Stand With Russia / Stand With Putin [2022)

Are you curious about what is going on with Ukraine?

[Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, 2. Largo]

Well, you should be.

I am.

But I am going to attempt to explain what is going on.

First of all, NATO are a bunch of fucktards.

NATO was formed to defend against the Warsaw Pact (which no longer exists) countries and against the Soviet Union (which also no longer exists).

When did the USSR collapse?

December 26, 1991.

Thirty years ago.

Did NATO disband when this happened?

Did they dissolve?

Of course not.

Why?

Because they are warmongers in disguise.

Why do I say this?

Because NATO was not satisfied to keep the amount of members it had in 1991.

Nooooooo.

It ADDED members.

And it moved in a certain direction.

Which direction was that?

Eastwards.

Towards Russia.

And now they are right on Russia’s doorstep.

Imagine if China or Russia formed a mutual defense treaty with Mexico…or even Guatemala.

And China or Russia put troops and weapons there.

To “protect” those countries against the USA.

Do you think the USA would consider that a threat?

Of course we would.

And before you say the USA is no threat…

[Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8, 1. Largo]

to Mexico or Guatemala, let’s not forget the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and/or the CIA coup in Guatemala (1954…aka Operation PBSuccess).

So let’s review what NATO has done for the past 30 years.

1999- former member of Warsaw Pact CZECHIA (Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic) joins NATO

1999- former member of Warsaw Pact POLAND joins NATO (borders RUSSIA, BELARUS, and UKRAINE)

2004- former member of Warsaw Pact BULGARIA joins NATO

2004- former region of Soviet Union ESTONIA joins NATO (borders RUSSIA)

2004- former member of Warsaw Pact HUNGARY joins NATO (borders UKRAINE)

2004- former region of Soviet Union LATVIA joins NATO (borders RUSSIA and BELARUS [the constituents of the Russian Federation])

2004- former region of Soviet Union LITHUANIA joins NATO (borders BELARUS and RUSSIA [the constituents of the Russian Federation])

2004- former member of Warsaw Pact ROMANIA joins NATO (borders UKRAINE)

2004- former member of Warsaw Pact SLOVAKIA (Czechoslovakia) joins NATO (borders UKRAINE)

2004- former region of communist state Yugoslavia SLOVENIA joins NATO

2009- former member of Warsaw Pact ALBANIA joins NATO

2009- former region of communist state Yugoslavia CROATIA joins NATO

2017- former region of communist state Yugoslavia MONTENEGRO joins NATO

2020- former region of communist state Yugoslavia NORTH MACEDONIA joins NATO

[Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, II. Adagio sostenuto (performed by Sviatoslav Richter)]

[Borodin String Quartet No. 2, 3. Notturno]

[Stravinsky Rite of Spring: Harbingers of Spring (Dances of the Young Girls and Boys)]

Let’s not forget that NORWAY (a NATO member) borders RUSSIA.

[Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, I. Non allegro]

So do you see why Russia is worried?

In addition to Norway, NATO began to further border Russia within eight years of the USSR’s collapse (with the accession of Poland).

That was 1999.

2004 was a major year of provocative, aggressive actions by NATO.

THREE MORE countries WHICH DIRECTLY BORDER RUSSIA were added to the mutual defense pact: Estonia, Latvia, and Lituania.

NATO by 2004 had added FOUR COUNTRIES to its membership which DIRECTLY BORDER RUSSIA.

The Soviet Union had ceased to exist for a mere 13 years by this point.

While it is true that NATO has not (yet) added ANY MORE states that border Russia, it has nevertheless continued to add members (mostly from the former Yugoslavia [but one former Warsaw Pact member]): Albania (Warsaw Pact), Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.

[for those keeping score, five (!) NATO countries border Russia]

Albania in 2009 was, in some ways, the most audacious (provocative) move.

[Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues for Piano Op. 87, Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C Major (performed by Keith Jarrett)]

Why?

Because Montenegro (a 2017 accession to NATO) is actually TO THE WEST!

NATO was playing checkers.

They skipped over Montenegro.

Only to gobble it up as well eight years later.

And what is east of Albania?

North Macedonia.

A mere two years ago (2020), NATO moved further east with the accession of North Macedonia.

What is east of Europe?

Russia.

For 30 years, in an almost-uninterrupted train, NATO has moved EASTWARDS in a provocative, slow-motion attack on Russia.

Again, remember my metaphor.

What if China or Russia put troops and installations and weapons in Canada?

Oh, they can’t: because Canada is in NATO.

So let’s choose a different metaphor.

Remember when Russia put nukes in Cuba?

It was a big deal, right?

Why?

Because Havana is a mere 228 miles from Miami.

The city of Russia most closely associated with Europe is St. Petersburg.

Warsaw, POLAND (in NATO since 1999) is 729 miles from St. Petersburg.

Vilnius, LITHUANIA (in NATO since 2004) is 448 miles from St. Petersburg.

Riga, LATVIA (in NATO since 2004) is 357 miles from St. Petersburg.

Tallinn, ESTONIA (in NATO since 2004) is 230 miles from St. Petersburg.

[Prokofiev Visions Fugitives, 1. Lentamente]

[Mieczysław Weinberg Piano Quintet, 1.  Moderato con moto]

But to reiterate: there are FIVE NATO COUNTRIES that are ASS-TO-FUCKING-ASS with Russia:

Norway

Poland

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania.

I was in the middle of watching Convoy.

The Canadian Freedom Convoy had made Trudeau enact the Emergencies Act.

Truckers were (and are) headed to D.C. for the Peoples Convoy.

The COVID narrative was falling apart.

Omicron had brought the major risks of the pandemic to an end.

More damning information was emerging every day on Fauci, Moderna, Pfizer, CDC, FDA…

Here is but one example:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10542309/Fresh-lab-leak-fears-study-finds-genetic-code-Covids-spike-protein-linked-Moderna-patent.html

But now none of that matters, right?

Are you seeing any news about the truckers?

Remember they were THE ONLY FUCKING THING GOING ON IN THE WORLD just a week ago.

Every country had their own trucker protest.

[Prokofiev Symphony No. 1, I. Allegro]

Did all of that just stop?

We were up to 12,122 reports of death to the HHS VAERS system in relation to the administration of the COVID vaccines in the USA (according to the CDC’s criminally-parsed data).

Open VAERS had it at 23,615 reports of death.

And remember that these numbers should be multiplied by a factor of 10 because of the historical underreporting to the VAERS passive surveillance system.

Take a look at Kawasaki disease.

A perfect example of how, historically, LESS THAN ONE PERCENT of vaccine adverse reactions (including serious ones like Kawasaki disease) had made it into the VAERS system.

So we are talking about 121,220 deaths.

Or, probably, 236,150 deaths.

And that was as of a week ago.

But that doesn’t matter anymore.

Anyone who rammed through these #NeitherSafeNorEffective vaccines are going to pay no price for their crimes against humanity.

Why?

Because the situation in Ukraine has rendered everything else moot.

Why?

Because Russia has nukes.

And they will probably move nukes into Belarus (as that country ditched its status as nuclear-neutral today).

So the whole world is fixated on Ukraine…because if dumbass Biden and dumbass NATO somehow end up shooting at Russia, there could (pretty quickly) be a nuclear exchange.

The situation could devolve rapidly into all-out nuclear war.

What a way to make everyone forget about the past two years, right?

Why were the truckers even in Ottawa?

Because of the killer vaccines and the stupid fucking mandates.

But the threat of death and incineration by nuclear weapons has totally wiped the memory of citizens on planet Earth.

But there is something more insidious going on.

