Superman II [1980)

What the hell is going on?

Do we need Trump back in the White House?

Are we expecting Trump to be perfect?

No.

We, are not expecting him to be perfect.

Trump was an amazing President for three years.

A mediocre President for one year.

And a total fucking moron since he left office.

But Trump is being harassed on all sides.

So I am not here to harangue Trump.

But I will state, AGAIN, Trump MUST disavow the neither-safe-nor-effective COVID vaccines that he rushed to market.

Trump loves America…

Blah blah blah.

But he can’t love America all that much if he doesn’t care about all the people who have been killed and maimed by his vaccines.

See how that works?

We the People.

Give a shit about US, Mr. President.

RFK Jr. is eating your lunch on this issue.

Your pride is too gargantuan.

You ego is disgustingly-immense.

We love you (it’s true), but you are so fucking wrong about your precious vaccines.

And time is of the essence.

You have pissed away three years with a bunch of bullshit prevaricating on the three American vaccines in question.

And these vaccines are coming back.

Mandates are coming back.

Trump never did a goddamn thing to help and protect everyday American who were being coerced into taking these fucking things.

Which is why I would vote for RFK Jr. over Donald Trump.

I agree with Trump on 90% of what he says.

But that other 10% is a “deal breaker” for me.

I can’t suffer another idiot President.

We’ve already had crayon-eating W.

And now we have drooling Biden.

I’m sorry, Mr. Trump:  you are just an absolute embarrassment when it comes to the fruits of Operation Warp Speed.

Trump cannot afford any more baggage.

Trump needs all the help he can get.

Why is Trump protecting Fauci?

Why is Trump protecting the moronic advisors who told him these vaccines were so great?

Why is Trump protecting these vaccine makers?

On this issue, Trump loses any election.

It is enough to swing it.

Which is why now, more than ever, Trump needs to get on the side of RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Trump is a great man.

But he is also a greatly-flawed man.

This is his key flaw.

His kryptonite.

Alex Jones correctly assessed it.

The same thing that makes Trump a great leader (that cocksure irreverence) also makes him (in this situation) an unelectable politician.

He used to be an outsider.

But he had a chance to drain the swamp.

And he fucked up in myriad ways.

Yet, in spite of that, the only thing I really fault him for is NOT SPEAKING UP about the COVID vaccines.

General Flynn spoke up.

WHEN IT STILL MATTERED!!!

Think of how many lives General Flynn saved by pointing people to the Open VAERS website.

Trump, on the other hand, kissed Pfizer’s ass.

Trump painted the Ford Pinto (the JnJ vaccine) as a great car.

Trump has been totally mum about the Moderna vaccine.

This is a failure of epic proportions.

If it is Biden vs. Trump, I’m voting for Trump.

If it is RFK Jr. vs. Trump, I am voting for RFK Jr.

And honestly, I am tempted to vote for RFK Jr. even if he runs as an independent and has no chance of winning.

We need Trump back in the White House…to embrace a whole new portfolio of deadly vaccines???

I don’t fucking think so.

All the good and great things about Trump are negated by his laziness on this issue.

The truth about these vaccines has probably never even been hinted at in the Wall Street Journal.

Trump is, apparently, as bad a researcher as W. is a painter.

For three years, all it would have taken for him to understand the dangers of these vaccines would have been to visit the Open VAERS website and to roughly corroborate it by visiting the CDC website.

The CDC never denied the 10s of 1000s of “initial reports of death” their VAERS system received pursuant to the three COVID vaccines which were available in the USA.

However, it appears that the CDC understated the reports of death by about half.

Not only this, but the historical underreporting to the passive-surveillance (reporting adverse events and reactions not mandatory) VAERS system indicates that any VAERS totals (deaths, heart attacks, strokes, miscarriages…) should be multiplied by AT LEAST ten.

Even using the cooked numbers on the CDC website, 20,000 reports of death should be read as AT LEAST 200,000 reports of death.

This can be extrapolated from British Medical Journal articles about VAERS underreporting (such as a particular article involving Kawasaki disease in children).

It is not controversial to say that the CDC/FDA VAERS system (which is no longer accepting reports of adverse events and reactions related to COVID vaccines) has been unequivocally shown to be a very small sample size–a cutaway section…a slice of life from which a bigger picture can be gleaned (but only by adding [at the very least] a zero to the right side of the number totals).

In reality (if memory serves), it would be more accurate to say that underreporting to VAERS is by a factor of 20 (not 10).

So add a zero.

And then multiply THAT number by two.

You would then be getting a better, more accurate picture of what any vaccine is doing to the U.S. population.

I would love for there to be a second Trump Presidency.

He really is a great leader.

But he has chosen a path of lies.

He cannot win as long as he clutches these lies like filthy pearls.

Make no mistake, what is being done to Trump in New York, Florida, D.C., and Georgia is disgusting and wrong.

I wholeheartedly support Trump in his struggles against the disgusting pricks who are interfering in the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.

But enough is enough.

Come clean, Mr. President.

We don’t blame you for the quality or ingredients of the vaccines.

We blame you for idly sitting by while people have died.

Get on the side of righteousness.

You cannot win this immense battle without truth being on your side.

Fix this problem, Donald J. Trump.

-PD

Ukraine on Fire [2016)

Here is a film which every person on Earth needs to watch at this time.

