The Unapologetic Apologist

Beyond Two Flags, a Deeper Question Lurks

2023-03-09T18:35:00.002-08:00

Utah Senators love to boast of their conservative bona fides, but their recent behavior during the debate over SB31, the efforts to change Utah’s flag, raises legitimate concerns over their governing style. You see, they never had public support for this change, yet SB31 did end up passing, and at the moment, we are getting a new flag. Whereas the will of the people was ignored, efforts are underway to get a ballot referendum to stop it. So while those Senators responsible boast about how conservative they are, one tends to wonder… is it Conservative to ignore the Will of the People? Should that referendum even be necessary? For many, the answer should be no.

At the heart of conservatism is a belief that government should be small, its role limited and defined, and that government ought not to engage in things that cost time and money that are not necessary. You see, many polls showed that as much as 70% of the public didn’t want this new flag. Countless videos exist of various public meetings where the subject is brought up, only to have few, or in some cases no one supporting this change, and yet, this was brute forced through despite the fact that our current flag is uncontroversial and even unoffensive. One senator was so determined to push this through he even torpedoed the effort to reform his last controversial bill, SB54, despite pledging support for the reforms. Worst of all, this Senator did so, while blaming the Grass Roots activists advocating for preserving our traditional 100 year old flag, and reforms to SB54, at one point going so far as to say that one activist, “loves the old flag so much, he used it to burn down the SB54 repeal.”

The behavior of some of these Senators during this debate notwithstanding, the fact that they ignored the public at large, and responded with hostility, flippancy, and mockery and then did this anyway raises concerns. Do we live in a Representative republic, or not? Should those elected to public office be representative of the will of the people or should they do what they feel is best regardless?

The effort to repeal SB31 by ballot initiative is a means by which the State may resolve this question.

A flag for all of us? Or the aristocracy?

It is the deeper issue at the heart of the matter. You see most people who are upset with this change to the State’s iconography are more upset by the flagrant disregard of public feedback during the process, and the flippant behavior of those pushing this change, knowing full well they did not have public support. One Senator even lamented to the press that, “Flag bills are hard,” yet had he the support of the public, it would not have been. The difficulty was born from the fact that he was, in fact, representing his own personal interests, rather than the will of the people. I have a hard time reconciling that behavior with the values and principles of conservatism which would generally require a government not take action against the will of the majority of the citizens they represent, or more importantly, not spend or grow government in frivolous ways on unnecessary things.

On the surface, it seems as though there are those in a position of power who believe it is their obligation to use that power as they see fit. But fundamentally, if this is the government we have, then what we have is, at best, an aristocratic government, not a representative one. And surely one can surmise that if that is the case, then the path towards dictatorship is self-evident, and one cannot fault concerned citizens for a more raucous tone when they are blatantly being ignored by some, and ruthlessly mocked by others in power. Never mind the off-putting image of those with power punching down at those without. We hate it when Democrats do this to our grassroots activists, is it any better when a Republican does it to those same activists?

For many, however, the job of a representative is to represent the will of the people, and that includes an obligation to stop unpopular legislation, something Republicans seem unable or unwilling to do of late, whether it’s SB31, SB54, or even expanding to the national level, Obamacare and Biden’s reckless spending packages. When those unpopular measures come from a Republican, like Trump’s Bump Stock ban, or Bush’s Patriot Act, the party is even more unwilling to truly represent the people they’re supposed to represent. Calls for a reduction in spending, a restoration of lost liberties, a repealing of Obamacare, a sunset of the Patriot Act, and an Audit of the Fed have fallen on deaf ears for decades now. To illustrate a point… I have been involved since 2008… and virtually all these problems remain. Add SB31 to a growing list of issues Republicans won’t do anything about… but will gladly fundraise on later.

Denver's flag and Utah's flag.
Utah's new flag will blend in, not stand out...

That’s why this referendum is so important. We need to answer the fundamental question, is the job of a representative, within a Representative Republic, to represent or just do what they feel is right, at the moment? It is my opinion, and the opinion of my friends and fellow concerned citizens that it is the former, and that the only time a representative should go against the will of the people is in instances where the people are demanding things that violate the US Federal Constitution, or the Utah State Constitution. Otherwise, a Representative has the obligation to listen to his or her constituents and take those positions back with them to Capitol Hill.

I hope you will agree with us and join the effort to answer this question by supporting the Referendum on SB31. We will need your signature, and we can use as many volunteers as we can get, but as you can see, it’s not about the flag. It’s about determining exactly how our leaders ought to be conducting themselves, the flag itself is merely ancillary to that larger contest of ideas.

The Kamala Khan game, feat. The Avengers… a bit…

2023-03-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

Some games were destined to fail. This was one of them. When Marvel and Square-Enix announced a partnership, visions of an MCGU (Marvel Comics Game Universe) danced in all our heads. Marvel Video Games have never been grade AAA and had a long history of being, well… bad, but the recent Spider-Man games had begun turning things around, alongside the Marvel Ultimate Alliance titles. There was hope, and aren’t superheroes all about inspiring hope? So what went wrong?

In 2015, Marvel Comics wiped out the legacy heroes we all knew and loved… again… but this time everyone got replaced, and I mean everyone. Iron Man was replaced by Riri Williams, Spider-Man by Miles Morales, Wolverine by X-23, Thor became Jane Foster, Spider-Woman by Spider-Gwen, and Captain America with the Falcon. And MARVEL, not the fans, went out of their way to boast about how Diversity and inclusive this new roster was. I want to be clear, fans did not reject the new characters because of racism, homophobia or any of the other Marvel’s ridiculous PR firm’s allegations. They rejected these characters because they replaced, rather than built upon, the legacy of the original Marvel Heroes. Worse, the comics became Feminist rants, some (Like “The Mighty Thor”) going so far as to attack fans directly through dialogue and giving frequent complaints about these changes to the villains, often ripped right from responses from actual fans. Or even having Red Skull quoting Jordan Peterson, or remodeling Marvel’s villain, “Troll”, after competitor Rippaverse’s Eric July, or MODOK after Donald Trump. They were rejected because the comics became 22-page long anti-capitalist lectures… with ads. And they were rejected because a lot of them acted less like heroes, and more like villains. The hero became less about self-sacrifice for the greater good, and more about “protests bro” for the younger ones and being lectured to about the virtues of socialism by what few legacy heroes remained. They were rejected because the message of Marvel moved away from tolerance, and towards belittling the Democratic Party’s political enemies, and it wasn’t subtle about it at all. Away from holding up heroes to shine as an example for all of America for how to be our best possible selves, to being blatantly anti-American, and hostile towards the traditional Marvel Customers. From being about promoting the brotherhood of all mankind to being almost pornographic, with characters like Cyclops, Jean and Wolverine now all sleeping together in a “throuple.” The demonization of America came to a head with the revelation that Captain America was a secret Nazi all along. Of course. Because of course. And let’s be clear, that Captain America is now sitting in a jail cell, while a “good” clone made by the tesseract is running around with the shield now… when Falcon isn’t.

So we have all these new characters replacing the old, lecturing us, and helping to demonize America,

"All New Marvel"

and Captain America, for that matter… And what do they do with these characters? How about another Armor Wars? How about another Secret Wars? How about Enemy of the State 2, or Old Woman Laura? How about another Clone Saga? How about another Civil War? That’s right, they replaced the original heroes, demonized America, lectured the reader… and couldn’t be bothered to tell unique and original stories in the process. They just re-told the stories we already knew… but with characters with no flaws, who are absolutely amazing, and even go to Sotomayor University… yes, a fictional university named to honor THAT Sotomayor… but if you noticed how awful any of this was… well, you’re a racist, a bigot, a homophobe, a “toxic” fan.

These books not only failed in spectacular fashion, taking an industry that easily sold 100,000 + issues a month and reducing it to maybe 30,000… if they’re lucky… But rather than recognize the mistakes that were made, and correcting going forward, for some reason, Marvel is doubling down. We are seeing the same thing happening in the MCU, and naturally the same consequences. Did you know that these once billion dollar apiece hits have only averaged about 500 million apiece since phase 4 began? And only one phase four Marvel film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, managed to crack a billion dollars. Keep in mind, these movies are crazy expensive to make. And as Phase 4 began we saw Wanda clearly become a villain, kidnapping and torturing an entire town, only to have excuses made for her, a Captain Falcon replacing Steve Rogers who will have tea with bloodthirsty terrorists but shows discountenance towards a grieving John Walker for killing one of the terrorists responsible for the brutal murder of his best friend right in front of him. Let’s not forget his now infamously bad, “do better,” speech at the end. But this isn’t even the worst of the bad and cringy writing in phase 4. To top this phase off, we got a She-Hulk whose archenemy was… of course the fans who have been critical of this direction since 2015. Because of course.

Each installment of the MCU not only has had a diminishing quality of writing, like their, “All new Marvel,” comic counterparts, but the diminishing quality of special effects. These productions need those billion dollars apiece levels of success, or corners have to be cut to keep them going. And as we saw in the latest Ant-Man, which I haven’t seen and will not pay for, since, like the comics, the hero got a lecture about the virtues of Socialism… so they can live by their own standards and give me Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantomania for free… (On 4K Blu-Ray, Disney. Come on. Be consistent. Give it.) The film itself was full of very poor special effects to the point it’s becoming laughable, this is obvious from the trailers and clips Disney themselves have released. And yet… Marvel continues to double, triple, and quadruple down. Ant-Man and the Wasp may lose money. There’s next to no interest in the next film, “The Marvels,” and full disclosure… I am speaking as a shareholder… Disney is not operating at a loss yet… but they’re having to pull back, delay and reduce the quality of the special effects because they are not making as much as they used to, and their profitability is absolutely trending in the wrong direction.

I think Disney and Marvel assumed they could afford to lose us, the comic book geeks. That as soon as these characters were introduced to the “mainstream,” they would be embraced, beloved, accepted, and screw the “toxic fans.” The problem is that America is much more Conservative than corporate America realizes and that the only reason that isn’t reflected at the ballot box is due to media bias and the incompetence of the leadership of our Conservative party. Although we don’t mind Liberal messaging as long as it’s not overbearing and when the message is tolerance we agree. But when that tolerance comes as an exchange of tolerating one thing but persecuting and demonizing another, as the Left is prone to do, we can’t join them in that. But again, the Marvel hero is now a snot-nosed spoiled brat, who is practically perfect in every way, openly socialist, hostile to America, has nothing to learn from the older generations but is surely going to teach them, hostile to comic fans… and if you don’t like it, there’s something wrong with you. They’d be the villains in any other era.

So, what does all of this have to do with this video game? Well, we were hoping the game would be different. You see, video games have only dipped their toes into what many may disparagingly call “woke” nonsense. When a game goes woke, it immediately goes broke. There hasn’t been a tolerance for this among gamers, and games cost millions and years of work to develop, so developers are much less willing to take risks. And yet, a risk was taken here.