EVERY NEWS SOURCE ON THE PLANET IS MAKING ZELENSKY OUT TO BE A HERO.

AND MAKING UKRAINE OUT TO BE VICTIMS.

No mention of the backstory I gave you.

No mention that NATO has moved eastwards (for no good reason) for 30 years.

So I say, fuck Zelensky!

Fuck Ukraine!!!

I pray every night for the children and elderly of Ukraine.

But I gotta tell you something.

Ukraine fucked up.

They could have investigated Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.

But they didn’t.

And that’s a big reason why Biden is President today.

So congratulations, Ukraine!

You got the President you wanted.

Joe Motherfucking Biden.

[Kalinnikov Symphony No. 1, IV. Finale. Allegro moderato]

We are now at Defcon 2.

Some people think Defcon 5 is bad…like an F5 tornado.

Defcon 5 means the U.S. is at a state of readiness associated with peace.

Defcon 1 means the U.S. state of readiness is that of wartime or imminent nuclear threat.

A couple of days ago we were at Defcon 3.

Not great, but not horrible.

Yes, it has deteriorated.

We are now at Defcon 2.

According to public OSINT analysis.

The actual Defcon level is not made public.

https://www.defconlevel.com/

[Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture]

Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

Because in September Ukraine’s new publicly-released National Security Strategy included their express desire and intent to join NATO.

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/russia-as-aggressor-nato-as-objective-ukraines-new-national-security-strategy/

Russia has had enough.

Russia was patient for 30 years.

Why else did Russia invade Ukraine?

Because “hero” Zelensky publicly announced approximately one year ago that his goal was to MILITARILY take back Crimea from Russia. And how was he gonna do that? By joining NATO, of course.

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/3214479-zelensky-enacts-strategy-for-deoccupation-and-reintegration-of-crimea.html

So Zelensky is certainly, while not in the traditional sense, a comedian.

And his joke is his foreign policy.

Which has now led to the deaths of many of his countrymen.

What a punch line!

Let me explain one further thing.

Russia is fighting NOW so that they don’t have to fight a bigger, deadlier war LATER.

Ukrainians are stupid fucking idiots that don’t realize (or care?) that their corrupt country had a major role in looking the other way so that Joe Biden could be elected/installed.

Those dying for Russia are heroes.

Those dying for Ukraine are morons…in service to a moron government.

Russia is not communist.

Are they a little heavy-handed?

Yes.

Why?

Because pricks like George Soros try to overthrow all the countries (Georgia, for instance) in their region.

And don’t forget the recent overthrow of the Kazakh government.

Aside from Ukraine (which was the “bread basket” of the former Soviet Union [as Zbigniew Brzezinski described it]), Kazakhstan was the most important Soviet Republic.

Don’t forget that Russia went into Kazakhstan on a “peacekeeping” mission.

And they were very successful.

So Russia is heavy-handed.

Putin is heavy-handed.

Because, otherwise, Russia will cease to exist.

Putin is doing his job.

I perceive that he loves his country.

His first responsibility is TO HIS PEOPLE.

He is the leader of RUSSIA.

He is not trying to win a popularity contest.

So to all the Russians who wanna protest, get the fuck out of Russia.

Go to the paradise of the European Union.

Claim refugee status.

Whine and complain that Putin is so bad.

But Putin is protecting your culture and your people.

Let me reiterate.

RUSSIA IS NOT A COMMUNIST STATE.

China is.

Fuck China.

And Russia is far from perfect, but NATO needs to BACK THE FUCK OFF!

As an American, I suggest this:

the USA needs to immediately leave NATO.

The USA needs to also immediately expel the United Nations from New York City.

And the USA needs to exit the United Nations.

If Europe wants their own military, fine.

Call it NATO without the USA.

Donbas and Luhansk asked for Russia’s help.

Putin said yes.

Has Putin gone further than helping these two regions?

Yes.

Why?

Here is one possible reason:

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/12/10/putin-says-conflict-in-eastern-ukraine-looks-like-genocide-a75780

Putin has a responsibility to help those of Russian extraction if he can.

He could.

So he did.

Would you expect Israel to help Jews in some place in the world if they were in trouble?

Yes, you would.

What if those Jews were in a country bordering Israel?

Would you expect Israel to intercede?

Yes, you would.

Being Russian is no less special than being Jewish.

And that is why I have made this playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6m9ArhvB67gGDRosUFD78b?si=987de9a823154d80

You must get to know the works of Dostoyevsky.

Karamazov.

You must get to know the composers.

I have put them on a silver platter for you.

Like beluga caviar.

Have some egg.

Some onion.

On a cracker.

Have some champagne.

But, by all means, have some vodka while you are reading Karamazov.

[Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Variation 18]

You must get to know the films of Eisenstein.

They transcend communism.

It is art.

Potemkin is one of the best films ever made.

And Shostakovich made brilliant, tortured music…IN SPITE OF COMMUNISM!

Gaze upon the paintings of Chagall.

Born in Belarus.

[Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker (Suite), IIb. Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy]

It is no less special to be Russian than it is to be Jewish.

And, believe it or not, one can be both.

https://tass.com/russia/1405599

[Stravinsky The Firebird Suite, Finale]

Who really started the attack?

Was it really Russia?

What about this vaunted “false-flag” that the USA government gushed about?

Did Ukraine actually start this conflict?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-22/ukraine-power-plant-damaged-during-two-days-of-shelling

2/22/22

Was Ukraine going to irradiate the region by using Chernobyl as an asymmetric weapon (a giant dirty bomb)?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/chernobyl-nuclear-russia-attack-ukraine-b2022444.html

Why was Russia so insistent about taking it over?

Russia has nukes.

Russia has uranium, plutonium, etc.

Russia doesn’t need nuclear material to terrorize a region.

It already has nuclear material.

I suspect something was awry at Chernobyl.

Do you think the FSB and GRU are able to decrypt Ukrainian communications?

I do.

What are the new accessions to NATO saying?

Czechia was very enlightened to drop their vaccine mandate a few weeks ago.

But who was on the front lines of the “get Russia” parade?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/czech-president-russia-cut-off-102059014.html

For NATO, and its former Soviet/Warsaw-Pact members, it is not enough that the USSR fell apart in 1991.

THESE PSYCHOPATHS WANT THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION AND ANNIHILATION OF RUSSIA.

That is not peace.

That is not a peaceful mutual-defense organization.

NATO is the aggressor.

Russia has (finally!) acted in self-defense.

This is the last opportunity Russia has to act without the repercussions being GUARANTEED nuclear war.

Putin made the right choice.

[Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1, 1.  Grave – Allegro ma non troppo]

China was right to side with Russia.

And I fucking hate China.

And Russia was right to side with China.

Why?

Because NATO and the moronic foreign policy of Biden forced them into it.

https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/china/ukraine-crisis-china-russia-war-us-b2022237.html

Remember when Biden was barely in office and he called Putin “a killer”?

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/joe-biden-calls-vladimir-putin-killer.html

What kind of diplomacy is that?!?

Did he go to the Rex Tillerson school of foreign policy???

But let’s get one other thing straight.

[Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, The Story of the Kalender Prince]

There are only two mRNA vaccines approved anywhere in the world.

Ever.

In world history.

And both of them are COVID vaccines.

We are talking about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Are they approved in China?

No.

Not at all.  Not even for emergency use.

Are they approved in Russia?

No.

Not at all.  Not even for emergency use.

Why?

Because Russia and China developed their own COVID vaccines (many of them the traditional inactivated-virus vaccines).