It reinforces the conclusions of my previous article: that NATO’s actions (constant eastward expansion towards Russia in the absence of the threats it was ostensibly set up to defend against [the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries]) have been a provocative, aggressive (albeit slow-motion) attack.

Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine are a line in the sand.

Russia has been very patient for 30 years.

Vladimir Putin is the bravest and most wise leader in the world.

He knew that this was the last point at which to fight.

This was the last point at which Russia could push back against those warmongers cloaked in mutual-defense bullshit (NATO) without the result being a guaranteed nuclear war.

It was a risky move on Putin’s part.

But to do nothing would have been even riskier (in the long run).

I am an American citizen.

I love my country.

I love the military of my country.

I love the soldiers of my country.

But I ZERO faith the the military leadership of my country.

General Lloyd Austin, our current “civilian” Secretary of Defense, has facilitated the pushing of killer vaccines on our troops.

As of 1-2 weeks ago, there had been approximately 12,000 reports of death associated with the three COVID-19 vaccines in the USA (according to the CDC).

Open VAERS (a far more reliable source) had counted approximately 23,000 reports of death in the HHS VAERS system (the same system from which the CDC got its data that it then proceeded to apparently “cook”).

You can say correlation does not necessarily equal causation.

And that is true.

But go to Open VAERS.

Look at the number of heart attacks associated with the three COVID vaccines available in the USA.

Look at the number of miscarriages.

And, particularly, look at the incidence of myocarditis.

And then avail yourself of the statistical breakdown by vaccine.

The most deadly is the Pfizer vaccine (by number of deaths).

The second-most deadly is the Moderna vaccine.

And the least-deadly of the three (still with VERY BAD numbers) is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Which one of these vaccines has been the most retroactively regulated?

The JnJ vaccine.

It has taken the fall.

It has been (after the fact) thrown under the bus as the ONE vaccine which is not completely safe.

But the truth is this: none of the three vaccines are safe.

And none of them have been effective.

And Lloyd Austin has made our troops take these vaccines.

The U.S. Army developed its own vaccine.

Is it ready yet?

Is it in use?

Which vaccine(s) was/were our troops required to get?

Could it have been any one of the the three vaccines also available to American civilians?

General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did nothing to protect our troops from the policy pushed by Secretary Austin.

General Milley also called China behind President Trump’s back and assured them that he would give them a “heads up” if Trump was going to attack them.

That is treason.

Textbook treason.

Yet Milley still enjoys the same position he enjoyed under Trump.

And some of us also remember Milley impugning those of us who doubted the 2020 election results as being people motivated by “white rage”.

Chief Naval Officer Admiral Michael Gilday recommended that every U.S. Navy sailor read a book by Ibram X. Kendi.

This was inappropriate.

And ridiculous.

Apparently Admiral Gilday shares General Milley’s assessment that America is imminently-plagued by racism.

Look up Ibram X. Kendi.

Find the book which Gilday recommended.

And then look up a person named Bishop Garrison.

Garrison was (last I checked) something of an anti-“extremism” czar for the U.S. military.

Do you support Trump?

You are extreme.

Do you wear a red hat that says “Make America Great Again”?

You are extreme.

Do you support Black Lives Matter?

You are not extreme.

Do you support Antifa?

You are not extreme.

This is the narrative which can be cobbled together from the actions of Austin, Milley, Gilday, and Garrison.

Why do I lump Austin into this equation?

Because he saw fit to order an operational stand-down for the entire U.S. military one year ago to address “extremism” within the ranks.

The timing and message were clear.

Those who doubted the accuracy of the 2020 elections were extremists.

Those who came to Washington, D.C. a few months prior (on Jan. 6) to let their voices be heard were extremists.

This is why Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense took this unprecedented move of an “operational stand-down”.

Were the George Floyd rioters (made up of both BLM and Antifa) of summer 2020 extemists?

Apparently not.

I never heard Mark Milley utter the phrase “black rage”.

Milley is white.

Gilday is white.

I never heard Lloyd Austin (who is black) utter the phrase “black rage”.

I never heard Bishop Garrison (who is black) utter the “black rage”.

There was only accommodation of the summer 2020 protestors.

Their rage was to be CODDLED and UNDERSTOOD.

The entire rest of the U.S. military (which is, most of the military) needed to read Ibram X. Kendi so they could be more sensitive and compassionate about the “black rage” of their fellow soldiers.

And not once was it called “black rage” by any leader of the U.S. military.

So our military is being run by fucking retards.

Which is why I respect and support Putin.

Is Putin my President?

No.

Is Russia my country?

No.

But I do not support Joe Biden.

I do not think our elections in 2020 were free and fair.

But I am not a violent protestor.

I am exercising my right to civil disobedience.

Vladimir Putin is a man of action.

I have my doubts as to whether Austin, Milley, Gilday, and Garrison are even men (much less, men of action).

So these are the geniuses we send off to confer with NATO (an aggressive, provocative organization which the United States should leave immediately).

So I say, “Stand With Russia”.

Every news outlet on the planet is making Zelensky out to be a hero.

And the same outlets are making Putin out to be a villain.

I don’t trust these outlets.

They have lied about COVID for two years (and about 9/11 for 20 years).

They have lied about everything.

They set an agenda.

They are constantly agenda-setting.

This is a real phenomenon explained by agenda-setting theory.

So if the media that I thoroughly distrust is brainwashing my neighbors into worshipping Zelensky and “standing” with Ukraine, then I am going to exercise my right to worship Putin and “stand” with Russia.