Early on, the game was advertised as the Avengers game we had always wanted. We all knew something would happen to Cap early on. But we all assumed, rightly, that Cap would come back by the end. We were shown rampaging as the hulk, summoning lightning as Thor, blasting things as Black Widow, and flying around as Iron Man… all things we all wanted. But the truth is, this game doesn’t have much of that at all. You see, Marvel saw this as another opportunity to force, “All New Marvel” on us. You can play as the main Avengers sometimes, but most of the time you are playing as Kamala Khan, the new Ms Marvel… whose hands get really big.

That wasn’t what the fans wanted, and as I have pointed out, whenever Marvel does this, the sales suffer.

But the main story did something that Marvel has failed to do everywhere else. Kamala isn’t perfect here. She’s not an activist. There’s no lecturing about the virtues of socialism… she is allowed to fail, she is respectful toward her elders, and she is allowed to learn lessons and to grow as a character, and the funny thing is… this may not have been the game I wanted, or fans wanted… but it is not a bad game. In fact, it has caused me to actually like Kamala. I’m a fan now. Though not because she was forced on me, but because the writers at Crystal Dynamics cared enough to develop a version of the character that was more than what her comic and MCU counterpart has been allowed to be.

The gameplay is level based and doesn’t feature a lot of the common villains. The actual Task Master

makes an appearance, as does the Abomination, but you’re mostly fighting robots. Its enemy variety is not great. Its level designs is… not great, but they are serviceable. But you know what? The music is great, and the graphics are absolutely breathtaking. Although the characters are not played by the same people who play them in the MCU, the actors they chose to play them do very well, especially Bruce Banner. Legendary voice actor Troy Baker delivers a performance that blows Mark Ruffalo out of the water, portraying him as shy, nervous, deeply saddened, and as someone who has a hard time speaking. Yet, he mentors Kamala and grows to genuinely care for her, and while her comic counterpart has been disrespectful towards the “olds”, as all of her “All new” counterparts tend to be, this version of Kamala reveres him, listens to him, and even deeply admires Captain America in a way I have never seen in the comics. The performances for this story were absolutely stellar. Had “All New” or the MCU been handled with this level of care, I think the results would have been different.

The story, beyond the welcome changed approach to Kamala, and the brilliant performances by a stellar cast, however, also suffers from another leftover from the 2015 era… Marvel’s attempt to ditch the X-Men, and replace them with the Inhumans.

The actual MODOK

The story, in a nutshell, is about a new technology that goes wrong, causing an explosion and exposing people to a substance called Terrigen. It kills some but turns others into superhumans, called Inhumans. Of course, they face bigotry, and the villains claim they are trying to craft a cure when in reality they’re trying to steal their powers. This is a plot right out of the X-Men, not the Avengers. In the midst of all this, the actual MODOK, George Tarleton, is created and emerges as the central threat, as he wants to wipe out all superpowered heroes, fearing that having that level of power can only inevitably lead to abuse of that power, even as he abuses his new powers over machines. This part is really good… but again is the sort of thing we would expect from an X-Men villain.

All these parts combine to make for a good game, but not an Avengers game. It is really a Kamala Khan and the X-Men game with an Avengers coat of paint. But it’s not a bad game. Well… not the main story anyway.

This is where things get really complicated.

The game’s story concludes with a battle with MODOK and a giant Sentinel-like robot. Again, this feels more like an X-Men game… but from there, there are several DLC expansions. One centered on Spider-Man (PS5 only), one on Hawkeye and his “All new” replacement, Kate Bishop (who unfortunately remains as insufferable as her comic counterpart), one on Jane Foster… I didn’t even bother… one on Black Panther. (Yay!!!!) But the truth is…. These come with a severe difficulty spike, and the way you handle it is to re-play the same levels over, over, and over and over, hoping to get upgraded equipment that may or may not be powerful enough to help you power through this ridiculously difficult DLC. There’s also a “Games as a service mode,” where you can jump in, play with other players, and play the same levels, over and over and over…. And over, and over…. And over… but hey, any gear you find here you can keep for that damned DLC.

Any additional story is minimal. The DLC is terrible, and the grind fest “as service mode” is repetitive and gets boring very quickly. It’s terrible. There are no excuses for it, no redeeming features. It is terrible. And that grind, combined with the exploitative loot system, and the myriad of expensive crap to buy, a main story that isn’t what people wanted, even though it’s not bad… lead to this game bombing in spectacular fashion.

As of the end of this month, all the purchasable cosmetics will be made free as a make-good. But come October, the game will be shut down completely. I understand the main story will still work, but all the online stuff will be shut down.

If your intention is just to experience the main story, and you don’t mind that this game is not the

Avengers game it was advertised as being, it can be purchased super, super cheap. In my view, the story is certainly better than anything the MCU has put out in the last several years, and certainly better than the comics. Though it is not an Avengers experience, it’s important to understand that going in. A lot of people were angry that the story centered around a character often derided (rightly) as an insufferable SJW. But this Kamala is not her comic book counterpart. She makes me wish her comic book counterpart were this likable… indeed lovable. You root for her, you feel for her. She builds real bonds with the other heroes, and she is respectful to them, especially Hulk and Cap. More importantly, she experiences loss, she fails, she learns and she grows. I think the writers did a very good job with that aspect of the story, even if the rest of it was ripped right out of the pages of the X-Men.

Good, not great. But without a doubt, the best version of Kamal Khan’s Ms. Marvel we’ve been given.

3/5

Armed and Dangerous: The Sort of Comedy I Would Have Written In High School

2023-02-19T17:41:00.004-08:00

Shooting games are a mixed bag. Cheap and generic, most of the time, it’s rare to find one that truly stands out the way Halo did, or… nope, Halo’s the only one that stands out as unique for me. But look, I’m a JRPG fan, running and gunning aren’t my thing. I’m pro 2A, but firearms are my wife’s thing. I like swords. But throw in some ridiculous, deliberately bad writing, a story that mocks everything and everyone mercilessly and doesn’t apologize or care at all if you’re offended? I’m so there!!!

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, Lucasfilm was owned by itself and had a side division called Lucasarts. Lucasarts did many great Star Wars games, but also had a wicked sense of humor, and enjoyed making great comedy games like Escape from Monkey Island. This is one of those silly games. The story revolves around a trio of rogues on a quest to find the Book of Rules, hoping that they can use it to make a profit. Needless to say, they end up discovering that they are prophesied messianic figures whom the Book of Rules promised would save the kingdom from the evil king and his idiot son. If only the Book of Rules hadn’t been turned into the book of Basket Weaving, turning the church leadership into the world’s greatest basket weavers.

So of course the heroes go on an epic quest to recapture the Book and transform it back from the Book of Basket Weaving to the book of Rules. And that journey plays out the way you’d expect it to. They go to jungles, and cities, get lost in the desert, drink their own urine, and eat their companions, only to discover there was actually a thriving town just beyond the dune they were on… literally just a few feet away… like you do. They recruit the king’s idiot son, like you do, and discover the power of circumcision, like you do. This is absolutely the sort of stuff I’d have written in high school, and I love it.

Sometimes comedy works when it is so over the top, crazy and bad it just comes together even when it

Yes, there is a shark cannon.

probably shouldn’t. As I played this game I found myself laughing constantly. It’s been a while since I’ve experienced a no bars held comedy like this. I wish I could say the comedy was in service of a larger point, the way that Conker’s Bad Fur Day ended up as a cautionary tale of the dangers of selfishness, or the way that South Park teaches Libertarian concepts of Liberty and tolerance, and non-aggression through its over-the-top silliness. But Armed and Dangerous has no point. It is silly for silliness’s sake, and that might not make it brilliant, but it does make it charming, and hilarious.

It also makes it not a game you should let your kids play. A lot of the jokes are very inappropriate for younger audiences, and also my Dad, who was aghast over half the game, and didn’t get the other half. But it is a game built from the ground up for Generation X sensibilities, and someone born in the last year of Generation X… I can recommend this goofy game for anyone my age or older… but not the boomers because my Dad just didn’t get it. Apparently, nonsense is just too silly for some people.

I played it on current Gen hardware, the Xbox Series X does upscale the in-engine graphics quite a bit, and it runs at a super sleek frame rate. The game’s in-engine graphics are not spectacular, but the upscale is nice. Sadly, the pre-rendered cut scenes are really bad. To be fair the game is pretty old. Still, the silliness of the game makes it easy to overlook the dated graphics. Luckily the game, while a straightforward third-person shooter, is pretty fun. It’s just blowing stuff up recklessly. The environment is destructible too… from an era before games like Battlefield would perfect destructible environments... But it’s not a game that does anything special from a gameplay standpoint. It’s short, sweet… it has no point… and its fun, and funny. Certainly not a game to play while your kids are in the room, but especially if you’ve been missing the Zucker Bros style of satirical silliness, it’s worth the $10 to fire this one up, and prepare to laugh, between eye rolls. Just don’t expect the same level of polish as something like Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

3/5

Ico, I should have played this long ago…

2023-01-31T17:00:00.004-08:00

Once in a while, you find a game the critics and players alike, love. Ico was that game eons ago. Originally released on the PS2, I bought it then and never got around to it. Then it got a 3D to remaster on PS3, and I bought it again because I have a 3D TV and I actually enjoy the feature… but I never got around to it. These days, with the economy in shambles, and the future uncertain, my wife has asked me to beat three backlog games for every one new game I buy. I cherish my wife, and so I have been honoring this request. Thankfully she is flexible enough to let me buy Re-releases, remakes, and remasters and count them. Sadly, this game has not been Re-released since its PS3 remaster. I wish it had.

Even on the PS3 this game shows its age. Controls are too loose, and character models often lack detail to the point that, on a massive TV like mine, faces disappear entirely, at times. There are moments where the game is unresponsive or even two specific moments that require such precision timing that the mechanics of the game itself does not allow… and yet, this game radiates love and passion. This game was built by artists celebrating their art.

The game’s world is mostly empty and hollow. Filled only with the lead character, Ico, the magical girl he is

trying to help escape the castle, Yarda, and the shadow creatures that hunt them. And yet, that emptiness is not without purpose. The story is told by the small details, by what you see happening and where. Shadows rise from spots where there are indications someone fell from battle, and the environment itself is the solution to many of the game’s puzzles. The game is short on dialogue, but what it lacks in dialogue, like many games that came later, Dark Souls, for instance, the world you are in tells the story.

The game is brilliant, but don’t let me bringing up Dark Souls scare you. The game is not terribly difficult, though the two timing puzzles I mentioned are, and sadly that has more to do with the game itself lacking the precision these two puzzles really need. The game is relaxing to play, and not particularly long. It’s a game I wish I had gotten to years ago, and I really enjoyed it. I don’t want to spoil the story because doing so would ruin the entire experience, as the traditional narrative is minimal but the story is the sort of thing Disney would have done in the 80s. Good, but dark. But not so dark it’s not Disney. And like Dark Disney, (IE Watcher in the Woods, or the Black Hole) it’s a game that really needs to be experienced, even if it is not aging all that well.

4/5

When is it okay to plant your flag? Steven Crowder State of the Conservative movement

2023-01-21T11:53:00.001-08:00

There’s a battle going on between people you would think would be allies, even friends, and it is raging across the Internet like a California wildfire. Not too long ago, Conservative pundit and comedian, Steven Crowder, shocked us all by announcing he was leaving his successful gig at The Blaze. From what Crowder himself had said, it seems as though renewal negotiations didn’t go the way he had hoped. I surmise that Crowder wanted more money because he wants to break from YouTube and was looking for the funds he believes are needed to go YouTube-less. What it seems he was told is that, while he is a massive draw, he does not bring in the size of audience that would justify the numbers he was asking for… and so he opted not to renew his contract.