Russia has four COVID vaccines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_V_COVID-19_vaccine

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoviVac_(Russia_COVID-19_vaccine)

[the final one is an inactivated-virus vaccine]

As I have proven in many articles, the COVID vaccines available in the USA are neither safe, nor effective.

Same for those of the U.K., Australia, etc.

What do the vaccines have to do with Russia invading Ukraine?

Use your brains.

Why would Russia and China not approve the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines AT ALL in their countries?

Isn’t it interesting how they (China and Russia) have also aligned themselves in regard to foreign policy?

What do the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have to do with their shared foreign policy (if they do at all)?

So Russia has one inactivated-virus vaccine for COVID and ZERO mRNA vaccines.

You can see what China does and doesn’t have here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_COVID-19_vaccine_authorizations

But let’s get back on topic.

Have you seen Biden brag about getting Viktor Shokin (a Ukrainian prosecutor) fired while Biden was Obama’s Vice President?

Now why would Biden be so interested in a Ukrainian prosecutor?

Why would he execute a quid pro quo using American taxpayer-funded loan guarantees to extort Ukraine into firing Shokin?

Listen for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=UXA–dj2-CY

[Pauly Deathwish “Россия”]

Why, indeed?

What was Hunter Biden doing over in Ukraine?

Was he on the board of directors for Ukrainian gas company Burisma?

Was Burisma under investigation by Shokin?

Did the New York Post break this story during the 2020 U.S. election cycle?

Did Twitter lock the New York Post (third-highest circulation in the USA) out of its Twitter account for publishing and sharing the story on Twitter?

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

What story did the New York Post publish the next day?

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

Yes, Joe and Hunter Biden are even more corrupt in specific relation to China than they are to Ukraine (if that is even possible).  But, of course, China did nothing about this.  Because they wanted a President they could control.  So they could take Taiwan (which they will shortly do).

https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2019/11/04/report-joe-biden-pressured-ukraine-to-fire-top-prosecutor-after-burisma-lobbying-effort/

So Ukraine had the goods on Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.

But they swept it under the rug.

Because they wanted Joe Biden to win.

So that they could join NATO.

And retake Crimea by military force.

[Prokoviev Alexander Nevsky, VII. Alexander’s Entry into Pskov]

[Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, The Great Gate of Kiev]

So, I hate to say it, dear Ukrainians, but you should have been more involved in the politics of your country.

You, in effect, “voted” for Joe Biden.

Congratulations.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ukraine-prosecutor-biden-burisma-back-off-state-department-files

Are you wishing now that you had exposed Joe Biden for the corrupt piece of shit that he is?

It’s a little late, maybe, to be researching this.

But you know who else knows about this?

The U.S. military.

Where is the bravery of the U.S. military?

Are you just gonna zip your lips and go fight another pointless war so that Joe Biden can cover his ass for all the mistakes he has made during his first year in office?

https://thehill.com/policy/international/europe/468886-ukraine-to-fire-prosecutor-who-led-investigations-into-company

In case YouTube (owned by Alphabet Inc. [the owners of Google]) decide to take down the video link I posted above.

Here it is, once again:  Joe Biden BRAGGING that he got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired by dangling billions of dollars in loan guarantees over their heads.

https://rumble.com/v7u8sd-joe-biden-admits-to-getting-prosecutor-fired.html

This is not a conspiracy theory.

It is a conspiracy.

It is a factual conspiracy.

Conspiracy fact.

Joe Biden conspired to get a Ukrainian prosecutor fired.

Why?

Was that prosecutor investigating Burisma gas company–a Ukrainian company on whose board his son Hunter Biden sat?

Yes.

Shokin was investigating that.

Until he was fired.

At Vice President Joe Biden’s behest.

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/02/04/report-diplomat-complained-that-hunter-biden-was-undercutting-anti-corruption-efforts-in-ukraine/

The counterargument will be that Burisma was under investigation BEFORE Hunter Biden joined the board.

So there is nothing wrong with Joe Biden getting the prosecutor fired.

In fact, Joe Biden was actually trying to PREVENT corruption in Ukraine.

Give me a fucking break!

Joe Biden was the “point man” for Ukraine AND China during the Obama years.

Does his son, Hunter, taking a job on the board of a Ukrainian gas company that was under investigation for corruption sound like an above-board thing to do?

Never mind whether they were under investigation or not.

Why the fuck did his son join the board of Burisma while his dad was the “point man” for Ukraine?

And look at the second New York Post link I posted above.

Who was “the big guy”?

10% set aside for “the big guy”?

Hunter Biden did a big deal for a hedge fund after he and his father flew on Air Force 2 to China.

So who is “the big guy”?

Who was getting 10% of the “finder’s fee” for this deal?

Was it Vice President Joe Biden?

I think it fucking was.

That’s called SELLING THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Joe Biden was never fit to be President.

These are disqualifying CRIMES that he committed.

And Ukraine could have done the right thing and exposed it.

But they didn’t.

Great job, Ukrainians.

Thanks a lot.

Every news service in the world covered for Joe Biden.

Those same news services that are calling Zelensky a “hero” and vilifying Putin.

That same ugly chorus.

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/01/25/fact-check-ap-says-biden-getting-ukrainian-prosecutor-fired-to-protect-hunter-is-false-narrative/

Viktor Shokin has spoken up.

There was an assassination attempt made on him.

Three shots from a sniper’s rifle.

Bulletproof glass on his office window saved his life.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/27/report-affidavit-ukrainian-prosecutor-joe-biden-removed-burisma-investigation/

Giuliani told you all this.

But you didn’t believe him.

You wanted to believe that Trump is a bad guy.

And maybe he is.

But Biden is far worse.

https://www.newswars.com/audio-released-of-joe-biden-pressuring-ukraine-president-to-fire-prosecutor-investigating-son-hunter/

I am no longer in support of Trump.

Because Trump has supported these moronic vaccines.

https://www.westernjournal.com/report-former-ukraine-prosecutor-files-complaint-charging-biden-not-trump-abused-power/

Wake me up when Trump calls the neither-safe-nor-effective vaccines bullshit:

https://open.spotify.com/track/3VXsCvRbs1B6BmsVoeAvrQ?si=d8b08ba45df4415a

By the way, this wasn’t just any prosecutor that Joe Biden got fired.

It was essentially the Ukrainian Attorney General.

That’s a pretty fucking big deal, right?

Did Joe Biden, whose son saw fit to cash in on his dad being Obama’s Ukraine “point man” by joining the board of Burisma, really have the moral “high ground” to tell Ukraine who should or shouldn’t be their top prosecutor?

https://www.westernjournal.com/joe-biden-probe-ukraine-top-prosecutors-firing-report/

Does the U.S. military leadership love their country (our country) as much as Putin loves his?

We should just vote Joe Biden out, right?

Three years from now.

Biden hasn’t done that bad during his first year, has he?

I mean, WWIII being imminent is no big deal, right?

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/463307-solomon-these-once-secret-memos-cast-doubt-on-joe-bidens-ukraine-story

I mean…we can make it to the mid-terms, right?

And then Joe Biden’s power will be lessened, right?

So we can make it basically another year with an imminent WWIII hanging over our head.

No problem.

I’m sure Biden will handle this with the same finesse that he handled the Afghanistan withdrawal.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/documents-heighten-scrutiny-on-biden-ukraine-dealings-indicate-hunter-may-have-made-millions

Speaking of which…General Lloyd Austin (who forced our troops to take neither-safe-nor-effective vaccines) and Mark Milley (who did nothing to stop Secretary Austin’s treasonous actions) did such a great fucking job getting us out of Afghanistan.

I’m sure Putin is shaking in his boots.