So I also say, “Stand With Putin”.

Fuck it.

Come and get me.

I am sick of your bullshit, AP…Reuters…UPI…McClatchy…DPA…AFP.

I understand choke points.

I understand oil choke points.

Shipping.

And I understand information choke points.

You don’t have to physically control each little news station.

You just control all the upstream news sources.

The wire services.

Where the news gets its news.

And I am sick of it.

But don’t misunderstand me.

I am also sick of Donald Trump.

He was a great President for four years.

Then he started shilling for Pfizer.

“I got the Pfizer”.

He had to let us know which brand.

And then he pushed boosters.

Right after a crowd in Dallas gathered to hear him speak had sung the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art”.

So he is, at this point, no better than Governor Hochul.

There should be no proselytizing for vaccines in churches or any other religious setting.

If we’re not allowed to preach about politics in church nor endorse candidates (without losing our tax-exempt status), then you’re not allowed to come into our churches and preach about vaccines.

But Trump didn’t stop there.

He gave a moronic, lying (?), whopper of an interview to Candace Owens (whom I love) where he said something to the effect that “people who are taking the COVID vaccines aren’t dying”.

No, I’m sorry Mr. Former-President: yes they are dying.

Some of them, in fact, are dying from the vaccines themselves.

But some of them are dying from COVID even though they are vaccinated.

But that is beside the point.

Trump, as a recent President (who oversaw the commercial rollout of these three vaccines), should be expected to know his shit.

He should be expected to know that 12,000 reports of death had been submitted to HHS VAERS (according to the CDC).

And he should also be expected to know that the CDC is cutting the “reports of death” number in half for some odd reason (which is easily provable by going to the Open VAERS website and finding that there were 23,000 reports of death as of 1-2 weeks ago).

He should know the number of heart attacks.

At least 10,000.

And the number of miscarriages (3-4,000).

And the number of myocarditis cases (30,000).

And he should know that VAERS is a passive surveillance system which has historically caught less than 1% of the actual number of vaccine adverse events and reactions.

This is easily provable by visiting a third website.

The under-reporting of Kawasaki disease makes this an ironclad case.

So Donald Trump should know that his “vaccines that aren’t killing people” are responsible for between 120,000-230,000 deaths so far.

VAERS is a canary in a coal mine.

It can and should be extrapolated by ten-fold multiplication.

But, generally speaking, I am only expecting “uber-genius” Donald Trump to have visited two fucking websites: that of the CDC and that of Open VAERS.

He either hasn’t done that (because he is busy reading the bullshit in the Wall Street Journal), or he is lying his ass off.

Let me be unequivocal: Trump is just as responsible as anyone for ramming through the approval of these neither-safe-nor-effective vaccines.

If we are talking about hundreds of thousands of deaths due to these vaccines, then we are talking about crimes against humanity.

And he has pissed away any chance of using the “I was tricked” defense by unremittingly PROMOTING these vaccines when he should have known that they were unsafe.

What does this have to do with Ukraine?

Putin saw a problem.

Donetsk.

Luhansk.

They asked for help.

And he helped.

And so I am asking the U.S. military for help.

Both active military and retired.

General Boykin.

General Bolduc.

General Dempsey.

General Nakasone.

General Charles Q. Brown.

General Berger.

General Raymond.

WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?

Joe Biden is gonna get us all killed.

And the first to be killed will be U.S. troops sent into another totally-absurd war that does not need to be fought.

And he is gonna destroy the USA.

Austin, Milley, Gilday, and Garrison (to name but four) are DESTROYING the U.S. military.

If you can’t see that, then I can’t help you.

Readiness and lethality.

Reading Ibram X. Kendi does not enhance readiness or morale.

Forcing killer vaccines on our troops (some of whom have left the service over this issue) does not enhance readiness, nor lethality.

We don’t need to hear General Milley’s thoughts on “white rage”.

That kind of performance put him on par with John Brennan and Michael Hayden.

It is embarrassing.

It is like having a middle schooler for the CJCS.

But readiness and lethality are TOTALLY DESTROYED when a CJCS can call our greatest adversary (China) and promise them that he will give them a “heads up” should the sitting President choose to attack them.

Lohmeier got kicked out for a podcast.

Shame on you, Raymond.

Scheller got kicked out for demanding accountability.

Shame on you, Berger.

The U.S. military is a joke.

I have NO RESPECT for the current leadership of the U.S. military.

But I have IMMENSE RESPECT for Vladimir Putin.

That is my right as an American citizen.

I can critique my government.

I can point out the obvious: that our military leaders are doing a shitty job.

And I can have an opinion: that the Commander-in-Chief of Russia is doing an EXCELLENT job.

For his people.

Putin is looking out for and protecting Russians.

Biden is looking out for and protecting Hunter Biden and his own corrupt dealings in China and elsewhere.

And Austin, Milley, Gilday, and Garrison are going about systematically DESTROYING the defenses (our greatest asset…our soldiers!) of the United States of America.

Lloyd Austin should be capable of visiting the CDC and Open VAERS websites.

Mark Milley should be capable of visiting the CDC and Open VAERS websites.

If Michael Gilday wants to be a gender studies professor, maybe it’s time for him to change careers.

And we don’t need a Malcolm X (Bishop Garrison) micromanaging the thoughts and opinions of our service members.

