Gun films (with the exception of the last).

This really is a cute film.

And while most of it would have pushed the envelope for 1984, it would almost be a G-rated movie by today’s standards.

Still, there are some jawdropping moments…such as The Anal Intruder (with the Cuisinart on the shelf [in the jailhouse now]).

Turns out the Christopher Atkins character (played by Christopher Villiers) had gotten all the joys of the Russian sailors who rescued him…including sodomy, Karl Marx, Lenin, L. Ron Hubbard, and one more bloke.

And so we wonder…couldn’t the Butthole Surfers have made it into this film?

Just barely.

Three years later they would drop the masterpiece Locust Abortion Technician.

Ah, the Reagan era…

 

-PD

Citizenfour [2014)

Four days till the US election.

OK, three.

But we must take a look at things as they seem.

And analyze what they might be.

I have always written about Edward Snowden glowingly.

But this film is an enigma.

If you know the history of film, you realize that certain filmmakers (particularly Robert Flaherty) presented staged events as if they were documentaries.

This is known as docufiction.

And if you have followed my take on the two US Presidential candidates (Johnson and Stein can suck it…though Stein has true credibility), you’ll know that my assessment of Trump and Clinton has been mainly through the lens of film.

What we (I) look for is credibility.

Having watched all three Presidential debates (in addition to extensive supplemental research), it has been a no-brainer to conclude that Hillary Clinton has ZERO credibility while Donald Trump has immense credibility.

The differentiation could not be more mark-ed.

[Docu-fiction]

But what about Edward Snowden?

Let me start off by saying that Mr. Snowden does not come off as a wholly believable whistleblower in this film.

Perhaps Laura Poitras’ inexperience as a filmmaker is to blame.

Perhaps it is indeed because Edward Snowden is no actor.

But Mr. Snowden is completely inscrutable and opaque in this documentary.

HOWEVER…

there is something about his ostensible North Carolina drawl which rings true.

And so there are two major possibilities…

  1. Edward Snowden is an extremely brave individual who succeeded in “defecting to the side of the public” (to paraphrase)
  2. Edward Snowden is a superspy

I had read of Snowden.  In studying what he had leaked, his credibility seemed beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Such a damaging agent could not possibly have been a Trojan horse operation (so I thought).

Indeed, the most believable part of this film is the last 10 minutes or so.

Sadly, my “copy” of the movie switched to a German overdub for this final segment.

Which is to say, I was more focused on images in the finale.

Every once in a while I was able to make out the beginning of a phrase from William Binney or Glenn Greenwald.

At all other times during this last portion, the German superimposed upon the English made the latter an almost palimpsest.

My German is that bad.

Entschuldigung.

But here are my reservations concerning hypothesis #1 (from above).

A).  Glenn Greenwald’s earliest interview after the leak was clearly shot with the skyline of Hong Kong in the background.  It is somewhat inconceivable that the NSA in conjunction with the CIA (and possibly the FBI or DIA) did not immediately follow Greenwald’s every move from that point forward (courtesy of operatives under the Hong Kong station chief of the CIA).

B).  Glenn Greenwald is a little too smooth to be believable (the same going for Snowden).  Greenwald’s sheer fluency in Portuguese (a bizarre choice for a second language) seems particularly suspect.  The credulous me wants to believe that Greenwald is simply brilliant.  The incredulous me sees Greenwald as just as much a CIA operative as Snowden.

Indeed, hypothesis #2 would be that Edward Snowden is in fact a CIA operative.  His complete calm at The Mira hotel in Hong Kong does not harmonize with a computer geek who just lifted the largest cache of the most top-secret files in world history.  Instead, his mannerisms almost all point to someone who has been hardened and trained at Camp Peary rather than someone who grew up so conveniently close to NSA headquarters.

Snowden is admittedly a former employee of the CIA.

But what could the purpose of such a Trojan horse exercise possibly be?

One strong possibility comes to mind.

As we learn in Dr. Strangelove, there’s no purpose in having a “doomsday machine” if the enemy doesn’t know about it.

In fact, we don’t even need cinema to illustrate this.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were demonstrations as much as they were mass-murder war crimes.

Weapons are “tested” often as much for the power of display as for the exercise of weapon efficacy.

But the world has always been a weird place.

And it is indeed possible that Edward Snowden is an idealistic, independent party in this affair.