But here’s an interesting thought.

Putin is a man of ACTION.

His country was/is threatened.

He acted.

What has our U.S. military done to protect OUR country?

They just take orders, right?

Just following orders.

https://thepostmillennial.com/state-department-memos-contradict-democrats-ukraine-impeachment-narrative

I have a bad feeling that they will be following Joe Biden into oblivion…and dragging us all down with them.

The U.S. military can’t take action.

Because there’s never been a military coup in the USA.

And we wouldn’t wanna ruin that record.

If we’re gonna be nuked, might as well go out with a pristine record of civilian control of the military.

Is Joe Biden fit to be President?

Is he a criminal?

Did he sell the office of the Vice President to Ukraine and China?

How about his mental fitness?

Is he cognitively fit to be Commander-in-Chief?

I’m sure if he weren’t, people like Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten (and their two newborns [their dads’ vaginas must be aching!]) will make the right decision and take one month of paternity leave (two fathers!) rather than two…to make sure the supply chain is functioning properly and ports are working well and there aren’t any cargo ships anchored off the coast of, oh, I don’t know, Galveston, or something…and Mayor Pete (who is a WEF Young Global Leader) will invoke the 25th Amendment because Biden is cognitively not fit to lead.

And then we would have dumbass Kamala Harris as President for the next three years.

Pretty rosy picture, eh?

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/biden-boomerang-newly-released-state-memo-casts-doubt

If Biden was removed via the 25th Amendment and Kamala was impeached (just give her time), then our President would be Nancy Pelosi.

That is the outlook for the next year.

Anyone wondering if Joe Biden really got the most votes in the history of the USA?

81 million votes.

More votes than Obama.

Because he was THAT popular!

He was extraordinarily popular in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Detroit, but didn’t do all that well with the black populations in other major U.S. cities.

Anyone find that a bit odd?

He did REALLY, REALLY WELL in those four cities.

Like, abnormally-well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html

He was probably carried by Kamala.

Who left the Democratic Primaries due to her popularity with voters.

She was polling at less that 1% when she dropped out.

So you got the President you wanted, Ukraine!

You made a pretend effort to rectify things.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/ukraine-police-closes-biden-probe-initiated-ousted-prosecutor-n1247320

Let’s not forget about Jan. 6 (which was worse than 9/11 or Pearl Harbor).

Do you Ukrainians think you are experiencing terror and carnage?

You have no idea what AOC went through on January 6.

https://republicbrief.com/russia-threatens-military-consequences-for-2-more-countries/

Let’s just make one thing clear.

Russia is not fucking around.

Is Sweden gonna join NATO?

Not if Russia has anything to say about it.

Is Finland going to join NATO?

Over Russia’s dead body.

Russia has had enough.

They have let NATO expand–right up to their very doorstep–for 30 years.

Ukraine is the line in the sand.

“Hero” Zelensky said he wanted (and intended) to take back Crimea by military force.

He said that 11 months ago.

Then, in September, Ukraine released their national security strategy:  a stated desire and intention to join NATO.

Putin gave Biden and the West (Macron, et al.) a chance to call off the dogs.

Biden and NATO would concede nothing.

So Putin attacked.

And Zelensky is the “hero”.

And Putin is the bad guy.

And we just got out of a 20-year war in Afghanistan, so I guess it’s time for us to go fight in Eastern Europe.

In Ukraine.

How’s that Mexican border looking?

Wall finished?

Oh, we’re just gonna let immigrants walk across the border forever, right?

Because we only have 10% inflation.

So we can, obviously, afford to just take in and house the world.

Fuck it!

And Joe Biden NEEDS these voters.

These are DEMOCRAT voters.

They want socialism.

They NEED socialism.

They are poor as fuck.

And the socialism in their countries (like Mexico) was not working so well.

So they came here…to upgrade to a better socialism.

Except for the fact that we didn’t become a wealthy country because of socialism.

Quite the opposite, actually.

But anyway…send our military to Ukraine.

Make sure Ukraine’s sovereignty is protected.

And fuck American soverignty, right, U.S. military?

But how about the biolabs?

Were there biological (and chemical?) weapons in Ukraine?

Did Putin just bomb the sites?

Was the real “false-flag” gonna be a bioterror release by NATO to take over (close) the Bosporus and occupy Ukraine?

Was NATO going to release a bioweapon in Ukraine?

Were United Nations “peacekeeping” forces going to occupy Ukraine?

Did Putin preempt this plan by blowing up their biolabs?

https://www.opindia.com/2022/02/russia-ukraine-invasion-bioweapons-labs-patrushev-putin-wuhan-coronavirus/

If Fauci (and Daszak and Baric) was involved in the creation of COVID-19, then it wasn’t solely China’s fault.

China stood to gain.

Always ask, “Cui bono?”

But who were the American players?

If DARPA did indeed refuse the EcoHealth Alliance (Daszak) proposal to develop a “bat vaccine” (which was to be sprayed into caves in China), did NIAID (under Fauci) accept the proposal?

Was EcoHealth Alliance a front for the CIA?

What about the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at Fort Belvoir?

Why do they still have an ongoing contract with EcoHealth Alliance to study bat-borne disease in “Western” Asia?

Hm.

Western Asia, eh?

Like Ukraine???

Turkey is key.

Dividing line between Europe and Asia, right?

And St. Petersburg is a European city.

But what is really the dividing line of Europe and Asia in respect to Russian territory?

Where does Europe end and Asia begin?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9717133/Congress-demands-investigation-2019-Wuhan-Military-Games-athletes-showed-COVID-symptoms.html

What about the World Military Games?

Do you trust China?

I don’t.

But is there something to this story that COVID-19 started WAY BEFORE December 2019 (January 2020 in the USA)?

Are a bunch of people just trying to cover their asses?

Who planned the plandemic?

If it were a murder investigation (and it should literally be), the three prime suspects should be:  Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, and Anthony Fauci.

Beyond them, I would throw in Pope Bergoglio and Prince Charles as very strong suspects.

But of those three–Schwab, Gates, and Fauci–they had the trifecta:  means, motive, and opportunity.

They were, to extend the metaphor, caught red-handed at the scene of the crime.

Throw in Peter Daszak.

Throw in Stephane Bancel of Moderna.

What about Ralph Baric?

And don’t forget the Chinese in Wuhan.

“Bat lady”.

The only relevant thing Trump has done recently was to “praise Putin”, but then he turned around and called Zelensky a hero.

https://www.infowars.com/posts/trump-praises-putin/

Trump has made himself completely irrelevant with his stance on the COVID vaccines available in the USA.

But, hey:  if you’re French, I have good news for you:

https://www.infowars.com/posts/france-deactivates-covid-vaccine-passports-months-ahead-of-expiration-in-effort-to-force-people-to-get-booster-jab-sooner/

There’s only one problem:

https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-canadian-mp-accused-of-spreading-disinformation-for-pointing-out-wefs-corrupt-influence-over-trudeaus-govt/

is Putin controlled by Klaus Schwab?

Schwab brags in a video (in the above article) that Putin was a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum (WEF [Davos]).

Who are the other big feathers in Schwab’s cap?

Merkel, Trudeau, Macron, Ardern, De Croo, Sanna Marin…

It is possible (as of last week) to verify Macron, Ardern, De Croo, and Sanna Marin (as well as Buttigieg, Tulsi Gabbard, and Maria Bartiromo) here:

https://www.younggloballeaders.org/community

My gut tells me that former-Stasi (KGB) operative Vladimir Putin went to YGL to COLLECT INFORMATION.

Same with Maria Bartiromo.