If you’re gonna call MAGA-hat wearing, American-flag-waving Trump supporters extremists for protesting on Jan. 6 what they felt to be a rigged election, then you gotta call BLM and Antifa extremists as well.

Are you telling me there are no BLM, nor Antifa supporters in the U.S. miltary?

Are you telling me that there is an overrepresentation of MAGA-hat-wearing, American-flag-waving conservatives in the U.S. military?

Seeing as how we have a volunteer military, then maybe shaming these Trump-supporting, patriotic service members is not really the best strategy to boost morale and encourage cohesion.

Is the goal to have recruitment numbers plummet?

You can watch this movie for free on Tubi.

-PD

Trump vs. Clinton, September 26 [2016)

The naysayers will call it politainment, but that’s as uncreative and trite as trotting out “reactionary”.

And while there was indeed a tremendous amount of substance in this first US Presidential debate a month ago, it was solely from one side.

Lester Holt largely disgraced himself as another “presstitute” (not my coinage, but fitting).

Holt was the decidedly unmoderate moderator.

“The questions are mine and have not been shared with the commission or the campaigns.”

Yeah right.

“The audience here in the room has agreed to remain silent so that we can focus on what the candidates are saying.”

Fat chance.

You see, Americans don’t stay silent.

They/we might be wrong (the “ugly American” stereotype), but we/they are rarely silent.

Some observers around the world recognize this as the asset it is.

Others denigrate it as “squeaky wheel”/”loudest duck”.

There’s very little silence in this year’s election (except in the corporate mass media concerning Hillary Clinton’s litany of disqualifying activities).

“I am honored to have this role, but this evening belongs to the candidates and, just as important, to the American people.”

…but most of all, to the American “elite” (and their transparently biased media) who had already picked their anointed, sycophantic, warmongering, maniac of a candidate:  Hillary Clinton.

“There’s been a record six straight years of job growth…”

But at what rate, Lester?  Read the Wall Street Journal, fucking moron.

Excuse me.

What I meant to say was, the “record growth” is anemic in historical terms.

So the “record” aspect is merely academic.

It’s been stable as shit.  That is the most accurate characterization.

Then “Secretary” Clinton takes over:

“Today is my granddaughter’s second birthday…”

Oh really?!?  I didn’t know robots could reproduce!!

“First, we have to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.”

…like her.

“That means we need new jobs, good jobs, with rising incomes.”

Her biggest export would be American jobs.  She’s got a bad case of cognitive dissonance from too much globalist Kool-Aid.

“I want us to invest in you.”

Whether that’s what she wants or not, it’s not what she’s planning to do.  So it’s immaterial what she “wants”.  Her intent is clear:  destroy her own country economically (if not literally in a nuclear war) by way of some twisted Robin Hood fantasy.  Sorry Hillary, we’re not in Jonestown.  Why don’t you drink your Kool-Aid first?

“…most of the new jobs will come from small business.”

Which will go OUT OF BUSINESS as a result of your idealist, rubbish policies.

“…equal pay for women’s work.”

Oh, you mean like never, ever having a job…like you?

Hey Hillary, your boss (the American people) called.  They want to know what the hell you were doing using a personal email server as the goddamned SECRETARY OF STATE???  And by the way, they want your work emails…because those are property of the company (the United States of America).  Oh…  You were writing emails about yoga on the job?  Ok, no problem.  But as you were being paid to write emails on “yoga”, we’d like to take a look at those emails.  You did, after all, produce “yoga” emails with our tax dollars.  Oh…  You destroyed the emails?  After being subpoenaed??  Hmmm…  That’s a problem.

[That must have been one hell of a “yoga” discussion.]

“We’re going to do it by having the wealthy pay their fair share…”

Oh, excellent.  I guess we can start with freezing the assets of the Clinton Foundation.  Seems that some small group was getting very rich off of that scam.

“Donald, it’s good to be with you.”

First and last time she’d ever say that.

“I hope that I will be able to earn your vote on November 8th.””

You’ve never earned anything in your life.  You’ve been a carpetbagger from Arkansas to New York to Washington, D.C.  “Social climber” does not qualify as a métier.

Ok…that’s enough Clinton.  How about some truth?  Fire torpedo #1!

“That’s called business, by the way.”

Ah, business.  Value.  Creating value.

If you’ve read this far (and I’m sure there are very few who have), I’ve created value for you.  I’ve held your attention.  You could think I’m the dumbest motherfucker on the planet, but that feeling of condescension is worth your time.  Perhaps I’m entertaining.  That’s also value.  And, God forbid, I actually say something that rings true…  For anyone who agrees with me enough to delve so far into this specious blog post, I’ve created value.

“Secretary” Clinton creates NO value…in anything she does.

I don’t even take enjoyment in insulting her.  To insult her is my duty.  I don’t want this person leading my country for the next four years.  Hell no!

“And, Hillary, I’d just ask you this. You’ve been doing this for 30 years. Why are you just thinking about these solutions right now? For 30 years, you’ve been doing it, and now you’re just starting to think of solutions.”

Exactly.  Say what you want about Trump, but he hasn’t been dicking around as a government do-nothing during that time.  He’s created value.  You can denigrate the true worth of that value, but it does have a dollar value.  It’s like a stock price.  It is a market measurement.  You want your money back?  Fine.  Sell your one share of Google stock.  Yes, the broker will charge a fee.  No, holding one share is not recommended.  But it’s a market measurement.  The market value of Trump’s activities is indisputable.  It’s not perfect.  It doesn’t figure in obtuse Althusserian dimensions, but it’s a measurement (damn it!).