The esteemed Dr. Steve Pieczenik (of whom I have spoken much recently) has lately called Snowden “no hero”.

I’m not exactly sure what he means by that.

Possibly Pieczenik knows the Snowden affair to positively be an intel operation.

Possibly Dr. Pieczenik (whom I respect deeply) merely sees Snowden as of no great bravery when compared to the men and women (both military and intelligence employees) who risk their lives on battlefields across the world…by direct order through the US chain of command.

But Dr. Pieczenik has also pointed out that some orders must be disobeyed.

That is part of the responsibility of defending the Constitution “against all enemies foreign and domestic”.

So we have a very interesting case here.

And it directly parallels our current election choices.

What SEEMS to be?

What is patriotism?

At what point must standard operating procedures be put aside?

What constitutes peaceful protest?

Who among us has the duty and privilege to spearhead a countercoup?

I’ve often thought to myself that I would be a horrible NSA employee because I would have a framed picture of Snowden on my desk.

Suffice it to say, I’m sure that is strictly NOT ALLOWED.

But this film makes me doubt the Snowden story.

As a further instructive detail, why does Snowden (in this film) feel so confident in his ability to withstand torture (!) as a means of coercing from him his password(s)?

Again, that does not sound like a standard ability of an “infrastructure analyst”.

Snowden does not admit in this film to ever having been a field operative.

Indeed, it almost feels like Louisiana Story or Tabu:  A Story of the South Seas when Snowden drapes a red article of cloth over his head and torso to ostensibly prevent Greenwald and Poitras from visually seeing his keystrokes.

It is overly dramatic.

These are thoughts.

No doubt, someone knows much more than me about the truth in this strange tale.

And so the film is, in turns, shockingly brilliant and daftly mediocre.

In a strange way, it is just as suspect as James Bamford’s books on the NSA (which I have long suspected were really NSA propaganda pieces).

One of the keys to propaganda and social engineering is gaining the trust of your targets.

In a large-scale psychological operation, the entire world (more or less) is the target.

Back to cinema, we need look no further than Eva Marie Saint “shooting” Cary Grant in North by Northwest.

Yes, Body of Secrets (Bamford) was damaging to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and US military in general (the revelation of Operation Northwoods) while also exposing Israel as a craven “ally” (the USS Liberty “incident”).

But if we are not careful, we are taken in by these juicy bits of “truth” (in all likelihood, very much true) on our way to accepting the whole book as an accurate exposé.

And this is what makes the world of intelligence so tricky.

Like a chess game in which you are blindsided by a brilliant move.

It takes years (perhaps decades) or an innate brilliance (perhaps both) to discern the organic from the synthetic in the shifting sands of this relativistic world of espionage.

I can only guess and gut.

 

-PD

Airplane! [1980)

My congratulations to Hulu for finally making a move in the right direction as regards comedic movies.

This is a chestnut from my youth.

Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, this endless stream of one-liners hits some very special notes indeed.

[flying on instruments]

Ted Striker has a drinking problem…

His aim is off.

It dates back to when he was stationed on the island of Drambuie [sic].

He led the strike against Daiquiri.  We’ll be coming in low…beneath their radar.  Attacking from the north.

[when will you be back?  I can’t tell you that.  It’s top secret.]

Yes, his postwar record is even worse than his war record.

I know the feeling.

Leaves his cab with the meter running.

Striker is always coming in too hot.  Robert Hays.

World record for sweat.

But at least he has his Elaine for whom to hope.  Julie Hagerty.

Avoid the brown acid.  And the fish.

But if you do need a doctor, just look for someone perpetually wearing a stethoscope.

Leslie Nielsen.

Plays it straight as a javelin [donnnnnngggg!].

The cavalry trailing Kramer.

But back to Leslie…from Regina, Saskatchewan.

[Municipal bonds…AA rating…best investment in Canada]

Extremely underrated is Peter Graves as the pilot:  Clarence Oveur.

On the ovarian trolley.

[Have you ever seen a grown man naked?]

and

[Do you like gladiator films?]

or

[Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?]

And of course, the man himself:  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

{on this night when my Spurs fell a point shy to the Thunder}

The NBA’s all-time leading scorer (38,387) is Roger Murdoch.

I previously wrote about Kareem’s turn in the Bruce Lee “almost” Game of Death.

Airplane!, then, was his second appearance on the big screen (and first since his kung fu debut in 1972).