I think everyone assumed he was going to do like Loren Chen and Sydney Watson, both of whom left the Blaze but still speak highly of their experiences there, and try to do his own thing. Many had hoped, since Crowder was well known to be friends with Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing, that he has gotten a better offer from the Daily Wire. Instead, Crowder took to the Internet to blast an offer he had received harshly. The offer was riddled with several fee reductions for what was presented as time away from work, or being boycotted or banned, things that undoubtedly frustrated Crowder as he is already demonetized on YouTube (unjustly, I might add). He didn’t name names, but many on the Internet assumed it was the Daily Wire and started to demand answers.

Jeremy Boreing then put out an hour-long rebuttal where he went through the offer line by line, and made clear this was only an initial offer. One Crowder declined, though full disclosure, it would be an excellent offer for me, and I’d have signed with very few changes. Crowder then replied with yet another video, this time with carefully edited recordings of his last conversation with Jeremy Boreing. He made Boreing look like a greedy creep who was preying on young talent. Crowder, meanwhile, cast himself as the noble knight sacrificing himself to expose an exploitative dragon, advancing on the princess. He made a big deal over Boreing’s use of the term “wage slave,” and I won’t lie… I don’t understand why that term is supposed to be such a shock among people who profess to be capitalists… after all, we all know it’s an oxymoron, as slaves don’t get a wage at all. It’s just a tongue-in-cheek way of saying a lower-paying entry-level job. It’s as if we have lost the concept of entry-level work… We used to understand that entry-level is a platform from which we can launch to bigger and better opportunities within a company. I guess everyone has to have an office with a view these days. But as for me? I think that’s a fair demand for Steven Crowder, but those of us without his level of draw? An entry-level offer can be a good thing. Look at Brett Cooper. She took an entry-level offer, and now she’s a superstar with a better contract. This dialogue shouldn’t be controversial, it’s how things work in the real world.

I lament the fact that this argument isn’t just over money though, were the argument over money… the argument would make more sense to me, but I believe, for Crowder, it’s not, and that’s why this spat is such a hot mess.

From the money perspective, this contract is still a lowball offer for Crowder, but it would be a fantastic opportunity for many who are looking to build themselves out as a content provider, self-included. My channel imploded when I refused to get on board the Trump Train in 2016. My audience, small as it was, abandoned me… and they ended up being right. Trump wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I feared, and since I was demonetized long before Crowder, I didn’t feel it worth the time to re-brand and try again. So if this opportunity were to be put before me, you bet I’d sign. Crowder, meanwhile, is already a multi-millionaire, so for him, the price tag was not the only issue as I believe it was for renewing with the Blaze, because he felt he needed more to do what he wants to do… and maybe the figure offered by DW, wouldn’t be enough either, because he did make a counter offer with a much bigger price tag. An offer, DW declined. But never at any point has Crowder himself made the money the issue. Instead, he focuses on terms that doc his pay for revenue lost due to strikes, bans, and boycotts… terms which I find completely reasonable, even though I am also already demonetized for suggesting the Left is racist and providing uncomfortable receipts. I’d be happy to make adjustments to my platform. Its also worth pointing out that Ben, Matt Walsh, Michael, and even Andrew have all faced demonetization for one thing or another over the years, but for Crowder, these terms are not acceptable and are downright evil, because he wants to break from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that view.

Likewise, DW believes that we need to work with the system we have and advocate for reforms from within the system. To do that, when you get hit with these dings, you adjust and move forward. Like Crowder, they have started putting their harsher criticism of the Left behind a paywall. Again, its worth noting Crowder is already doing this as well.

And I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that view either.

But it’s one thing to have a civil disagreement about how Conservatives should run their News and Entertainment companies, but for me, that Crowder built a website, “StopbigCon.com”, as a direct slap at people who should be friends was… as he would say, a d—k move. Making matters worse is that we now know he registered that domain well before his recorded conversation with Boreing, and also recorded that conversation without Boreing’s permission. Even worse, Boreing alleges that that conversation was mostly just two pals catching up and that Crowder is ruthlessly mischaracterizing the conversation. There’s a call to release the whole tape.

But just as Boreing’s lengthy review of the offer made Crowder’s complaints seem less potent, I believe he is calling for the full tape to be released because it will further damage Crowder’s claims. You see it seems that Crowder is planning to launch his own platform, but that he intended to advertise it as the “one true Conservative” outlet. So Conservative, they’ll break from YouTube once and for all.

I can appreciate wanting total independence. But to pretend that DW is somehow immoral for choosing to work within the system instead of breaking away from it is disingenuous. It is an argument between water and earth. As a practitioner of Hung Gar Boxing, we use a Southern Chinese five-animal, five-elements system. Each animal has its strengths and weaknesses, as do the elements. Each also has its own philosophy for how and when to engage. Steven is acting like water when it comes to the Tech Tyrants, but fire when it comes to DW. That is to say, he wants to flow like water, around an obstacle, but completely demolish his would-be direct competition, Fire Lord Ozai style. Daily Wire, meanwhile, is behaving like Earth. The flaming boulder is coming at them from the right, a regular boulder from the Left. They did not ask for this fight, but they will face both head-on… yes… you know the quote. “Like a rock.”

When I first made this observation, it was just water Vs stone. It’s an interesting philosophical discussion. Do we flow around the tech tyrants, or confront them head-on while trying to advance reforms? I don’t think either path to engagement is wrong. Those who know me know I am committed to the philosophy of Earth. I don’t go looking for fights, but when one comes my way, I deal with it fast and harshly. That often ends up with me in Facebook Jail, even though I did not start the fire and am, in fact, trying to put it out. DW is much the same way. They aren’t backing down from Tech Tyranny, they get penalized all the time too, but they are facing it head-on while advocating for reform, and I am sympathetic to that. So they have developed a business model to deal with it. Say what you can on the Tech Tyrant’s platform, and what you really want to say behind the paywall. Perhaps you disagree, and that’s fine. But what I object to is the fire Crowder has unleashed. Accusing DW of being a Con, because they have a different philosophy of engagement, is immoral. Luring Jeremy Boreing into a conversation that was intended to trap him into a recording that could be selectively edited, and used against him later, is immoral. Plotting and scheming to do this to someone who is your friend, is immoral, even if you have a philosophical disagreement with that friend.

Conservatism does not have set guidelines over how to best push back against tech tyranny. Nor is there a plank in the GOP platform on how to address it. Getting angry with a fighter who wants to use Tiger, when you think they should use crane is ridiculous. There is room in our movement for debate over how we should fight, or even what the best business model is. There is not, however, room for making these spats public, then burning your friends so you can advertise yourself as the “one true”… which is what Crowder seems to have done.

We don’t need public feuds like this. The Right is already heavily divided. We have Republicans like Mitch McConnell knifing us in the back constantly. We at the grassroots need to stand together. This is not an argument about principles, and Crowder needs to stop, as he is damaging his brand, as well as the brand of DW and the Right at large.

So when should we plant our flag? When is it okay to have Intra-party fights? When our shared principals and or the party platform are not being honored. A great example is Sen Cornyn selling us out on 2A, or McConnell and Romney selling us out on the inflationary spending in Washington. Or Sen Tillis stabbing us in the back on immigration, and then having to audacity to fundraise against the very things they just voted for.

Here in Utah, there is a fight over whether to change Utah’s flag. The argument is, “it’s boring so let’schange it to something that speaks for all of us… in Alta… at the Ski Resort.” Opponents, such as myself, have noticed that some of the proponents have ties to a business that is already preparing new merchandise based around the redesigned flag. Why? Because Merchandising! Where the real money from the legislature is made! It’s also costing time and money at a time when the country is in a recession. I’m sorry, I know CNN denies it, but we are. Just today Google announced tens of thousands of layoffs, this after Microsoft, Bethesda, Disney, Amazon, and numerous others have also announced layoffs. The country is not fiscally healthy right now but now is the time proponents want to sell you a new flag. Literally. Adding insult to injury Utah’s Governor has asked the legislature to approve spending to advertise the new flag idea to try and win public support that they absolutely do not have.

Here’s the principal. Government should not waste the public time or the public dime on frivolous

UT Sens Dan McCay and Todd Weiler tell the news our flag is boring.

nonsense. Ever. Doubly so during hard economic times. This isn’t a situation like Mississippi’s flag, which had been built around the racist Democrat-Confederate battle flag, and a Republican Governor and a Republican Legislature wanted to erase a racist symbol of the party of racism and bigotry then and the party of racism and bigotry now. The Democrat-Confederate Battle Flag has always been controversial among Republicans, whom you will recall, were the Union soldiers. But not to be outdone, Utah Republicans want to chase a trendy because they think it’s trendy and get on board a train that isn’t actually moving. Their justification? Utah’s flag is boring. That isn’t a valid argument. Even the argument to change Dixie State College’s name wasn’t this poor. We can’t afford eggs, but we’re supposed to pay for advertising an unpopular redesign of our State Flag? Ridiculous.

But rich and powerful people in this state, who don’t have to worry about buying eggs, or finding affordable meat, or baby formula, let alone paying bills, find it perfectly acceptable to take your money and time by force so they can prop up their own business interests. You see, it’s not just about fighting the Democrats, we have to get people like this voted out within our own ranks. When we have challenges like this before us, having to deal with divisive fights at the grassroots over a question of how to do business, or not, with big tech, seems like a superfluous issue that will needlessly divide us at a time we desperately need to be united. And that’s just heartbreaking.

The Evil Within, and the BS Without

2023-01-20T13:37:00.001-08:00

Imagine you’re a police officer. Your wife and daughter have been lost to you, and your efforts to solve the case have been stonewalled. You’re already in a pretty bad mood. Then you have to go to some mental hospital to respond to a crisis. When you arrive, you and your partners quickly discover the scene of a massacre. You quickly find a survivor, a pale patient, and the doctor who is trying to help calm him down. But then your attention is drawn to a nearby security console where you witness a hooded man take out some of your fellow officers with supernatural ease. Then he appears behind you and you are out like a light.

Sound good so far? Well, this is where things start to go sideways. You wake up upside down in a meat locker. You break free, but then must sneak to the butcher’s room and steal his keys without notice. Got ‘em? Good. Now open the nearby locked door and… you are being chased. You have no weapons; you have no way to defend yourself. If you are seen, if the chainsaw guy catches up to you, you’re doing this all over again. Still, this scene isn’t the worst “stealth” horror game I’ve played… and thankfully once you escape the hospital things change.