Hillary is much more comfortable hiding in the maze of government with her private server and hiding behind the nonprofit structure of the Clinton Foundation.  She creates no value.  She never has to prove what value she has created.  She knows that her social climbing has bought her immunity from accountability.

[BUT MAYBE NOT]

Hillary might have been thinking about bringing jobs back to America for the past 30 years, but she certainly hasn’t acted on those musings.

“Your husband signed NAFTA, which was one of the worst things that ever happened to the manufacturing industry.”

[giant sucking sound…alarums and excursions]

“But you have no plan.”

Of course she doesn’t.  Her plan is being prepared by a bunch of globalists.  All she has to do is stay on two legs and…  [whoops!]

“…you are going to regulate these businesses out of existence.”

And that is no accident.

“I’m going to cut taxes big league, and you’re going to raise taxes big league, end of story.”

Yeah, pretty much.

“She tells you how to fight ISIS on her website. I don’t think General Douglas MacArthur would like that too much.”

Indeed, no matter the outcome of this election, Hillary Clinton is not going to go down in history as a master strategist.

“…you’re telling the enemy everything you want to do.”

Right again.  Pick up some Sun Tzu, Hillary.

“…the taxes are so onerous…”

Point Trump.

“…we have a president that can’t sit them around a table and get them to approve something.”

Yeah, that’s because he’s never had a job either.  “Amateur golfer” does not cut the mustard.

“And with a little leadership, you’d get it in here very quickly, and it could be put to use on the inner cities and lots of other things, and it would be beautiful.”

Value-creation works.  As a model.  As a measure.  What ISN’T sustainable is sucking the thriving countries dry in an effort to bring up the languishing ones.  There is a solution.  There is a deal.  A compromise.  But Hillary doesn’t have that spark of problem-solving genius.  All she knows is the college playbook from pseudo-intellectual, hippie-era Yale.

Ok, I’m even starting to bore myself.

There is not enough digital ink in my pot to finish penning this diatribe.

I think you get the point.

In cinema terms, this was an auteur (Trump) vs. a metteur-en-scène (Hillary).

Shot.  Reverse.  Shot.

 

-PD

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Arkadin [1955)

I am a bad film critic.

A good, bad film critic.

Because this is one of those films which requires a certain attention to detail.

Get the damn title right.

So what is it?

I have just watched the British version…we’ll call it (adhering to common practice) Confidential Report.

I had seen this once before.

To me it was always Mr. Arkadin.  I didn’t realize the level of controversy surrounding this film’s numerous versions.

But let me point something out.  All of the versions are within a few minutes of each other.  Sure, some are in Spanish.  That makes a difference.  But at a certain point it is splitting hairs.  Either you’ve seen this thing or you haven’t.

I can understand the legalistic approach to film preservation when it comes to this picture.

If the whole thing isn’t presented as a flashback, I can see how the composition might be negatively affected.

But who cares?  Bogdanovich?  Sure…I care too.

And so let’s get around to why one should even care in the first place.

This is a magnificent movie!

I didn’t really think so the first time I saw it.

It’s possible to see this film and be caught in a The Big Sleep haze.

So maybe it does depend on the version.

Maybe the film isn’t supposed to be confusing.

Yet, there’s something nice (pleasant) about being confused.

If this was a universal maxim, I would walk around with a smile on my face perpetually.

But the confusion here is a rare sort.

When I first saw Mr. Arkadin I mainly “retained” (absorbed?) only its mood.

Something was happening.  Orson Welles was a shadowy character.

There wasn’t a sense of continuity.

But here’s another possibility.

This film needs (deserves) to be seen more than once.

The action moves fast.

Weird things are afoot.

The whole film is a sort of riddle.

And the symbolism is as stinky-strong as Roquefort.

Wikipedia might lead you to Basil Zaharoff, but my mind was wandering more towards George Soros and/or Rupert Murdoch.

Even Jeff Bezos…these guys who feel compelled to protect their corporate empires by buying the Wall Street Journal (or Washington Post).

We make fun of Kissinger because he got the Nobel Peace Prize.

We make fun of Obama for the same reason.

Neither deserved it.  [the prize]

It is as repugnant as Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.

But really, we are dumb.

We Lumpenproletariat.

Lumpy Gravy.

We lump together Kissinger with Brzezinski.  And then we throw Soros in for good measure.

And to top it all off, we place Murdoch like a cherry atop the mystère.

There is no mystery.

Bouvard and Pécuchet are aghast.

Maybe he was born in Muğla.

Perhaps he died in Monte Carlo.

Methods.  Experiments.

This is the dossier on Mr. Arkadin.

You are paying to have yourself spied on.

Whether you like it or not.

Because, with all you have been through, you can’t even remember your real identity.

Oh yes…the tired trope of super-soldier pap and shows like Blindspot.

We almost buy it.

It goes a long way.

But it falls short.

Too few comma splices.

Yes, too few.

I will, be, here with Pynchon.  Is not a comma splice.

This is approaching the time in which firemen SET fires.  Bradbury.  Truffaut.

And among the contraband is Tropic of Cancer.

Yes, my heart rends a bit.  As I reach out.

Julie Christie…the rumors are true.

A shamus hired by a murderer.

Belgrade.  Zürich.

Orson Welles is painting a portrait of Europe.