Lloyd Bridges picked the wrong week for everything.

All the vices.

From a fag to a swig to bennies to some genuinely Ramones shit.

{now I’m gonna have nightmares about Westbrook}

[How ’bout some coffee?]

[…never has a second cup of coffee at home.  …never vomits at home.]

Robert Stack checks in like Gregg Popovich after a meal at Taco Bell.

[That may have been the lousiest landing in the history of this airport…]

But the absolute secret weapon is the flamingly-gay Stephen Stucker as Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs.

[it looks like a big Tylenol]

[a hat, a brooch, a pterodactyl]

Stucker’s contribution is still alive (though he sadly passed away in 1986 at the age of 38).

And so the queen act was no act.

AIDS.

Shit…

[golly]

June Cleaver speaks jive.

Joey Hammen (Ross Harris) went on to have a very interesting music career which saw his path intersect with Beck, Stereolab, and The Dust Brothers.

[Odelay!]

David Leisure and Kawhi Leonard both went to San Diego State University.

That should definitely help us in Game 3.

But we’re going to need a lot more defense from Ethel Merman.

Really, the Spurs need to revisit this excellent tome by Joel Cohen:

dynomite

No library focusing on military strategy is complete without it.

From Jomini to Clausewitz to Winshield Wiper Man:

if he can just manage to get the hood back down on the Boeing 707 after checking the dipstick.

No need to commit hara-kiri, James Hong.  Just filed under “seppuku”.

It’s 1-1.  Go Spurs Go!

 

-PD

The Enforcer [1976)

Damn.  It takes a lot to laugh.  It takes a train to cry.  Bob Dylan said that.

I just said damn.

This film was released the year I was born.  Yeah, I’m an old son of a bitch.

Figure of speech (you understand)…

It’s hard to talk about this film without talking about Tyne Daly.  How beautiful she looked in this film!  What great acting!

But let’s start at the beginning…

Jocelyn Jones.  Any fish bite if you got good bait.  Henry “Ragtime” Thomas said that.

Numb nuts.  Jocelyn said that.

I know the type.  Bait.  Numb nuts.

Think Lana Turner.  That first appearance she makes in The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Or Sue Lyon in Lolita.  Kubrick.  The hard stuff.

Those little heart-shaped sunglasses.  Her eyes replaced by your mind.

It’s not “Pleasant Valley Sunday”…rather, Mill Valley.

No Monkees.  Just a bunch of bloodthirsty punks after some money.  A rag-tag group of Vietnam vets and ideological dupes.

Director James Fargo goes for the kill early on.  The tight shot of those blue-grey eyes.  A little awkward.  But DeVeren Bookwalter more or less delivers.  Not quite as terrifying as Andy Robinson in the original Dirty Harry…ok, actually a straight rip of that character minus the fascinating Zodiac Killer angle.  But Fargo turns in a pretty convincing film.  No small feat.  While the James Bond franchise was busy dicking around with numerous directors, the Dirty Harry series showed them how to strike an emotional blow with an economy of means.

Of course we get another shite superior…Captain McKay…played pretty well by Bradford Dillman.  Not as convincing as Hal Holbrook in Magnum Force, but hey…  And again, a straight rip of the Lt. Briggs character.

All of this would seem to indicate that this is a watery domestic facsimile with a lack of imagination.  Not quite.  This is a damn good film.

Tyne Daly really provides the foil to Eastwood that was needed to make this picture transcend.

Fargo’s silhouette version of Stan Brakhage’s The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (1971) is frankly brilliant.

Albert Popwell makes powerful use of his limited screen time.  Swahili for freedom:  uhuru.

It brings us to a Hitchcock moment and reminds us of the ultimate case of the wrong man:  Osama bin Laden.  As Ralph Nader described George W. Bush:  a corporation disguised as a human being.  Osama.  THE Company.

Not even the head of the snake.  Not even the tip of the iceberg.  More like a figurehead asset.  A fall guy.  A bogus bogeyman.

And so the real terrorists run free.  Suits and ties.  Top Secret security clearances.

It’s as hollow a feeling as that famous “mission accomplished” pronouncement.  On the USS Abraham Lincoln no less.  Yeah…it’s time to open up some crusty old prisons for the real terrorists.  Places that’ll make Guantanamo Bay look like a goddamned Sandals resort.

-PD