As for the rest?

Fuck ’em!

Gabbard?

A fucking fake.

-PD

Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story [2003)

Happy Birthday to Thora Birch, my favorite actress of all time!

Yes, I know…I know.

A film critic whose favorite actress is a young 35-year-old whipper snapper???

Yes.

That’s alright.

Laugh at me.

If the question was, “Who was your favorite classic Hollywood actress?,” then I would answer, “Lauren Bacall”.

But I said favorite actress of all time.

You can search my “Thora” category here on my site for why exactly this actress is my favorite.

Because otherwise, we’re going to be here all day.

And I have a movie to review!

One of my favorites:  Homeless to Harvard.

It is, indeed …The Liz Murray Story, but I will be using the shortened title hereafter for brevity’s sake.

It is my contention (and I have made the point elsewhere…probably on this very site of mine) that Thora Birch produced a trilogy of acting performances which are more-or-less analogous to Bob Dylan’s classic trilogy.

Let’s start with Dylan.

The three (at unity from a similarity of intense expression):

Bringing It All Back Home

Highway 61 Revisited 

and

Blonde on Blonde

And now the Thora films which correspond in my mind:

American Beauty

Ghost World

and

Homeless to Harvard

Sure…Birch didn’t direct these films.

But her acting is so strong, she might as well have.

By this point she was no longer a prodigy.

She was a mature actress.  A master of her craft.

And the story here is one to really sink teeth in.

[In which.]

We recently touched on homelessness here in the review of Alicia Vikander’s stellar turn as Katarina from Till det som är vackert.

Pure.

But the esthetics of Homeless to Harvard are different.

This isn’t European arthouse.  It’s a Lifetime made-for-TV film.

But don’t go running anywhere!!!

This is as gritty as any Lou Reed tale.

And it’s all real.

Too pure.

Heroin addict parents.

Mother schizophrenic.

Blindness.

Genetic.

Mother with HIV.

Father with AIDS.

Vice versa ice Ursa.

Father in homeless shelter.

Mother wielding knife.  Vomiting.

Alcoholism.

Really appealing, eh?

But you gotta stick with it.

This isn’t Darren Aronofsky mise-en-scène.

It’t not, “Let’s win an award at Sundance.”  Or, “Let’s sweep at Cannes.”

It’s more like one of Aesop’s fables.

It’s the message, man!

And so first, let’s honor the director.

Peter Levin.

Who knew a television film could be so artful?

Well, when you combine the history of Histoire(s) du cinéma with the precedent of Twin Peaks, you should know by now that television can produce good stuff.

Hell…

Your TV can even WATCH YOU! (as per WikiLeaks Vault7).

But I digress…

The weeper (no masonry) sob story…had me crying in my Junior Mints…we must attribute to the excellent writing of Ronni Kern.

Who the hell is Ronni Kern?!?

Male?  Female?

I’ve had less trouble finding the gender of completely unknown foreign movie people.

But Kern is pretty invisible on the Internet.

And maybe there’s a point here.

  1.  It doesn’t fucking matter.
  2. You should judge someone on their work, not their gender.

Hopefully Ms. Birch will appreciate this flash of liberalism should she read this review.

[I’m not holding my breath]

But we have just celebrated International Women’s Day.

And the fact that Birch’s character here is a “feminist” is a running pseudo-joke.

Which brings us to the performances.

Michael Riley is stellar, stellar (I know…) as Liz’s father Peter.

Kudos to the styling department.

That beard.  And that hair!

Crazy, man, crazy!!

But Riley’s performance is really special.

It touched my heart.

Long ago.

When I first saw this film.

And dare I say, this movie made me appreciate my own family.

It made me miss my folks.

And so I salute Peter Riley and Lifetime and all involved for that effect on my heart.

Jennifer Pisana is really fabulous as the young Liz Murray here.

It’s an unenviable task.

To precede Thora Birch’s entrance.

But Pisana is indispensable to this little masterpiece.

Those sweaters.

And the full pronunciations…”Mommy”…”Daddy”…

Ms. Pisana affects the necessary naïveté to be juxtaposed against the sad schizophrenia of Kelly Lynch (who plays Liz’s mom).

And Lynch is great.

Think Cries and Whispers.

[cris et chuchotements…(( (( ((…et chuchotements]

Robert Bockstael does a fine job as Liz’s teacher David.

Very convincing.  Excellent craftsmanship.

Makyla Smith is piquant in her depiction of Liz’s best friend Chris.

[God…the Magic Marker…and the pine box…fuuuuuuck]

Yes, friends…this is Lifetime Television.

So the brisure (bonjour, monsieur Derrida) is “crap”.

“Crap happens.”

Whoa…watch thy mouth, Kelly Lynch!

So again…Peter Levin does a fantastic job shoehorning a true X-file into PG territory.

We see a syringe here and there.  A tourniquet.

Riley cleaning a spoon.

But the real heartbreak is Wheat Chex with tap water.

Yeah…

Hello Gummo.

Ellen Page has a small role here.

And she’s good.

Fine actress.

But we’ve been waiting to roll out the big gun.

Thora Birch.

On this, her birthday, I am only just now getting towards a handful of reviews honoring her unique thespian gift.

What to say?

That every look is magic?

That every glance is gold?

That she has crafted her microexpressions in solitude…and wielded them like an Arthurian sword for the duration of this flick?

Yes, yes, and yes.

[and an Oxford comma]

Because kids take it for granted.

Rich kids.

Harvard.

Penn.

Princeton.

Maybe…

But even more so the lesser ivied walls.

I won’t name names.

But the spoiled kids.

Not turning in homework.

Bragging about shortcuts.

Those, ultimately, will be life’s losers.

But Liz Murray worked her butt off to get into Harvard.

From sleeping on the B Train.

Four years of high school in two.

And Thora Birch has worked her butt off too.

She hasn’t gotten the roles her talent deserves.

But the roles she has gotten, she has largely smashed out of the park.

Like the Babe Ruth of leading ladies.

And so there are other actresses I admire.

But Thora Birch was the first.

The first to give me that magical feeling which only Neil Young has adequately described:

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

Happy Birthday, Thora Birch!

And may all your days and films be filled with the joy which you have put into the world through your cinematic brilliance.

-PD

Trump vs. Clinton, October 9 [2016)

The United States continues to hold its breath.

And while doing so, it is worth revisiting the second Presidential debate of less than a month ago.

The “moderators” were the woeful Martha Raddatz and the downright evil (remember James Tracy!) Anderson Cooper.

These two jokers made fools of themselves.

But let’s assess this “town hall” shootout.

When Cooper said, “…the night really belongs to the people in this room…,” what he really meant was himself, Raddatz, and Hillary Clinton.

Screw everybody else.

And that attitude has come back to bite the mass media in the butt…big time!

Clinton says, “…I can promise you I will work with every American. I want to be the president for all Americans regardless of your political beliefs, what you look like, your religion.”

That must be the “public” position.  As we have seen from WikiLeaks, her “private” opinion (or at least that of her “staffers”) is one of complete contempt.

Young people are “fucking dumb”.

Latinos are “needy”.

Trump supporters are “deplorable”.

Black people are “super predators”.

But PUBLICLY, she says “stronger together.”

Blah-frickity-blah blah blah.

Nothing this lady says is the truth.

And (to cinema) she is A HORRIBLE ACTOR!

That’s what convinced me.

I have watched enough people on film to get a feeling about when someone is lying.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, Hillary Clinton says is disingenuous.

Transparently so!

“I want us to heal our country and bring it together.”