Corruption.

A song for Europe.

Mother of pearl.

They say Rothschild came in.

Always came in.  But with a nice glass of Lafite.

ONI was sniffing around.  They were the first.  Good old chaps!

War profiteering runs all through the story of Basil Zaharoff.

And Orson Welles borrows this story artfully.

As when Patricia Medina is drunk on the yacht.

All through the film.  Those expressionist camera angles.  Vertov.  Ruttman.

But with the wine…more sinister.  As Arkadin is lucid.  Listening.  Gathering intelligence.

DYB.

We need a new generation of jet fighters.  Though the last generation never saw action in a real war.  Hasn’t been a real war since WWII.  Profiteers are restricted in their movements.

The Spanish Empire finally collapsed because of this corruption.  Will it happen in the exact same manner to the United States?

The parallels are more similar than Rome.

It is too much.  The shoddiness of these machines.  I must stop here.

 

-PD

 

 

A King in New York [1957)

I once went to rather extraordinary lengths to see this film.

Doing such a thing often makes one appreciate the rarity of the moment.

But now I revisit this testament for the purpose of placing the film in my own history of the cinematic medium.

As you might know, I don’t often review new films.

For what is important to me is not the hackneyed novelty of Hollywood today, but rather the breadth of motion pictures down through time as an art form.

What is attractive about the movies is that they are barely 100 years old.

It is not much of a stretch to say that the seventh art (as Ricciotto Canudo eventually called it) was short of being a mature mode of creation in 1916.

For though Charlie Chaplin was already making important contributions, his first feature as a director and actor wouldn’t come till 1921’s The Kid.

In many ways A King in New York was Chaplin’s last film.  Namely, it was the last in which he both starred and directed.  [He would direct one final effort:  1967’s A Countess from Hong Kong starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren.]

And so it was that with A King in New York Chaplin returned in some ways to the themes of The Kid.

Michael Chaplin (his son) is brilliant as “the kid” Rupert here in the film under consideration.

And Charles (Charlie) is equally timeless as the foil to Rupert’s Marxism.

Yes.

This was a brave film to make.

It was a humane film to make.

And it is insightful even today.

We may no longer have the communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era, but we still have the same brain-dead stupidity (as exemplified by Fox News).

It is quite easy to draw that particular parallel when viewing the newscast which comes on King Shahdov’s hotel television periodically throughout this movie.

And while the hysteria of anti-communist “vigilance” has largely faded into history, another equally virulent strain of bigoted ignorance has taken its place.

Terrorism as religion.

That phrase may sound weird, but let me explain.

When you pick up The Wall Street Journal, you are viewing a religious newspaper.

And the religion?

Terrorism.

When you watch Fox News you are entering an alternate universe in thrall to terrorism.

Terrorism is the manna from heaven for the neoconservative global elites.

They are a one-trick pony (terrorism being their only trick).

But let me illuminate my point.

NONE of the other major American news outlets (print or televised) are any better.

CNN ABC CBS NBC…all worthless.  And let’s not forget the woeful New York Times.

Which brings me to a very important point.

This past week, a PhD professor at Florida Atlantic University in the United States was dismissed from his tenured position for questioning the very suspicious “mass shooting” supposed to have occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

I have not read every bit of critique which Dr. James Tracy (the unfortunate professor) has written concerning this “massacre”, but what I have read harmonizes with my own take on the event (namely, that it was a staged, false-flag type psychological operation).

And so Dr. Tracy has become a parallel to all of those poor souls who had to suffer the ignominy of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in May 1960.

Why do I focus on this particular hearing?  Because it was released as an LP album in 1962 by the invaluable Folkways Records (today Smithsonian Folkways).

Find this record.

Listen particularly to Witness #5.

Spotify lists each track as being by the artist “Unspecified”.

This is the same type of recognition which would have accrued to topless mothers in the Sahara singing their babies to sleep (while the tape recorder preserved their performance for all time).

Americans had become nameless.

And so next time someone asks you about your favorite musical artists you can refer to the Folkways catalog and answer, “Well, I’m a big fan of ‘A young girl singing’, but I also like ‘A young woman’.  But then, not much beats ‘Aboriginal Songman’.  In fact, I met him once and I was quite nervous.  I said, ‘Mr. Songman.  Can I call you Aboriginal?  Al???  I would really appreciate an autograph!'”

But I digress…

Dear friends, we can rescue the names from history.  Witness #5 is actually still alive.  He is and always will be William Mandel.

Mr. Mandel took the stand and railed against the bigots in San Francisco on that Folkways LP of the “Un-American” hearings.

In the estimable Mr. Mandel we have a parallel to Mr. Macabee (Rupert’s father) from A King in New York.

The trials which inspired Chaplin were to continue (1957 film, 1960 LP).

The trials continue today.  Dr. James Tracy is now a “conspiracy theorist”.  If the New York Times says it’s so, then it must be so.

No.

Until we drop like flies, we will continue to speak out like Rupert.

We will continue to combine art and politics like Charlie Chaplin.

No profession gives one a free pass to opt out of engagement.  Disengagement is a decision.

Chaplin fought back.  The world’s greatest funnyman felt compelled to speak up.

Perhaps Rupert is really 6079 Smith W.

Perhaps Room 101 is betraying oneself.  Being eaten alive.  By cowardice.  Until death.