You escape, with some colleagues, in an ambulance, but then the city around you begins to collapse. Is it an earthquake? Is it a Titan? Is it being hooked up to a computer the whole time and secretly a program that’s being run while you’re hooked up to the machine? At this point, God and the people who think they’re God that run Facebook only know. (Screw you Meta… and your desire to hook people up to a “metaverse” like a bad horror movie plot!) But then suddenly you’re in a Forrest. The ambulance has crashed, and your colleagues have vanished. But then you find one, having turned into a zombie, eating another colleague in a scene that looks like the initial zombie encounter in Resident Evil. I mean almost shot for shot… oh it’s a Shinji Mikami game! This should be good! And now, you can fight back! But also, stealth! And also, running and hiding, and also absolutely none of these mechanisms are polished at all and none of them work quite right! Wait, this is a Shinji Mikami game?

Stealth will get you through the next area, but it isn’t long before there are too many enemies, who are far too aggressive for this strategy to work. This is fine because the game is generous enough with ammunition to make shooting enemies an option… although aiming is clunky. It can be improved with upgrades, bought with brain goo you’ll collect through the game, but even as you adjust to the not-as-good-as-RE gun play the game’s worst feature rears its ugly head. One hit kills. Not for you. No. Done to you. Over and over and over. If you heard a lot of expletives emanating from my house, this was why. It’s as if Shinji Mikami, a man who used to set trends in the horror game space, started chasing them instead, only to end up with a game that is part survival horror, part action, and part stealth game, while doing none of these mechanics particularly well. So, since he couldn’t scare you the way other games have, he’d scare you by giving almost everything a means to one-shot you, including a multi-encounter boss, Laura, whose only attack is a one-hit kill. This is the only thing “hard” about this game, but it’s not as hard as it is obnoxious.

And the story? Well… it’s weird enough that you get pulled into all kinds of different environments at

random, not literally, but at first, none of the areas seem connected at all. Then you have characters witnessing their family members turn into monsters that you must put down only for that NPC to barely react. But Shinji Mikami isn’t that bad of a writer. I knew right away something was up. This wasn’t a typical zombie story. But while the game sets up a massive mystery that I admit had me hooked… the twist to the narrative left me feeling let down. Spoiler alert. The bad guy is basically Mark Zuckerberg, and you’re hooked up to the Metaverse.

It’s not necessarily a bad story, but it doesn’t quite land in a game that borrows heavily from every other game in the genre while refusing to polish anything it took. The game is clunky and uneven, frustrating at times, but not bad. It’s just not as good as it could have been. The story also tries to fill in its own plot holes the same way Final Fantasy XV did… with DLC. And now the game decides it wants to be a stealth game, like Outlast. A game I was never particularly fond of, as games like these don’t scare me, they tick me off like Meta’s uneven rules enforcement.

The game throws a myriad of interesting monsters at you, but the only thing any of them will be remembered for is being rip-offs of Silent Hill, who one-shot you if you so much as blink wrong. There’s even a monster, “Safe Head,” that looks eerily like Silent Hill’s Pyramid Head, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s a boss battle towards the end where you must fight two of them… just like Silent Hill.

It may seem like I am raining hate on this game, but if so, it’s only because I expected more from it. The legacy of Shinji Mikami is deep and rich. This is the guy who gave us Resident Evil. But somehow, rather than creating another masterpiece of gaming horror, we got a mid-quality Sci-Fi Channel movie plot, with gameplay that was all over the place, made more painful by the over-reliance on one-hit kills instead of genuine tension, atmosphere… or even jump scares. The game isn’t bad. It’s just not good either, and that’s the worst part of it.

3/5. Play it, if you’re out of better games to play. Just don’t expect anything special.

Rise of the Tiger Chapter San (3)

2022-07-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

Chapter 3:

Hung Tsi Kwan stirred as rapping at the gate which kept the wagon closed up got louder. He hadn’t slept much on this trip, and the last thing he wanted was to wake up right now. He had been dreaming of sitting under his favorite tea leaf tree with Liu Yingchun, his beautiful betrothed. He was running his fingers through her silky raven hair when the knocking got too loud to ignore. He snapped upright. “What?” He called. Though his heart burned like white-hot fire, his tone was bereft of emotion. He knew he had to mind his manners, especially since the wagon had stopped, and he knew that this likely meant that he had arrived at his destination. The gate to the wagon opened, Kwan winced as the morning light hit his eyes causing his pupils to immediately constrict. He tried to block the light by tucking his eyes into his elbow.

“We’re here, Kwan,” the voice of the old man sounded. “I need your help to get set up. Come along.”

Kwan wiped the sleep from his eyes, then forced his way out of the wagon before realizing he was not wearing his shirt. He clasped the stripe-shaped burn scars on his left arm, then turned back toward the wagon and reached for the shirt he had discarded before going to sleep. He threw the long sleeve clothing on, then turned toward the old man. “Okay, I am ready Liu Huo Hou. Let’s make some money.”

The teenage Hung Tsi Kwan worked alongside his guardian, the elderly Liu Huo Hou, to open up the wagon, and set up their traveling tea shop. Thousands of different varieties of leaves and flavors filled a large shelf which swung out from the wagon and settled on the ground. Kwan was tall, lean, and dark. Although his birth family had been wealthy, he was never the sort to let the Hung family employees do all the work for him. He worked outside, he was extraordinarily fit. His white, long-sleeved shirt fit very loose against his frame, and his black pants fit snuggly around his waist, but were otherwise fairly loose as well, allowing his movement to flow like water. He was able to work quickly while his guardian, however, was severely aged and overweight. Huo Hou focused on getting the signs set up to lure in the farmers who they had hoped would buy from them today. He wore a blue Magua and a black cap that covered the balding head, though he had far too little hair to sport the queue, as young Kwan did. The two worked well together, as though they knew which cog they were in a machine, and how each of their roles would impact the other. Within a few minutes, the wagon had been transformed into a small tea stand, ready to serve its products to the farmers who would normally not have access to goods such as this.

Huo Hou took a step back and placed his hands on his hip as he inspected their stand. “One day my boy, we will own several wagons that can go all over China selling the Hung family tea to places that have been out of reach. The kind of money we will make by expanding beyond Quanzhou will be…”

Kwan positioned himself next to the old man, “… what?”

The old man smiled and slapped the young man on the shoulder, “More than you can imagine, that’s for sure!” He laughed hard, “we’ll be so rich the Manchu could never take it all. Your parents will be proud of you.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“And my Granddaughter can marry you never having to worry about finances.” He paused and let out a deep breath, then turned towards Kwan. “There’s just one thing,” the smile on his face vanished. “No matter what, do not let people know who you really are. While we’re here, you will go by Jyu.”

Kwan head snapped backward, then he turned to face his guardian. “Why?”

“This,” Huo Hou replied, while gesturing to the farmlands before them, “is the home of the famous Leung Bok-Chau, and his wife, Yim Wing Chun.”

“Really?” Kwan’s eyes widened in delight. “Wing Chun?”

“Yes,“ said the other, “they are members of the Red Lotus Society, and the Heaven and Earth Society… Hung men. If they know who you are, they will try to rope you into their war against the Manchus. That would put you in serious danger, and I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise to your father.”

The young man nodded.

“They would want you because you are a descendant of Emperor Chongzhen, the last Ming Emperor.”

Kwan shook his head, “So they say. Yet my father served in the Manchu government, and always told me to obey the law. Why wouldn’t he have told me if we were meant to be more than the tea merchants we’ve always been?”

Huo Hou shrugged, “Who can say? The Ming Dynasty fell a long time ago. Personally, I think we tend to romanticize the past when we ought to look to the future.” He smiled brightly again. “One day the Han will rule China again, but until then, we may as well make loads and loads of cash.”

Kwan smiled and began moving towards the display they had set up in front of the wagon. There were only four shelves, but it had a large number of slots for the various flavors of tea they had brought with them. The young man stepped around the wagon to the back and gripped a latch on the bed, lifting up a wide, green board and opening a compartment where they kept their merchandise. The young man began fishing through the various bags filled with ground tea. “Why they think I would want to lead a rebellion is beyond me.” He lifted several bags and moved back toward the display. They were smaller bags, several days’ worth in each one. He began organizing them on the shelf while his guardian supervised him.

“The Manchu fear your claim to the throne. The Hung Men want you to lead them. In either case, you would become involved with the rebellion, and that is something that your father simply couldn’t tolerate if he were…” Huo Hou frowned. His brow furrowed slightly before relaxing. The old man smiled brightly again and slapped young Kwan on the back, “let’s not worry so much about the past. Securing a rich and bright future for you is the best way to honor your father’s memory.”

Kwan couldn’t hold back his smile. He loved his father, and he was taken from him far, far too early. Still, Ting Man Hung, was already a wealthy tea merchant, but the government confiscated much of the family wealth when his father was accused of being the criminal, the Red Dragon. The evidence against his father had not been scant. Much to his family’s dismay, when their home was raided, the uniform, the broadsword, and a collection of confiscated flying guillotines had been enough to cement the accusations. Kwan now lost his smile, as he remembered his father screaming for his wife as her throat was slit right in front of them. He closed his eyes as his recollection turned red, and he remembered leaping toward one of the guards with his hands clawed as his father had taught him. Then he felt a shaking at his shoulder. He opened his eyes and turned his head towards his guardian.

“Are you okay, boy?” Huo Hou asked.

Kwan shifted his gaze towards the necklace he wore around his neck. It was leather and held a piece of jade with the Hung family emblem carved delicately into its surface so that the diamond shape and the characters within were raised. The characters simply read, Hung Family. It was the last gift his father had given him before he was taken away. Kwan frowned, pushing the memories to the back of his mind as he heard the distant voice of his father screaming, once more, for his mother. But it was in the past now, and there was nothing that could be done now, but to keep moving forward. To be as a stone, rolling down the hill, as his father would say, never looking back, and never allowing anything to get in his way. He closed his eyes, then tucked the jade medallion under his shirt. “Okay,” he said to his guardian, “I am ready.”

Huo Hou let out a rich belly laugh, “then let’s get going!” He took a deep breath, but then clutched the left side of his chest. He paused and rubbed his left pectoral gently.

“You okay?” Kwan asked as he began stocking the shelf with their product.

“I’m fine,” The old man laughed. “Just gassy, I am old, after all.”

“I’ll be sure not to stand downwind.”

The two laughed as their first customer approached. She was a tall, lean woman, dressed in a blue top, and loose-fitting matching pants, clothing more like what one would expect a man to wear. Her gate was narrow, her form willowy, and she moved like flowing water. Graceful, delicate. Yet her face was darkened by exposure to the sun. Her lips were hardened, her gaze unbreaking. Her hair was not tied up the way that women were supposed to, but rather pulled back into an unbraided ponytail. Atop her hair, she wore a simple white-colored headband with the knot tied below her ears, rather than behind them. It kept her sweat from her eyes, and she was very sweaty. She approached Kwan’s guardian, then covered her right fist with her left palm. “Liu Huo Hou,” She said, her voice surprisingly deep for a woman, “I see you received our invitation. Thank you for coming.”

Huo Hou returned the bow, “Shifu Yim Wing Chun, I am honored to serve.”