She also wants to (and did) have Democratic Party operatives start violence (as provocateurs) at a Trump rally in Chicago (as per Project Veritas proof).

It’s not likely that that was an isolated incident.

Trump kicks off the truth.

“We have to bring back respect to law enforcement.”

Amen!

But also, “…fixing and making our inner cities better.”

It takes money.  Yes.  And jobs.  Companies hire.  If they can hire.

Clinton’s plan is the globalist plan.  Ship jobs overseas and wait for new, better “service” jobs to magically appear.  It’s a pipedream.  Actually, it’s a scam.  THE scam.  Clinton’s program could be called Make America Poor Again.  She might have a law degree (likely gotten only so she could personally BREAK the law more efficiently), but she doesn’t know shit about business.  All she knows is “currying favor”.  Her immense wealth was not earned.  There was no hard work.  She most accurately represents a never-ending cycle of nepotism.  Not so with Trump.

But Anderson Cooper wanted to get right to slamming Trump.  And so Mr. Cooper, fully “in the tank” for Clinton, pressed:  “You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”

Hey Anderson!  Do you understood that you almost single-handedly caused Dr. James Tracy to lose his job?  Do you understand it was mostly because you shirked your duty as a journalist to investigate the Sandy Hook hoax?  Do you understand that?  Do you understand that your criminal deception of the American people (under the aegis of gun control) was psychological terrorism?  Do you understand that, when it comes out you were fully aware it was a hoax, your career will be over?  Do you understand that?

They say Trump doesn’t apologize.  Personally, I’ve never heard Hillary Clinton give an apology about Benghazi.  Her “apology” was, “…what difference does it make?”  Now remember, that was concerning her culpability in the DEATHS of four Americans in Libya.  But you want an apology from Trump?  You get one (and an honest one):

“Yes, I am very embarrassed by it and I hate it…”

That’s about his sexual bragging which was caught on tape.  Nobody died.  But he owned up.  He was “embarrassed by it” and showed genuine remorse for his own lapse in judgment.  About something that happened 11 YEARS AGO!

But Anderson Cooper presses…and presses…and presses.

And that’s why Americans hate the press.

Because they don’t “press” on the important things.

Like Sandy Hook.  Or 9/11.  They just press buttons…and they have their buttons pressed (these “journalists”)…because they are part of the corrupt system which runs the United States.

They are shitty, soulless propagandists.

Trump:  “we have to build up the wealth of our nation”.

Whether the Adam Smith reference was purposeful or not, this is a real businessperson.  Unlike Clinton, he didn’t just go to cocktail parties and solicit donations.  He wasn’t selling access, he was selling real estate.  Big fucking difference!

Hillary has been getting rich as a “civil servant”.

And now her dream was so close in her sights.  The ultimate seat of power.  The US Presidency.  I really believe, however, that she sought the office merely for personal reasons.  A power trip?  Yes.  But a very sinister one.  She just wanted to be back in the Oval Office cackling about how she had tricked the American people with her “stronger together” bullshit.

Clinton claims, “…he has also targeted immigrants, African-Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, POWs, Muslims and so many others.”

Did she really say that?!?  Because we have the PROOF that her campaign HATES EVERYBODY…including those demographic groups in that sentence!!!

But Clinton just can’t leave well-enough alone.  Like the parrot she is, she twitters out the tired, haggard, liberal eyewash:  “…America already is great…”.

Oh really?  Well, fine!  Why don’t you just step down then, “Madame” Secretary (and go back to whatever brothel you came from)?  Yes.  Indeed.  Why run at all???  If America is already great…  Fine.  Yes.  Obama has done a great job.  So you would just lend us that counterintuitively-grating NPR steadiness for another four years–that calm, soothing nonsense, but transformed into “leadership”.  Great.  Sounds wonderful.

“…we are great because we are good.”  Sure…  Wait!  Did Hillary Clinton just try to occupy the moral high ground?  On live, national television???  Good God, what a hypocrite!

At this point it’s appropriate to quote Mr. Trump at length…as he absolutely TORPEDOES Secretary Clinton:

“It’s just words, folks. It’s just words. These words, I have been hearing for many years. I heard them when they were running for the Senate in New York where Hillary was going to bring back jobs to upstate New York and she failed. I’ve heard them where Hillary is constantly talking about the inner cities of our country which are a disaster education-wise, job-wise, safety-wise, in every way possible. I’m going to help the African-Americans, I’m going to help the Latinos, hispanics. I am going to help the inner cities. She has done a terrible job for the African-Americans. She wants their vote and she does nothing.”

This.  This is what Americans have been waiting for.  Someone with a spine to call out, on national television, the fakery of the ruling political establishment.  It was a beautiful thing to hear.

The crap-journalist Raddatz says, “I want to get to audience questions,” but then she presses…presses…brings the narrative back to the lame, inconsequential Trump tape.  Which is to say, she didn’t want to get to questions at all!

Raddatz:  “This tape is generating intense interest. In just 48 hours it has become the single most talked about story of the entire 2016 election on Facebook with millions and millions of people discussing it on the social network.”

At this point, a third (and real) moderator would have told Raddatz to shut the hell up.  But it was one-on-three.  Trump against the world!  Or rather, Trump against the political establishment…and FOR the world!  Clinton wants a no-fly zone over Syria.  Like the one she imposed over Libya.  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has accurately said, “That would mean war…with Russia.”  AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HILLARY AND HER CABAL WANT!  They are fucking maniacs!  No way should she or any of them EVER get anywhere NEAR the White House again!!!

Trump strikes back:  “If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words and his was action.”

Little debate about that.

Further:  “His words, what he has done to women. There’s never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation that has been so abusive to women.”

Yes, folks…that’s the Clintons.  Trump would get into the specifics…about how Hillary got a rapist off.  Madame Secretary defended a client (as a lawyer), the rapist, and then later laughed about it.  THAT is the lady taking the moral high ground.  Appalling…

Raddatz: “Please hold the applause.”

Yes, little lapdog Raddatz had to calm the crowd…BECAUSE THEY WERE APPLAUDING TRUMP!

Hillary’s strategy was not working.  All those opposition research dollars, and Trump was defeating it with moxie…and honesty.  I’m sorry.  I messed up.  But the lady across from me is a conniving scoundrel and she has NO leg on which to stand!

Hillary SAYS that she abides by that paragon of virtue Michelle Obama’s words, “When they go low, you go high.,” but the truth is more like, “When they go low, we go lower.”

The transcript indicates there was “[Applause]” at this point, but it was either so weak or Martha Raddatz was so biased as to not make the same little preachy intercession she had made moments earlier.

But I will leave you with the deathblow which occurred not long afterwards.

Clinton:  “it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.”

Trump:  “Because you would be in jail.”

Goddamn, that’s beautiful!

 

-PD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planes, Trains and Automobiles [1987)

When I was a kid, this was a big family favorite.

It was one of those rare times when profanity got a pass.

That second time Steve Martin goes off…on Edie McClurg (the rental car lady).

But even funnier is the first time Martin pops off…in the Braidwood Motel in Wichita, Kansas…and John Candy just takes it.

Yes, there are some priceless moments in this film.

In some ways, this film defined an era.

Trading Places was an early-decade success (1983) for John Landis.

And then Walter Hill succeeded with a similar type of story, treated in his inimitable way, in 1985 (Brewster’s Millions).

But by 1987 the decade needed summation…and this particular genre which transcended classification needed a testament.

This is that film.

Funny enough, this was the same year the Coen brothers really started hitting ’em out of the park (Raising Arizona).  That film also is a veritable classic, but it is forward-looking.  It is almost like comedy in the hands of a David Lynch.