Occasionally pop art transcends.  Witness Radiohead’s “2 + 2 = 5” from the perfect album Hail to the Thief.  At the height of the Bush junta this British avant-pop band had the stones to dish out a God-save-the-Queen to the slimy bastards dragging the world down.

The late David Bowie made a valiant effort on his best album Diamond Dogs.

We speak, of course, about 1984 and the protagonist Winston Smith.

Orwell’s novel was a mere eight years old in 1957.

Perhaps little Rupert is an evocation of Winston Smith.  And we know that Rupert’s fortitude lived on in the aforementioned William Mandel.

But now we come to a new era.  A new era which is so old.

The lamentable treatment of Dr. James Tracy.

The enshrinement of Terrorism as the new state religion of the United States.

Even for a non-communist such as myself, it is apparent that capitalism must always expand.

When it comes to terrorism (both “foreign” and “domestic”), the Ministry of Truth has spoken.

Our only hope is the voice of opposition.  It is therefore quite apt indeed that Dr. Tracy’s excellent blog (which incidentally led to his thoughtcrime conviction by FAU) should be named Memory Hole… (http://memoryholeblog.com/).

And it is hopeful that said blog has more hits than the Wikipedia page for “Memory hole”.

 

-PD

Roma città aperta [1945)

When I was younger I could take the easy way.

But as I have grown older I have found that increasingly impossible.

In moments of weakness I think of money.  A job.  Adventure.

But none of that really matters.

What matters is our fellow human beings.

Dear friends, this film (Rome, Open City) is an extremely moving experience.

What I try to bring to you as an amateur film critic are the words of a man immersed in the film…baptized…in the experience of each film.

Most pieces of cinema are not worth this effort, but occasionally a film is worth every minute…every second…every tear shed.

Roma città aperta is a masterpiece from director Roberto Rossellini.  This is a very famous film because of the milieu in which it was made.

WWII was not even over.  You can imagine how hard it must have been to get film stock (film for the camera) while Europe was in flames and Italy was a defeated country occupied by the Allies.

But this film tells of Italy occupied by the Nazis (and, indeed, Rome was occupied by the Nazis prior to American occupation).

But all of these descriptions I’m giving you…they mean nothing.

What you must understand about this film is that it did something which no film before it had done.

This film was infused with the sorrow of the World Wars, but was presented as one would present a documentary.

Hence the name neorealism.

Anna Magnani is so beautiful, but not glamorous.  She is beautiful because she is believable.  It takes a philosophical film director to deliver such a performance.  It also takes a hell of an actress!

Roma città aperta is like an opera by Mascagni or Leoncavallo.  Verismo!

Act I ends with Magnani running after her fiancé.  The SS have literally come to take him away.  And her weaving, desperate run became an iconic film moment which wouldn’t be adequately interpolated back into the cinematic discussion till Jean-Paul Belmondo took the entire Rue Campagne-Première to die in À Bout de souffle. 

Godard was young.  À Bout de souffle was his first film.

Godard took the easy way.  Postmodernism.

A bit from here and a bit from there.  Voila!

But later Godard grew a conscience.  And his conscience helped him find himself kicked to the curb of the film industry.

In our film, Aldo Fabrizi is the voice of conscience.

He plays the priest don Pietro.

He’s not your average priest.

This is a guy who stands against the Nazis.

Don Pietro helps the resistance.

Don Pietro gives and gives and gives and asks nothing.

He is a true man of God…a true humanitarian.

He helps anyone in need…atheists, communists, it doesn’t matter.

But one thing is important.

Don Pietro has made a value judgment concerning the Nazis.

He has discerned who the enemy is.

That is a large step.

Today, we are told every day who our enemy is supposed to be.

The worst offender is Fox News, but the other networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC) are all equally devoid of journalistic merit.

As for the print media, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post are completely worthless.

If you lived in Nazi Germany, you would have been bombarded with propaganda about how the Jews were the enemy and how the Jews were responsible for every conceivable ill in society.

That was, of course, untrue.

In America today, we are told (particularly by the infantile Fox News) that Islam and Muslims are the enemy and that every conceivable problem in the world today relates back to this group.

This is, obviously, untrue.

The other three/five networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC) are more eager to push gun control (something which Hitler would no doubt have applauded).

And so, I propose to you, dear readers that what we are seeing in the world today is an array of psychological operations which mirror something about which Italy knows only too well:  Operation Gladio.

But I propose to you that what we are seeing nowadays are multiple Gladios run by gently-warring factions of the New World Order.

The biggest Gladio in operation (a series of false-flag attacks accompanied by fake wars) is the one being run by the neoconservative faction of the New World Order (including several prominent Zionists who, despite holding high U.S. government offices [and Top Secret clearances], held dual citizenship during their terms of service to the U.S. with Israel and the U.S.).  This Gladio brought you the Paris attacks.  This Gladio is responsible for the War “on” Terror (including the synthetic Arab army/marketing confection known as ISIS).  And finally, this Gladio almost certainly brought you the San Bernardino shooting as well.

The main goal of the neoconservative Gladio is endless war.  It is a macro operation.  It operates on the level of geopolitics.  War profiteering, oil, drugs…  The neoconservative Gladio brought you the mother of all false-flags:  9/11.