Kwan’s eyes widened as his gaze snapped back to the woman before them. This was the legendary Yim Wing Chun? Somehow the young Hung Tsi Kwan had always envisioned a more imposing form for someone who was so legendary a Ming Patriot, and anti-Manchu rebel. He had thought she’d be ten feet tall, so muscular she would be indistinguishable from a man, so powerful her gaze alone would cause Manchu soldiers and bandits to melt into puddles of jelly she would then feed to the dogs. Yet the real woman before him was clearly very feminine. Her delicate figure was clouded only by the loose-fitting men’s clothing she wore, likely because it was easier to work the farm dressed this way, than if she had adorned more traditional women’s attire. Her hardened face was only due to the intense labor she engaged in, which belied a softness to her that almost worked in contradiction to her appearance. She was at one, soft as thread, and hard as iron. She was beautiful, but not someone Kwan would want angry at him.

Yim Wing Chun looked the young man over, then bowed slightly, without her hand in prayer position, “Good morning,” she offered. Kwan returned her greeting but before he could get her order she turned to his guardian. “Is this him?”

Huo Hou’s face soured. “Wing Chun,” his voice was low and measured, “I told you I promised the father we would not involve him. You have to understand, the Hung Family is being watched very closely…”

“He looks like Hung Ting Man, is this his son or not?” She pushed. There was a long silence as the three exchanged glances, each not knowing how to answer the question, or be satisfied with any answer that might be given.

“I’m called Jyu,” Kwan lied, “We have all kinds of flavors of tea for you to sample. What would you like?”

Wing Chun nodded, “very well,” she placed her index finger on her chin and studied the stock the two tea merchants had brought.

“We have plenty of Green and red and…” Kwan started his sales pitch, but the old man clutched his right breast again and groaned.

Yim Wing Chun rushed to Huo Hou’s side and caught him as he started to fall, leaning him against the wagon, and guiding him slowly to the ground, resting his back against the wheel. The horses began to whinny as if they sensed something was wrong, Wing Chun gestured for the young man to calm them down, but several of the bean farmers that were to be their customers approached him and started to list off their orders. Kwan felt his own heart started to race, the horses had been hitched to a post, but that post was starting to shake as if it would not hold, if the animals were not calmed. Meanwhile, his guardian was losing consciousness, and their host was now shouting for help.

Several of the customers rushed to Yim Wing Chun’s side, reaching for Huo Hou and lifting him off the ground. As they began to carry the old man away, Kwan saw that his eyes had rolled to the back of his head, and saliva was running from his mouth. He heard a gurgling from his guardian’s throat, and then it seemed that most of the sound around him became muted. He may have heard orders for radix astragali, or maybe something like notoginseng… he had ginseng root, they used it in their teas, so he grabbed that from the wagon, and placed his hand on his bay-colored Datong mare, Hua Nu, calming her. Once she calmed down, Huo Hou mare calmed in turn, though Kwan was not sure he was going to be able to calm himself. He let out a deep breath, then turned towards Wing Chun and her helpers and followed after them.

Harry Potter: Remake Pitch

2021-06-25T16:33:00.002-07:00

Producer: JJ Abrams

Director: Tetsuya Nomura

Let’s do a Harry Potter re-boot… except people hate reboots, so we will call it a remake, and advertise it as a remake. But really, we’re going to do something completely different, but not tell the fans that we’re doing something completely different. And when the fans figure it out? No worries, we will have half our fans like whatever we do because it’s Harry Potter, even if it’s in name only, attack the fans who are upset viciously and relentlessly! It’ll be awesome! No one will know that people are upset because our Stans will shut them up!

So first we follow the story of the Sorcerer’s Store, but Harry is having nightmares of Voldemort taunting him just as he’s starting to develop his magic. At the Zoo, Harry let’s the snake out, but then it bites Dudley, and he dies. But no worries! Demontors arrive and bring him back to life! But the Dursley’s are mad, so they lock Harry away, and won’t let him out despite his being taunted by Voldemort.

Hagrid shows up to save him, but this time he looks like Slenderman because reasons… anyway but the dementors show up and stop him… cause it’s too soon, ya know?

Anyway, the owls try to deliver the invitations to Hogwarts, but the Dursley’s won’t let him have it. But then they change their mind and give Harry to Hagrid, because reasons. So then Harry meets the Weasleys at the train station, but the dementors stop them from meeting Herminoe too soon, but they meet her on the train anyway. And it turns out Everybody knows Harry… and Voldemort appears to tell Harry that it’s because he’s special. And Harry has a bunch of flash forwards. And Hermione seems to know more than she should too!

Then they arrive at Hogwarts, and get sorted into their house. Oh but there’s a new House, called house Chronos. And the leader of House Chronos doesn’t like Harry either and keeps trying to get Harry to race him on the brooms… and Harry also meets Luna Lovegood, who wants him… badly, and she won’t take no for an answer. She tries to kiss him, but the dementors show up and break her leg. But won’t the shippers go nuts? It’ll be great!

Anyway, Snape shows up and Harry doesn’t like him.

Then they do Qudditch, and Harry almost doesn’t win, but the Dementors show up and make sure he does. And he’s like, “what’s with all the demontors?” Then a troll shows up and says, “they’re trying to protect the timeline!” And Harry’s like, “whose messing with it?” And then Qurrell shows up and is like, “Ha ha! It was me all along!” But then the dementors take him away and Harry and his friends pretend like they didn’t hear him. But then Voldemort shows up and says that Harry has to beat destiny in a game of Wizard Chest to save the day.

So Hermione opens up a portal and the play Wizard Chess against fate, and win. But then Harry and his friends have to have a knock out, drag out massive fight with a fully formed Voldemort, and they win, but Voldemort says some ominous gibberish, absorbs fate and vanishes! Oooh! Scary!

Then we see glitter covering Hogwarts! And They find that Moaning Myrtle is alive! And so are Harry’s Parents, and everyone else who was dead! And everyone is happy, and Hermione ends up with Harry because the shippers want it!

Then the camera pans upwards, and it says, “the unknown journey continues…” that way fans know part two is gonna change everything! It’ll be awesome!

Oh, and after the credits, we discover that Harry was in an insane asylum the whole time! Or is it an alternate reality Harry? Have to wait till part two to find out!!!

Consoles, and Scalpers and Bots, oh my!

2020-11-15T02:52:00.001-08:00

I am a Libertarian, so making the argument I am about to make is painful for me, as I generally prefer that market forces sort problems out, wherever possible. But as we enter the ninth generation of console gaming, the shortages of the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox System X has made me realize something… there aught to be a law to stop scalpers.

Hear me out. While the normal Libertarian argument would be that you should be free to do what you like with a product you purchased, and that demand for your supply should ultimately set the price, the fact is that Scalpers are engaging in activities that are dishonest and entirely unfair to the actual market, by swooping in and buying from mainstream sources before the actual end user has a chance, then reselling them through after market sources at an extremely elevated price, thus ripping off desperate gamers who probably would have been able to get their system at the regular price had scalpers not Intervened. Scalpers are ripping people off, and there’s nothing moral about that.

It’s important to note that the law already prohibits this behavior with concert and movie tickets, so why do we allow it with game consoles? Simply put, scalping of game consoles should be illegal. Especially since they are now using bots (programs) to buy out entire stocks of consoles the moment they become available, making it almost impossible for the average consumer to get the system of their choice. Moreover, the mass buying and reselling of a product is behavior of a business, and at the very least, mass scalping like this, greedy and dishonest as it is, could require a business license, and the biggest thief of all, Uncle Sam, should be able to collect taxes on it. This would likely discourage a number of scalpers… but really, there is a market solution here too. Don’t buy these consoles from scalpers.

Make them eat their investments. If you have a friend considering buying from an after market source, encourage them to wait. No Ebay, no 3^rd party sellers on Amazon. Make these fraudsters eat their investments. Sadly, even if we regulate this after market, or make it illegal, it won’t stop all scalpers. If crime didn’t pay, there would be no crime, and we have to recognize that reality. But we can and should create a pressure campaign to encourage people to wait until supply keeps apace with demand, and make the scalpers stop by causing them to lose their money. That would be the ultimate Justice.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Perfect, Until Its Not

2020-04-26T21:42:00.001-07:00

Years ago a tech demo for PlayStation 3 was released by Square-Enix showcasing what Final Fantasy VII, a beloved classic of the franchise, could look like if done on the PlayStation 3. Fans, myself included, responded with overwhelming delight and began to demand this remake be done for real. But Square would tell us, year after year, it wasn’t happening. And then one day, in the early years of our current generation, Square Enix blew us away with a much welcome surprise trailer… the remake was happening. The cheers that rose up in that room on that day, and even in my own house, we’re loud and jubilant. I couldn’t believe it… it was finally happening...

...And then they announced it would be divided up into episodes, which worried me, at first, but I eventually decided that with the cost of AAA game development these days, this probably wasn’t too unfair, especially if they significantly enhanced and expanded on the game. So then I waited. News was sparse. I read somewhere that they were adding things that hit the cutting room floor for the original, like the whispers. We were told that they were there to add the theme of destiny to the game, which sounded kind of Kingdom Hearts, but okay… if this is going to be a director’s cut of the story, cool beans. As long as the major story beats remained in tact, I’m good. After all, the key to a successful remake is to maintain the original spirit and major story beats, while providing enough technological improvements, story clarification and new material to justify the remake’s production. Much to my frustration, we got exactly that, until they pulled the rug out from under us in what felt like the last fifteen minutes of the game.

First, the good. This game is exactly everything I wanted it to be… until it wasn’t. A gorgeous remake of the original, with incredible (but not flawless) details that bring the world of Midgar to life in an amazing new way. The presentation is no longer over head with polygonal characters walking around over dated pre-rendered screens. Instead, you are moving around a fully realized 3D version of that world. And the maps at least feel like they’re straight out of the original… mostly. The people around you respond to the events around them (albeit in a much more limited way than I had hoped for), and the story adds a great deal more nuance than the original had.

The original was pretty black and white. Shinra bad, Avalanche good. Few would question the actions or motivation of the heroes. Here, the heroes are branded as terrorists, and while President Shinra himself is still cartoonishly evil, the actions the heroes take to resist him are put under a serious microscope. Sure the villains are draining the planet of its life force, Mako, and Mako is and always was a clear allegory to oil, but there’s real human cost to blowing up the Mako reactors, and this is a change that delights me. Both Tifa and Aerith have concerns about what they’re doing. The Turks, lackeys of the core villains, are given a lot more nuance. New characters are brought in from the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII earlier. Previously irrelevant supporting characters, like Biggs, Wedge and Jesse are expanded upon, and in a way that makes their sacrifice later on that much more painful… although we will have to come back to that… And then let’s talk about Honey Bee Inn. We were no where near as humorless and uptight as we are now in the 90s. The humor of the Original Honey Bee Inn absolutely couldn’t be done today… and in its place is a sequence of events that manages to be just as hilarious and just as brave, in the face of SJW screeching on Twitter, as doing a one for one remake of this sequence would have been. Except, I like this better. It’s really funny, and more believable. So I hope by now I’ve established I am not only okay with changes, I embrace them, when they enhance and elevate the story.

95% of this game does exactly that. They even deepen the choice making system of the original allowing you to chose much deeper romantic choices for Cloud, making the already unresolvable love triangle of Cloud, Tifa and Aerith that much more unresolvable. Making it more difficult is the way that Tifa and Aerith sense they are rivals, but then decide not to let it ruin a great friendship opportunity, then join together to tease Cloud in a way that makes both of them that much more adorable. My story choices always seem to lead towards Aerith, and canonically this is what the story intended originally… until fate made that choice for Cloud… deepening the tragedy for Tifa who, (Spoiler for the Compilation of FFVII) gets her man, in the end, but a man who still has feelings for a lost love.