John Hughes was seemingly retrospective with Planes, Trains and Automobiles…like the J.S. Bach of the 1980s…summing up a decade of dirigist American comedy.

Hughes had a lot of career left to go in 1987, but this was a sort of highpoint…especially if considering only his directorial efforts.

Sure…Hughes was more counterculture earlier in the decade, but he wasn’t above putting his heart into a morality play like this one.

But to paint this film as a vanilla affair is not really accurate.

Consider Steve Martin’s yuppie character…a “marketing” professional on a business trip to New York from Chicago.

Martin’s character represents everything that was wrong with America in the 1980s.

Sadly, Neal Page (Martin) represents the problem which persists in America today.

Perhaps Isidore Isou’s famous class distinction fits here.

Neal Page, marketing professional, is an intern (as opposed to externe)…a cog in the wheel of production.

The Neal Pages of today would learn their marketing from an abomination such as Marian Burk Wood’s The Marketing Plan Handbook.

The Neal Pages of corporate America read a Wood phrase such as, “For the purposes of developing a marketing plan, advertising’s two basic decisions concern the message (what content will be communicated) and the media…,” without ever thinking Marshall McLuhan.

A savvy seller of used books might file The World is Flat in “Sociology” (in addition to the more strictly-applicable “Business”) in an effort to unload what must surely be one of the most overprinted books of recent memory.

But what bookseller ever thinks to place Understanding Media:  The Extensions of Man (1964) in the “Business” section…or in the Marketing/Advertising “disciplines”?

Marketers, no doubt, would have a glib answer.

But marketers rarely know more than their insular, myopic areas of pseudo-specialty.

The “right” answer…the culturally literate answer…the answer Marian Burk Wood was either too dumb to include…or too convinced that her dumbed-down readers would not get…is McLuhan’s:

“…the medium is the message.”

The first sentence of the fucking book!

Chapter 1 (also, conveniently titled, The Medium Is The Message):

“In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message.”

But the character Neal Page wouldn’t have known that…and that’s why he gets “schooled” in business by the portly, genuine Del Griffith (John Candy).

Of course, Candy’s character wouldn’t have known this either…but at least he wouldn’t have been a venal, meretricious, entitled prick like Neal Page.

And so Neal Page didn’t really go the extra mile in business school…  He just took all the bullshit shoveled down his throat as gospel truth.

Therefore, Page wouldn’t have known this gem either…a parallel to McCluhan from just three years later (1967).

Again, the first fucking sentence of the book:

“The whole life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles.  All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.”

Ok, so I gave him two sentences.  Those are the words of Guy Debord from his masterpiece La société du spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle) [translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith].

Notice the similarities to McCluhan.

But, of course, Debord was referencing the big daddy of them all:

“The wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails appears as an ‘immense collection of commodities’…”

Karl Marx.  Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie (1867).  Translated by Ben Fowkes.

And so today’s marketing professionals are either brain-dead (thanks to authors like Wood) or craven cynics thanks to equally worthless authors such as Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller.

These last two have contributed a tome to the pseudo-discipline of “marketing” entitled A Framework for Marketing Management.

If anything has ever called for the revocation of tenure, it is the appalling lack of intellectual curiosity these two professors (from Northwestern and Dartmouth, respectively) show over the course of their overpriced bible for aspiring C-level automata.

Consider their statement, “…make low-profit customers more profitable or terminate them.”  Now do you see why America has problems?

And again, “Spend proportionately more effort on the most valuable customers.”

Thank God for the Del Griffiths of this world.

People are not statistics to be terminated.

God bless John Candy and John Hughes for poignantly reminding us of the only true value in life.

Relationships.

Not to be “leveraged”.

Just people.

Plain and simple.

As Del Griffith says, “What you see is what you get.”

Genuine.

THAT’S the marketing of the future!

And it can’t be contrived…

 

-PD

 

 

Trading Places [1983)

At one point in my life I could honestly say that everything I knew about business I had learned from the movie Trading Places.

This film came on TV all the time when I was a kid.

And it never failed to pull me in.

But back to business…it’s that one scene:

coffee, wheat, pork bellies, gold, and (of course) orange juice.

Ok, so I mixed up the order a little bit.

But that’s the “breakfast” of commodities which sits before Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) as he is given a crash course in commodities trading by the Duke brothers (Randolph and Mortimer).

It always made a big impression on me…pork bellies.

And now as I descend from the halfway point of my MBA studies this film carries a richer meaning for me.

The gorilla comes with a bill of lading.

That’s not the type of stuff you catch as a six-year-old.

And I must admit that this film is all the funnier when the expletives are put back in.

And the nudity.

Yes, it was usually the sanitized version we saw on TV.

But maybe sometimes…on a special channel…the real version.

At any rate, this is truly an American classic.

Not least because it was produced by a true American hero like Aaron Russo.

Why do I call him a hero?

Because he stood up for something worth standing up for.

It’s no wonder.

Watching this film.

The agog camera views of the World Trade Center.

But let’s stick to the teaching tool at hand.

Trading Places was just that:  a beautiful teaching tool.

In some ways, therefore, it is aiming at the same thing as Le Gai Savoir.

The particular argument at issue is the famous “nature vs. nurture” debate.

Perhaps my attempt to connect John Landis’ wonderful film to Godard is a bit of a reach, but there is real, American beauty at work here.

Consider, for instance, the opening montage of Philadelphia streets set to W.A. Mozart’s overture from the opera Le Nozze di Figaro.

Notice, if you will, the African-Americans playing basketball with a plastic milk crate attached to a piece of plywood…on a telephone pole.

There are some loving politics at work here.

What we have is a film about unity.  Dan Aykroyd.  Eddie Murphy.  Black and white.

There was a positivity to many American comedies of the 1980s.

I remember hearing “feel-good” used as a descriptor for movies (particularly summertime offerings) more than I care to remember.

But they were “feel-good”.

Trading Places, however, is more than just a feel-good film.

It is a film with a conscience.

That’s what makes it timeless.

I’d like to imagine that Aaron Russo’s conscience was already ticking…ticking.

It wasn’t until later that he made truly political films.

I don’t want to attempt a more profound framing than this thing deserves [too late].

Suffice it to say that Trading Places is as applicable today as it was in 1983.

We may no longer bandy-about the word “yuppies”, but we still have Wall Street.

Perhaps the trading pits and quote boards look hopelessly antiquated now.

But so much transfers.

Exeter.  Harvard.  Winthorpe.

And, of course, kindness transfers.  Jamie Lee Curtis.

So there you have it.

Trading Places is acerbic criticism on race in America.  Racism.  Opportunity.

Eddie Murphy will have you laughing your ass off.

This is truly an indispensable bit of 80s comedy…and so much more.

 

-PD

El ángel exterminador [1962)

Dear friends…it has been awhile.  And I have been stuck inside a nightmare.

A party, but a nightmare all the same.

On this New Year’s Eve when so many rush to their engagements…I have thanks to give…yet it all seems so surreal.

For many of us we battle mental demons.  Usually, we don’t mean demons literally.  And I certainly don’t.

Yet, the world is so strange that we can’t help wondering whether there is something beyond science which is driving certain events.

These sentiments…these questions, are the stuff of El ángel exterminador.  This is not a relaxing film, but it is absolutely essential.

It is a work of art which is irreplaceable in the global canon of creative thought and philosophy.

Luis Buñuel had immense courage to make this film.  And yet, he was an old hand by this point.

His first film (made in collaboration with fellow-Spaniard Salvador Dalí) was 16 minutes which shook the world:  Un Chien Andalou.  That was 1929.  The slicing of the donkey’s eyeball.  Before the stock market crash.  And verily, the cinematic parallel of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps.