On the other hand is the liberal Gladio.  The liberal Gladio brought you Sandy Hook (their masterpiece).  Their other suspected jobs are Aurora (the Batman shooter) and Umpqua.  It wouldn’t be a stretch to also include the OKC bombing and the Waco massacre of the Branch Davidians.  But focusing on the first three cases alone (Sandy Hook, Aurora, Umpqua), it is very clear that the liberal Gladio has as its main goal gun control.

The liberal Gladio is operating on a micro (or domestic) level.  The San Bernardino shooting was meant to make Obama look soft on crime.  The neocon gang which engineered the shooting exhibited perfect timing as Obama had recently announced an initiative to reclaim MRAPs from local law enforcement across the country (in response to police abuse of power).  The neocons took a page out of the liberal false-flags-for-gun-control playbook on this one, but the main goal was endless war.  [This, of course, didn’t prevent Obama from trying to leverage the event to prop up HIS faction’s agenda.]

The unfortunate equation is that neither side can expose the deeds of the opposing side because they are both dealing in untruths.  Obama has, up until now, squandered his opportunity to bring the neocons of the Bush administration to task for 9/11 and the fraudulent War “on” Terror.  Indeed, Obama has only proven that he himself is a fraud down to his very core.

The layers-upon-layers of lies in the United States cannot hold.  Snowden pierced the veil.  Only those with a conscience can save us now.

 

-PD

 

激突!殺人拳 [1974)

[THE STREET FIGHTER (1974)]

Cinema lets us enter a new world.  When we get off that ferry with Bruce Lee and his uncle in The Big Boss, we are entering the world of Hong Kong fighting.  There’s something about that green suitcase which Uncle Lu totes along the gangplank which makes the whole thing believable.  That cheap green suitcase.  It is sad somehow.  A day’s change of clothes, perhaps.  There is something so humble about the mise-en-scène to indicate that we are not in Kansas anymore.

Our eyebrows raise as the opening credits roll on this excellent Sonny Chiba flick.  Japan!  The wah-wah guitar beckons us into a world which no longer exists–a place in history.  But we are fortunate that Sonny Chiba lives!  He is 76 years old. What an impression he makes in The Street Fighter!

It is not completely clear early in this film what is going on.  In fact, there are several times when the storytelling becomes a bit convoluted.  Don’t misunderstand:  this isn’t a complex film.  But somehow, the storytelling is very…different.

We remember Christian Slater at the beginning of True Romance when he unsuccessfully tried to pick up a girl at a bar…

Girl:  You want to take me to a kung fu movie?!?

Slater:  Three…kung fu movies.

Yes.  I’ve taken a couple of jabs at Tarantino on my site.  Perhaps I’ve been too harsh.  I mean, maybe Quentin has it all figured out.  No doubt the masters like Godard were initially impelled and instructed by the likes of B-movies, gangster films, pulp…from Nicholas Ray to Samuel Fuller.  Silly me…I thought QT grew up in Knoxville, but that isn’t quite right.  That said, his upbringing sounds about as shitty as I imagined…just transposed to various urban sprawl appendages of Los Angeles.

And so, from “one inch punch” to “oxygen coma punch” we dovetail into Chiba’s oeuvre.

Nothing about the beginning of this film foreshadows the touching moment late in the film when Ratnose (Chiba’s sidekick) finally gets his friend’s attention.  This subplot between Terry Tsurugi and Ratnose is really remarkable…almost a Clouseau/Cato dynamic early on, which proceeds into a harrowing/endearing funnel of climax.

Yeah, Slater was right:  Chiba is a rough customer.  He’s hard to like.  You have to stick with it.  Slowly, his unique morality comes to the surface.  Tsurugi is a damaged character, but the hardships he has experienced make him one of the toughest people on the planet.

Interestingly, Tsurugi’s rampages are in the context of big oil.  Though it was 1974, we feel a palpable thrill as he deals with the dealers.  It is still relevant.  Consider this recent story, for instance:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/20/wall-street-journal-reporter-david-birds-body-found-in-a-n-j-river/

Likewise, Chiba plays the role of an anti-mafia loner.  In other words, this guy’s not afraid of anyone.  Pretty powerful stuff!

Although Tsurugi doesn’t really have a way with women, his “beast” mode wins over the beauty Sarai (Yutaka Nakajima).  Chiba is all action–very few words.

And if you think Bruce Lee makes strange sounds in his fights, Chiba takes the cake…perpetually clearing his sinuses while trying to self-induce a heart attack (or so it sounds).  It is mondo bizarre!

Shigehiro Ozawa manages to make this a particularly artful film at times…especially the fight between Chiba and Masafumi Suzuki.  The focus on fists bears a striking resemblance to the famous “gun” shot from Hitchcock’s Spellbound.

The Street Fighter diverges from Bruce Lee movies in that Chiba gets his ass kicked pretty severely throughout this movie.  I suppose there is a proto-Rocky element here:  Chiba is the guy who can roll with the punches.

Another couple of nods to Lee occur at the beginning and then much later in the film.  Milton Ishibashi is made fun of by the prison guards who say something like “he must think he’s Bruce Lee.”  More importantly, we later learn that Chiba’s character is half Japanese (hi Jad Fair). His father had tried to combine “Chinese boxing” and karate.  This reminds us of Way of the Dragon…where the restaurant employees mock Lee’s “Chinese boxing” in sneering tones (until they see what it can do).

I won’t give away the bizarre ending, but suffice it to say that Junjo (Ishibashi) will be singing “Kumbaya” like Ned Gerblansky from here on out (if at all).  Who’s ready for some pie?

-PD