The changes to the gameplay were great as well. I was amazed at how tactical this game really is. Taking the best of FFXII, XIII, XV, eliminating the worst, and making a tactical action RPG with a system that feels familiar, yet new, maintaining the Materia system, which lets you do magic and augment your weapons and equipment, and even letting you customize your weapons for additional augments. The system is refreshingly simple and addictive. Combat, in this game, feels really good, and it is not FFXIII where it plays itself. You must act or you will be beaten. I do wish the AI of your team mates was a bit smarter, but when they get caught up doing stupid it’s easy enough to switch over to them and course correct.

And let’s not forget the music. The original score was amazing for its time. Here we have multiple versions of those tracks rendered for the purpose of this remake, and it is, quite simply, the greatest game score ever recorded. I pre-ordered this soundtrack. I can’t wait to have the whole thing. FFVII inspired me to pick up the violin, and I can play several of these tunes, poorly, as I am self taught. But hearing them fully realized as amazing orchestral pieces, or snazzy jazz pieces was pretty amazing.

I could go on and on about how much deeper this game is, how well written the characters are, even celebrating that Aerith is finally spelled and pronounced correctly! Since I was a kid people have argued with me that it’s Aeris, and I am tired of having to explain that was a translation error… but while this game has so much to celebrate it pulls the rug out from under you in such a messy, ridiculous way that I am fuming out my ears. Not because things changed… but because a change was made so that the developers, and the director could stroke their own egos at the cost of a great story.

And here’s where we have to get into the bad. Let’s talk about the gameplay blunders first. First, summons aren’t found anymore. They are unlocked in a VR Simulation. And to earn new ones you have to complete menial tasks that are a chore to complete… especially if your like me and developed a Rhythm early in the game and didn’t figure out what was happening with the summons until late game. One of those quests never got finished because it requires you to master all twelve magic Materia in the game, and the game just didn’t have any good grinding spots. Sure there’s a chapter selection in the post game, but I am not a completionist. The VR missions are actually boring. Finding new summons in the original was a delight because it usually meant actually uncovering a secret. I do miss that.

In the early game, around the sector seven slums, a large number of textures don’t load right, and much of the area looks like something out of the N64 era. Seems like they could patch this, if they wanted too. Chain link fences throughout the entire game look terrible, and there is a sequence towards the end where you are climbing a wall, and the background looks like something from the PS2 era. A number off side characters also lack detail, and look like they would have been more at home on the PS3. It’s shocking that, with as long as this game was in development, that these problems cropped up at all. Especially as a project directed by Tetsuya Nomura, who usually has quite an eye for details… even if his stories seldom make any sense. And speaking of stories that don’t make sense…

Nomura has made some changes that are as convoluted, confusing, and out of place as anything he did in the post KHII era of his crown jewel series. Almost as if to preemptively lash out at fans who would be unhappy with changes, he introduces us to the meta commentary on the meta commentary, the whispers. Meta only works for me if it’s funny, and this meta commentary wasn’t the least bit amusing. These ghostly figures show up any time something is going to deviate from fate. We are told they are the will of the Planet… who we are trying to save, but are now suddenly opposing… without explanation. What we aren’t told is what happened that allowed these deviations to occur. We assume it has something to do with Sephiroth… maybe? But they’re inconsistent. They save some characters from certain death, kill another that was supposed to die earlier, but didn’t, but then another character that was supposed to die survived, and they don’t finish him off. Granted we didn’t know that character survived until after the end battle, but they would have known. They also don’t stop clear deviations, like how and when President Shinra is killed, or how and when the team ends up in a cell with Aerith… they were captured originally, but here Cloud passes out so they take him there. Why did the whispers not Interfere when Cloud ends up in a dance off instead of a hot tub? They don’t interfere with new characters being brought in that weren’t in the original, they don’t stop the people from escaping the collapse of the sector seven plate, when few escaped in the original... they don’t stop the expansion of Jessie, Bigs and Wedge’s stories… Like I said, they are wildly inconsistent, permitting some changes, but not others, and that makes them a product of bad writing. I’m sorry, but it does.

I don’t mind the early appearances of Sephiroth because, in the original, Cloud would often suffer blackouts where an unknown voice would torment him. I always assumed this was Sephiroth anyway… or at least his cells… as Cloud was genetically tampered with using his “S-Type Jenova cells”, though we don’t learn that until way past when this game ends. But Sephiroth’s appearance at the end felt forced. Granted, it wasn’t really him, it was one of the test subjects taking his form, but even so, it felt forced. Moreover, he now talks of saving the planet, Aerith suddenly knows who he is, but says he’s wrong, all wrong, as if there’s something not right about him in general, not just his ideas, but we aren’t told what. And then it’s made clear, he is trying to defy fate.

At this point we could assume he has traveled back in time because he knows he is going to lose. But we are not told this. So what he is doing, why he wants to defy fate, why he’s even acknowledging Cloud at all at this point all remain a mystery. And yet… the heroes do exactly what he entices them to do, again without explanation. If the whispers are the will of the planet, and we are trying to save the planet, why help Sephiroth destroy them? Especially since he then absorbs them, and is seen using them when you fight him shortly thereafter, because of course you fight him...

In the original, Sephiroth barely acknowledged Cloud until he couldn’t ignore or use Cloud anymore. Old fans will know that Cloud and Sephiroth became mortal enemies, but what about new fans? Yes they probably know who Sephiroth is… but that doesn’t mean they would know the dynamics between him and Cloud. The original did a great job building suspense, making you terrified of Sephiroth. You didn’t encounter him at all in the Shinra building, you saw the aftermath of his being there. Not a sparkly purple goo, a trail of actual human blood, hallways filled with the dead, all leading to President Shinra at his desk impaled by Sephiroth’s Masamune. Later, when Cloud is retelling his version of the events at his hometown, we get the story of a near godlike being who went mad. Then, we encounter a massive giant snake impaled on a tree, Sephiroth was there. In this remake, none of that tension is there. Characters who are killed are brought back to life by whispers, or after the defeat of the whispers, and the final fight with Sephiroth is actually one of the easier battles in the game. Granted, it was one of the test subjects, but Sephiroth takes possession of these clones… so it’s not him, but is him… and that battle was far from epic. It was an utter disappointment.

Had I been writing this, that whole sequence wouldn’t have made the cut. It diminishes Sephiroth, doesn’t explain anything about the whispers, has you do something that benefits Sephiroth, but then fight him and the only purpose I can figure for it was Nomura slapping fans, preemptively, who might be upset with him for making exactly this kind of nonsensical change. He knew “whispers” like myself were out there, and couldn’t help himself in biting his thumb at us, even though most of the changes that were made were, in fact, well received.

So here we are now, destiny destroyed, Sephiroth defeated… and oh, Zack is alive. “Who?” You may ask if you are new to the series. Exactly. More bad writing. Long time fans will know Zack. New fans won’t. But Zack’s tragic death is critical to Cloud’s origin story. So naturally the game tosses a curveball that gives us a visual clue he’s on a parallel timeline, because of course he is. So now we have Destiny, time travel and alternate timelines because of course we do. And if you don’t like it, screw you fan! How dare you ask for a FFVII remake in the first place?! The great Tetsuya Nomura wanted to do something else! And something else he will, under the guise of a “Remake.” If he did not want to retell a story that Square already told, why do this at all?

Time travel, parallel universes… these are all devices that are really hard to do well. Even Avengers Endgame botched it, as far as I am concerned. I generally don’t like these kinds of stories because they always fail. They’re always quick to break their own rules, and are a lazy, over used quick fix to retcon things that should probably be left alone. And to all those who have faith in Square? Where is that coming from? FFXIII was awful, XV was narratively broken and Kingdom Hearts has become an incoherent mess. This remake started Square-Enix on the path of redemption. They started so right, and then kicked it all to the curb to embrace the sort of broken narrative and incoherent nonsensical bull that has plagued their games for years. But yet… I’m intrigued… (warned you in my Facebook posts there would be a subversion for subversion’s sake.) I do want to know where they’re going with this, and there is still a narrative flow that might work here… IF Nomura is willing to embrace consequences as a narrative theme… usually he doesn’t, you defy destiny for defiance sake and nothing bad ever comes of it, because Disney… but what if he does break from his usual narrative tropes?

FFVII is a tragedy. It’s not supposed to have a happy ending. That’s Disney, not Hironobu Sakaguchi. Aerith was an allegory of his mother. She died as an expression of his pain. His religious and environmental views about the planet and our relationship with it shaped and informed the original. It’s his baby, not Tetsuya Nomura’s. At the same time, I am also writing a retelling of an old folk legend. So I understand the plight of the re-teller. Whenever you retell a story you must justify that retelling. Most creators do so by adding new layers. The earliest versions of King Arthur were just about the King, Merlin and Gwenivere. Later versions added the layer with Lancelot, and the Holy Grail was added even later. Yet the main beats of the story remained in tact. If the whispers, time travel and parallel universes become that new layer, I will be pleased… but we’re not off to a good start.

We’re I blessed with the chance to scenario write for the next game, we would be just getting started with the whispers. I would have a small side story for each town involving them. And we would learn that what we did was a bad thing, as it birthed multiple timelines that threaten to converge at the seven seconds before the end… when the meteor falls. And if one meteor in one timeline successfully strikes the earth, the planet will be destroyed in all timelines. Sephiroth also knows that if Aerith dies, Holy will be triggered. Not only that, but she will rally the lifestream to defend the planet against meteor. Therefore, Neo-Sephiroth, who is the one we met at the end of Remake, pits the team against destiny at every turn leading to a moment where Cloud is able to save Aerith… and then Neo-Sephiroth merges with Sephiroth, and they become whole. There is a fight, and Aerith still loses the white Materia. Sephiroth still manages to get the Black Materia, but now there’s no way to stop meteor, and yes, Holy came too late in the original, but now Aerith is not in the life stream to rally it to save the planet. In saving Aerith, Sephiroth has won, and now the player has to deal with the consequences of challenging destiny. For me, the end game would have to be trying to find a way to undo the bridge fight, especially after learning that the four creatures they fought weren’t whispers, but themselves from the future, trying to stop them from making a major mistake, and it turns out that the big harbinger is, in fact, a post death Aerith, acting on behalf of the planet. In killing her soul, the lifestream has now become infected with Sephiroth’s taint, granting him more power than ever. So now, the heroes have to set things right. To add another layer of complexity, I would work in the parallel timelines idea found in Ultimania Archives Vol. 2 from the original design documents. I think this is what they’re doing with Zack and Aerith anyway. The two find a way to impact each others timelines. They both learn they have to die in order to stop Sephiroth, and both have to come to terms with this, and convince their respective parties to help them set about putting things right. Then, they have to become the harbinger and it’s minions, Rubrum, Viridi and Croceo, but Aerith is alive and can’t become the big harbinger. They are now returning to the crossroads to stop themselves. They win. The timelines converge, but the whispers are now not gone, and Aerith and everyone else has full knowledge of what’s to come. Flash back, Zack has returned to his moment of death, and let’s go, allowing himself to be killed for the sake of the planet. Flash forward to that big moment. That other seven seconds… Cloud is there, crying as he now knows what’s about to happen, and that if he wants to save the planet, he can’t save the love of his life, who has resigned herself to her fate. The white Materia is lost again, but now there’s full knowledge of what’s to come, and Cloud breaks, completely. After delivering Aerith to the lake, he becomes completely despondent. And this sets us up for the third and final chapter. Now, I’m not done with the whispers or fate, or Neo Sephiroth, who isn’t able to reunite with Sephiroth, since Aerith’s death was not prevented... we also later would learn he is experiment #2, not the actual Sephiroth, but he would continue to try and meddle where he can, so the team has to stop Sephiroth on two fronts, the OG Sephiroth, who is trying to destroy the world with Meteor, and Neo-Sephiroth, who is trying to ensure that the real Sephiroth is successful. On the whole, we would have many of the original events, this would just be woven into the tapestry of the original. But ultimately… we’ll, I don’t want to give away my ending… but this is what I could do with what they did. We will have to see what they do, but given their recent history, I don’t have the faith that they can stick the landing. But I hope I’m wrong.