Outrageous surrealism.  Think of his collaborator’s La persistència de la memòria.  The same fount of Freudian cess.  From the pool of the taxed mind comes melting clocks…(and in the case of Un Chien Andalou those familiar ants).  We will always see Dalí as ants…as ants on James Joyce’s egg-yolk universe…Humpty Dumpty having represented the fall of man (“…sat on the wall/…had a great fall”).  [Or as Joyce so singularly put it:  bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!]

Luis Buñuel had the mad genius of Joyce.  In 1930, he followed upon his famous 16 minutes with 60 minutes in L’Âge d’Or.

I had the privilege of knowing Buñuel by way of his first two films and (in bookend fashion) two of his last three films:  Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972) and Cet obscur objet du désir (1977) [his final creation].

But none of this could have prepared me for the devastating, scathing critique of Western civilization that is El ángel exterminador.

The genre known as “comedy of manners” becomes a grotesque apocalypse the hands of Buñuel.  In that sense, El ángel exterminador is closest in spirit (or subject matter) to Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie.

But it is very important to note that El ángel exterminador is operating on multiple levels.

Is it a damnation of the rich?  Sure.

Is it a mockery of polite culture?  Of course.

But the lethargy and incapacitation we see in El ángel exterminador are the result of very mannerly people being reduced to complete inaction because routine convention has been circumvented.  We see the short-circuiting of well-meaning people who do not know how to cope with change.

And on that level, this film is universal.  It just so happens that the overly-precious manners of the bourgeoisie serve best the filmmaker’s purpose.

Not to disappoint the more visually-stimulated among you, but there is no swooping angel of death in this film.  There is, however, a tense, suffocating masterpiece which makes Hitchcock gems like Lifeboat and even Rope look like the products of lazy philosophy in comparison.

One last thought…  For those who think that the wonderfully-bizarre Alejandro Jodorowsky appeared out of nowhere, El ángel exterminador sets the record straight.  Buñuel was taking aim at the impotence of religion before Jodorowsky was in short pants.  In this film we see the kernel of imagery (lambs, a smashed cello, bits of debris…) which would make La montaña sagrada the beautifully freakish creation it is.  Both were, incidentally, shot in Mexico.

Though Buñuel (a Spaniard) and Jodorowsky (a Chilean) came from different corners of the Spanish-speaking world, their lives would both include important time spent in Mexico and France.  Jodorowsky is, in some ways, still the future.  But to know the future, we must first know the past.

 

-PD

 

Deutschland im Jahre Null [1948)

The first thing film critics have to get right is the title.

Let me explain a bit.

On my site, I always list a film in its original language (to the best of my ability).

In my opinion, that is the best way of honoring the film.

So far, I have encountered the mild idiosyncrasies of Romanian, Serbo-Croat, Czech, and Polish in addition to the mind-blowing intricacy of Farsi and Japanese.

But with Deutschland im Jahre Null we are seeing a German-language film by an Italian director…sort of.

Italy has a very peculiar tradition concerning voiceovers and direct (or, conversely, indirect) sound.  It is an oddity which caught the attention of Godard in his role as film historian.

I cannot give you as erudite an explanation as my hero Jean-Luc, but suffice it to say that foreign (non-Italian) films in Italy have traditionally been overdubbed into Italian.  So, in other words, no subtitles.

This is distinct from an American viewer watching a Fellini film.  The “American” version (whether on DVD or as a film print in a theater) will be in Italian with subtitles in English.  This goes for almost all foreign-language (non-English) films marketed in the United States.

But getting back to Deutschland im Jahre Null…  It is similar to the Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer directing the French film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc…with one major difference.  Dreyer’s film was a silent one (the only French being the intertitles).  Rossellini’s Deutschland im Jahre Null is very much in German.  We are hearing German actors speak (exclusively) German dialogue.

What is most interesting is the linguistic lineage of this film.  In English, this film is known as:

Germany, Year Zero

Which is quite similar to Rossellini’s preceding masterpiece (in linguistic parallel):

Rome, Open City

To be fair, let’s consider the Italian name (the real name) of Rome, Open CityRoma città aperta.  Fine.  That is the way I recognize the film.  The true name is (in my mind) Roma città aperta.

But with Deutschland im Jahre Null we come to a very strange case.  If we do not recognize the primacy of its English title (Germany, Year Zero), and I do not, then we are directed by that great arbiter of cultural legitimacy Wikipedia to consider our options exhausted by being cognizant of the Italian title (Germania anno zero).

What is the message of this omission by English Wikipedia?  I believe the message is that Germany was (and continues to be) a null.  A zero.  A conquered culture.

We see a similar thing in the kowtowing stereotype of conquered Japan.  And though Japan might be experiencing some moderate-to-light financial troubles in recent years, Germany is by all accounts the economic powerhouse of continental Europe.  Why do I bring economics into the discussion?  Because wealthy nations are able to assert themselves.

But let us step back a bit.  Wikipedia does have some tasty morsels of information concerning this film.  If the source can be trusted, this 1948 film was not shown in Germany (the country from whence the language of the film takes its name) until 1952.  After its single screening in München (Munich), it was not heard from again within those borders until it ran on German television in 1978. 

Wow…26 years.  Either this film was grossly misunderstood, or it was understood all too well.  From my reading, this is a very pro-German document.

Rossellini was not George Stevens making concentration camp propaganda.  Roberto was making art.  The sign of art is the admission of possibilities.  Art seduces us because it is subtle.  Art does not proclaim in blanket statements.  Art does not underestimate the intelligence of the viewer.

Roberto Rossellini did something with his “war films trilogy” which seems to have been unprecedented.  The desire of neorealism was to film fiction as if it were documentary.  This fiction would be, likewise, based on reality.

But why is it, then, that we have very different views of Roberto Rossellini and Robert Flaherty?

I will tell you my guess.  Flaherty’s sin was in the framing of his presentation.  To wit, he presented his staged documentaries (take the oil industry propaganda piece Louisiana Story for instance) as if they were naturally-occurring, spontaneous documentaries. The sin, then, was his duplicitous relationship with his subjects.  He actively made his human subjects into actors.

Rossellini takes a different tack.  There is no pretense that Deutschland im Jahre Null is an ACTUAL documentary.  It merely has the feel of that medium.  Likewise, Rossellini’s use of nonprofessional actors was likely more of a precursor to Robert Bresson than a twist on Flaherty’s bizarre formula (which predated Roberto in both Nanook of the North [1922] and Man of Aran [1934]).  No, Rossellini had created something new. 

It’s not so much the films of Flaherty to which I object as it is the idea of them.  At least one of his concoctions (perhaps thanks to director F.W. Murnau) is very fine indeed:  Tabu [1931].  Flaherty and Murnau co-wrote this ostensible documentary.  Indeed, with Flaherty we come into contact with inchoate, obscure film genres such as docudrama, docufiction, fictional documentary (ethnofiction), etc. etc. etc.

Most importantly, none of what I have written here has even scratched the surface of Deutschland im Jahre Null.   What ever became of the heartrending main child actor Edmund Moeschke?  I do not know.

One thing is certain to me:  no film before Rossellini’s “war trilogy” (Roma città aperta, Paisà, and Deutschland im Jahre Null) [1945/1946/1948] takes on such politically sensitive and important topics in such a raw way.  The closest would be the socialism of Eisenstein or the humanism of Chaplin. 

It is, therefore, no wonder at all that Rossellini spawned a million “new waves” the world over.

 

-PD