As angry as I am about this ending, And Nomura’s sticking his thumb in they eye of long time fans before we’ve even done anything, I am still curious to see where this goes, and I can’t deny that the vast majority of this game is, in fact, everything I wanted it to be in the first place. It is a shame they had to muck up 5% of this game with Kingdom Hearts convoluted nonsensical garbage about defying destiny, but if they can resist the urge to make this the Disney version of FFVII and remember this is a tragedy, it may yet tell this classic story, from a new angel.

4.4 stars out of 5. It would have been 5/5… but #IAmAWhisper…

The Joke’s on you Leftists

2019-09-29T15:21:00.001-07:00

I find it fascinating that the Marxist Left is freaking out over a movie that is, in all likelihood, going to contain elements they would normally like. The upcoming Joker film is already causing a stir because it’s supposedly going to cause Incel violence or something ridiculous like that. In truth, The Joker movie may be holding up a mirror to them that makes them wildly uncomfortable.

Allow me to explain.

First, the freak out over Incels is understandable. Not too long ago, a young man in California named Elliot Roger stabbed three people, and shot four people, while injuring 13 others. This act was celebrated by a Canadian named Alek Minassian who proclaimed that an Incel revolt had begun and that the “Chads and Stacey’s” (good looking people) will be overthrown. This is the first time that term went mainstream. At the time, I took the opportunity to research what an Incel is by reading their own manifestos. No one else did. The Left has adopted that as their favorite insult, and are flinging the insult Joker’s way at present. But what is it?

An Incel is someone who is involuntarily Celibate. People think it’s an army of young white, privileged males, but it was actually started by a woman named Alana. Although the movement has attracted some white supremacists (an ideology that isn’t inherently right-wing, despite the slanders of the Left), it is not, in fact, exclusively white, and never was. Their message boards on Reddit and 4Chan have quite a mix of men and women of all races and ethnic backgrounds who claim the label Incel. What it is, is a collection of people who have not had good luck in relationships, and have decided to rage against good looking people, which they call Chads and Stacys. Eerily similar to the third wave feminist who is waging war against men for exactly the same reasons. Also similar to the Men Going Their Own Way Movement (MGTOW)… for all the same reasons.

All of these groups view themselves as aggrieved and victimized by an oppressor. With the exception of MGTOW, these groups are also looking to government to solve their problems, and here is where the mirror the Far Left is being made to look into is going to get really uncomfortable. Incels are calling for the Socializing of sex. You read that right. They are Socialists too. And look, they aren’t the only socialists who think they have the right to another person’s body. How many Left Wing activists, like Riley J Dennis, have we seen in recent years call men bigots for not wanting to date women who aren’t genetically female? If you cannot control what you're attracted to, what right does anyone have to dictate to you who you will be with? But I digress. I bring this up only to show there is a common strain of thought between Incels and Left-Wing extremist on this issue… even if you are not attracted to them, you will be made to comply. That’s Socialism, baby. Well, one of many forms of it anyway…

At the end of the day, Incels are not Trump voters (though a lot of MGTOW are). They’re solidly Left-wingers who are adding one more demand of the government to the already long list of ridiculous and impossible demands Socialists have. Free housing, free healthcare, free college… free love. The natural evolution of the 1960s sexual revolution… those who were left out of it, now demanding access. That is an Incel. A revolution of angry leftist ugos. So why does the Left love this term so much? Why do they fling it around at everyone and everything? For the same reason they call everyone Nazis.

Nazi, as you should know, is an abbreviation of National Socialist German Workers Party. A race-obsessed socialist group of despots who took away the firearms of their targeted groups, went around dressed in black beating up on people who disagreed with them, all the while claiming that they were victims of an oppressor fighting for justice. Sound familiar? It’s hardly a Right-Wing movement by American standards. In fact, calling the National SOCIALISTS right-wing is flat out disingenuous, if not outright slanderous.

The American Right is concerned with conserving freedom for everyone, and we aim to do that by keeping government too small to be oppressive. But the Left calls us Nazis to shut down discussions and detract from the fact that they are increasingly fascistic themselves.

Incel, similarly, is a term that is better suited to describe the ugos who dress in black and beat people up, while throwing cement laced milkshakes at people, and attack legal detention centers, while calling everyone around them Nazis. Trust me, there’s a reason these guys (nearly universally young, ugly white men) wear masks, and it’s not as much about concealing their identity as it is being ashamed of their ugly mugs and being embarrassed by the fact that none of them can get a date to save their lives.

But what does this have to do with Joker? You ask. Supposedly the plot will follow failed comedian Arthur Fleck as he goes from an ordinary fellow with mental health issues to supervillain. It is assumed, and I say assumed because very few have actually seen the movie, that part of that descent into madness will be a rejection by the character played by Zazzie Beats. That’s probably true, but the film isn’t likely to try and portray the Joker as a character who we should emulate. Yet, if the Lamestream Media is to be believed, we should be in an outright panic that it is… because Incel.

In reality, I’ve seen the plot summary of Joker, and it sounds, to me, like another Marxist anti-capitalist screed. Arthur just can’t get a break, meanwhile The Wayne’s live high on the hog. The Waynes somehow wronged his family and his mother in particular ( or so he believes). Meanwhile, Arthur is brutally picked on because of a tick that causes him to laugh when nervous. Therefore he’s a victim that finally has enough of capitalism and breaks at some point and decides he’s going to stick it to the man… and ends up going too far. This movie was tailor-made for the very people now tearing it apart. Guaranteed. And frankly, I find that hilarious.

In reality, the Right probably won’t like this film due to its likely anti-capitalist message, and the Left won’t like it because, at the same time, it will serve as a warning against Left Wing Extremism. The Social Justice crowd won't take kindly to the idea that you can go too far in opposing Capitalism. The filmmakers likely believe themselves moderate and will tell this story hitting both sides, while encouraging people to stay away from extremes. But what won’t happen is an Incel revolt. To suggest a movie can cause real-world violence is just hysterical nonsense.

That said, as a Batman fan, I'm not sure how forward I am looking to this. First, because Joker is what the real extreme of the real fra right actually looks like. To the far Left is totalitarianism, so the far right isn't Nazi, it's anarchy. Joker is both a Nihilist and an anarchist who had a day so bad he realized that nothing in existence has any meaning. And because nothing has meaning, our morals and codes are meaningless. Joker isn't a mental health patient, he does what he does to try and show the world what a joke everything is. That's what makes him so terrifying. He isn't crazy. He's actually well thought out and reasoned in his belief that nothing matters and nothing is more terrifying than a villain who doesn't believe in anything and doesn't believe that anything, or anyone, matters. if you want to warn about the dangers of the Far-far-right, Joker is how you do it. He is a well-written critique of Randian philosophy taken to a logical extreme. Ironically, even as Batman himself serves as the ideal Randian. The battle between Joker and Batman is a battle between Centrist Randianism and extreme Randianism. It is as interesting a philosophical war as the battle between Charles Xavier and Magneto, another pair with a similar philosophy, but whose approaches to that philosophy lead to wildly different results. To reduce Joker to a sort of remake of Falling Down doesn't sound appealing to me at all because it eschews the philosophical battle for a story of an already mentally unstable man pushed too far by Capitalism... Like Falling Down, but with clown makeup. I'm willing to bet heavily that's what we're getting, and its a movie I believe the Left will enjoy if they can stop freaking out about stupid nonsense and quit trying to cancel everything.

Who knows? It could be a great movie, despite my own concerns. I'm going to see it. I'm not demanding it be canceled even if the plot summary and commercials very much remind me of Falling Down. Besides, in the end, this is just one version of the Joker's story, and don't we all prefer his story be multiple choice?

Rather than demanding censorship of a movie they haven’t seen yet, perhaps the radical left should spend some time looking in the mirror that’s being held in front of them. Cancel culture is the modern book burning, and it's not the religious right doing it, this one is entirely on the Democrats. The Democrats own this par and parcel. The truth is that the Far Left has allowed themselves to become the villains of this story and at some point, someone needs to tell them that, rather than continuing to act as if it’s okay to fear monger and cancel everything.

Far From Home is Spectacular, Spider-Man

2019-07-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

It’s only been a few years since a miracle happened, and yet I am still in awe of the fact that two major competitors are coming together to make movies magic such as this. The original Spider-Man trilogy was a massive disappointment, leading to a franchise reboot which, after two films, under-performed, leading Sony open to negotiations with Disney/Marvel. Those negotiations lead to a surprise guest appearance of a new, and much beloved Spider-Man appearing in 2016’s Civil War. Played by Tom Holland, this younger Spider-Man was nerdy, funny, and eager to use his power to do the right thing. My Sifu often said that Toby McGuire was a great Peter Parker, while Andrew Garfield was a great Spider-Man. But both lacked something. Tom Holland, meanwhile, manages to be both a great Peter Parker and Spider-Man. I agree with this assessment but was worried, after the ending of End Game, that we would soon lose this brilliant take on the character to make way for Miles Morales.

Personally, I don’t want to see this Spider-Man end any time soon. Tom Holland is young enough to keep this going for quite some time. I know that also depends on Sony and Disney maintaining their deal, and with the recent success of the Venom film, it’s likely that Sony will want a bigger slice of the Spider-Man pie. I imagine Disney will be amenable since Far From Home not only sets up Peter Parker as having a much larger role in the MCU than even I could have hoped for but managed to rake in quite a haul since it’s release on Tuesday. The future of Spider-Man looks bright, and I couldn’t be happier.

The film takes place eight months after Endgame. People are trying to reclaim their lives after being dusted, then blipped back into existence five years later. We learn Aunt May and several of Peter’s friends were all dusted, and are now back. May has been secretly seeing Tony Stark’s sidekick, Happy Hogan, while she deals with her experiences, and Happy tries to mourn the loss of his best friend. Peter, meanwhile, is trying to live up to the expectations being thrust upon him by the world to be the new Iron Man. A call he is not ready to answer.

Peter and his friends have the opportunity to enjoy an academic tour of Europe, which he believes will give him the chance to set the suit aside for a time, and just be a kid, tell Michelle Jones (MJ) that he likes her, and have the time of his life before returning to adult responsibilities. Sadly, it’s not long before Nick Fury shows up to drag him back into action. He introduces him to a new superhero who claims to have come from another dimension, Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio. Peter tries to reject the call, but between being given a pair of glasses that grants Peter access to Stark Tech, and Fury hijacking his vacation, Peter finds he has no choice but to get involved. Though, Shield is at least gracious enough to give him a new suit so he can try to hide the fact that Spider-Man is in Europe. Though Peter is still trying to hide his identity from his classmates, events keep making that harder and harder, as he vanishes, a monster attacks, and Spider-Man appears.

He then decides to turn over the Stark glasses to what he assumes is his new friend, Mysterio, hoping that doing so would grant him the power to be the new Iron Man, so Peter could enjoy being a kid who just does the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man gig on the side. The audience then learns that not all is what it seems with Mr. Beck. I’m not going to get deep into spoilers here, as they do a lot of cool stuff with this reveal that is a great call back to previous MCU films. It’s a lot of fun.

Eventually, Peter decides to just tell MJ his feelings, only for her to confront him with the suspicion that she has concerning his identity. He tries to deny it, only for her to reveal she found a piece of machinery that had webbing all over it. They accidentally trigger the device and expose Mysterio’s holograms. Peter immediately realizes he has made an egregious error and admits to his secrets before making a mad dash to confront Mysterio.

He makes his way to the SHIELD location and tries to warn Fury, only to be assaulted by an onslaught of illusions which confuse, and befuddle him, causing him to lose to Mysterio badly. He is later rescued by Happy Hogan who helps him Reve tee himself and build a new suit based on the original design by legendary comic artist Steve Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man, and like his partner, Stan Lee, passed away in 2018. It seems this film sought to try and honor him at last, even if past films forgot about him entirely.

Armed with his new black and red uniform, Peter charges into the next battle, against a massive hologram generated by the army of drones Mysterio stole using the Stark Glasses he conned Peter Parker out of. The battle is amazing. One of the best Spider-Man fights yet but ends with (I believe) Mysterio faking his own death.

Peter is able to reconcile with Michelle Jones, Ned and all his other friends and heads home only to discover a news broadcast by Jay Jonah Jameson played lovingly by none other than JK Simmon! Seriously, no one else can play this part. He has it down so tight, there’s no one else. Seeing him back, for me, was the highlight of this film. But he makes some pretty serious accusations against Spidey, and then outs Peter Parker as Spider-Man, leaving the film on a massive cliffhanger.

At the end of this film, I was excited for what comes next. Clearly, this review is late, and now we have news from SDCC that has me deeply troubled, and fearing that the movies are now following the direction of the comics and that the same bad decisions which have put the comic side of the business in jeopardy are happening here, because no one wants to learn their lessons. Of course, the films could still be good, I suppose, but if the preachy, cringe-inducing Captain Marvel is an indication, we have cause for concern. The question is now, is the future of Marvel Peter Parker: Spider-Man? Or cringe-inducing Captain Marvel? Only time will tell.

Surviving Endgame

2019-06-01T15:10:00.001-07:00

One and only warning: Spoilers ahead. Still here? Good.

21 days after the Snappening, the surviving Avengers meet a new character, Captain Marvel. Offscreen, they explain everything, then she’s off to rescue Tony Stark. She brings him home, along with Nebula. Captain America wants to confront Thanos, Tony wants nothing to do with this plan, fearing it might just make things worse. Still, most of the Avengers take off and confront Thanos. They learn he has destroyed the Infinity Stones, and while I think many of us longtime fans feared Captain Marvel would steal the spotlight and get the kill shot, she doesn’t. Thor goes for the head. This isn’t what I expected. I don’t think it’s what anybody was expecting. But it was good.

Is it possible to love a movie and hate it? That’s how I feel about this movie. Honestly, for a lot of the same reasons I love and hate the movie Logan, a film that, to date, I insist is the best superhero movie and should have gotten an Oscar nod for best picture. Endgame isn’t quite that good, but it broke my heart the way Logan did, and then some. Then it disrespected one of the greatest heroes ever created. It has logic problems, and plot holes, but remains a great final chapter for at least two of the actors who have decided not to re-up their contracts. It also has gaps in the story with details I would like to have seen. And yet I love the movie despite its flaws.

The opening was fine. I expected a bigger battle with Thanos. I had thought they would lose the initial battle and retreat to the past out of desperation and despair. But they won. But five years into the future, while the planet has begun to heal, humanity hasn’t. People are still suffering. Cities are now derelicts. There’s a post-apocalyptic feel as a rat accidentally steps on the correct button that ejects Ant-Man from the quantum realm. After a desperate search for his daughter, which ended successfully, he makes a mad dash for the Avengers HQ. There he presents an idea for time travel, through the quantum realm, as a means to bring everyone back.

The remaining Avengers try to recruit Iron Man, but Tony has moved on, married Pepper Potts, and had a kid. The kid is absolutely adorable. He doesn’t want to risk losing his family. So they go to Bruce Banner who has become, “Professor Hulk.” This was an awesome development, but that change happened off screen. They opt to tell us when this is a change I had hoped to see. We knew it was coming, but the way this was executed was a little disappointing.

While Hulk fails to make the time travel work, Tony’s OCD kicks in and he sets about creating a mechanism for navigating the quantum realm safely. He the. Shows up at HQ with his own design and puts forward his own plan, which everyone agrees to. They would divide into teams, each team responsible for getting one stone. Then they would get out before damaging the timeline.

At about the same time, Rocket Racoon and Hulk retrieve Thor, who has established the small fishing

kingdom of New Asgard, then, in his inability to heal from his encounters with Thanos, has retreated to life as a drunken frat boy, defending his flap mates from trolls on Fortnight. He’s not in a good place, and while elements of the Internet are furious about how Thor was portrayed here, I am not. Of all the characters, he has suffered the most. Losing his mother, then his father, then his closest friends at the hands of his sister, then that sister, then his kingdom, then half of the survivors of Asgard, then half of those half being snapped away. Of course, he is going to be broken. To pretend anyone would just weather that much storm is ridiculous. Still, Thor serves as a good chunk of the film’s much-needed comedy relief. He is reluctant to return to the Avengers until he’s promised beer.

Finally, Black Widow has to find Hawkeye, who now goes by the name Ronin. Ronin is dealing with his pain by killing the people that should have died in the Snap but didn’t. Criminals, drug dealers, warlords. Nat is able to convince him to come home.

With the team together, they are each given their assignments. Here is another point I have an issue with. Nebula’s sister, Gamora was sacrificed in the last film to obtain the Soul Stone. Nebula knew what it would take for Nat and Clint to succeed, and didn’t warn them. It seems to me that if she had, an unnecessary tragedy could have been avoided later in the film, as it seems that the Avengers could have worked out a means to deal with that. Still, contracts are up, so…

At any rate, each team going after their stones. Cap goes after the mind stone, and ultimately succeeded, Hulk had a long heart to heart about the situation with the Ancient One and convinces her to lend them the time stone with a promise to bring it right back. But Stark and Ant-Man run into trouble procuring the space stone, and accidentally aid in Loki re-acquiring it, and escaping from the end of the first film. Leading me to wonder, how will this impact the timeline? Is Loki alive? Or is this a closed loop that will eventually lead Loki to his fate at the beginning of Infinity War regardless?

Still, Cap and Tony realize they’ve made a mess and can’t fix it. The solution, then, is to travel further back in time to a location where the space stone and more Pym particles (basically the fuel for their suits) will be in the same place. Cap squires the particles, while Tony acquires the Tesseract, which houses the space stone, and has a heartwarming chat with his father on the way out. Space stone in hand, Tony and Cap return to the not too distant future.

War Machines and Nebula then steal the Power Stone right out from underneath Peter Quill. But then Nebula somehow accidentally connects with her past self, which alerts Thanos to what they are doing. Another reason I would like to have had Thanos win the initial encounter at the beginning of the movie, and not destroy the stones is that seeing him watch the stones disappear from the gauntlet one by one would have been a lot less convoluted. Seeing him spring into action to stop these time heists, and adding a chase element to the story would have been fun too. I’m not sure that alerting past Thanos this way was the best way to go. Nevertheless, Thanos manages to swap out past Nebula for Present Nebula, and now Nebula serves as a saboteur and spy. Meanwhile, present Nebula tries to appeal to Gamora’s past self, who has yet to go on her hero's journey.

Now comes the first part I hate. Clint and Nat arrive at the site of the Soul Stone. Long story short, Nat sacrifices herself for the Soul Stone. Yes, I cried. Black Widow is one of my favorite characters, and my wife’s as well. This was especially hard for Becky. As both of us are infertile, we both identified and sympathized with Nat. We are both grateful to Joss Whedon and Marvel for addressing this difficult issue in Age of Ultron. I know they took flack for it, but we appreciated the representation. But more than that, Nat was an all-around badass. The template for how to do strong female characters right. She was a great and powerful fighter who used finesse, and agility to beat larger, stronger opponents. She had an air of mystery about her, a past she was trying to atone for. But more than that, she genuinely cared about her friends, ultimately sacrificing herself for them.

Then there’s Thor. Thor is a mess and almost compromises the mission. Again, this portrayal of Thor is taking the heat. They don’t like seeing Thor so broken. While Rocket procures the reality stone, Thor has to confide in his mother. I want to defend this. There are times in even the strongest men’s lives that they hit a low point. Their mother is often the first person they turn to. Freya offers Thor some much needed motherly wisdom, and its enough to get his head back in the game. He summons Mjolnir, his hammer which is destroyed in present time, then leaves with Rocket, back to the future.

At any rate, everyone gathers the stones they were sent to find and re-emerges into the present. Iron-Man fashions his own Infinity Gauntlet, which Hulk uses to Snap the dead back into existence, but not without a cost. The Snap severely damages Hulk’s arm. Meanwhile, past Nebula uses the time portal to being past Thanos into the present, where he attacks the Avengers. There’s a massive fight between good and evil. Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America try to fend off Thanos. At one point, Captain America manages to get ahold of Mjolnir and ends the debate over whether or not he could have lifted the hammer during Age of Ultron. He’s worthy. What’s especially fun is that Cap gets some hefty time with it too. It's not just a one and done stunt. Thor fights with his new weapon, Stormbreaker, while Cap continues the battle with Mjolnir. It’s absolutely awesome, and I loved every second of it.

As the battle progresses, Dr. Strange re-emerges on the scene, alongside an army made of previously

dusted super-heroes. Spider-Man is reunited with Iron man in a touching moment. The battle is among the biggest we’ve ever seen in a Marvel film. Thanos soon realizes he’s losing and orders his ship to fire on the battlefield, even his own army. Then Captain Marvel shows up in a pretty cringy moment and single-handedly destroys his ship. We all know I think Captain Marvel is OP. I don’t think she’s an interesting character at all. I had thought this moment was going to ruin what would have otherwise been a decent film, but aside from leading to another cringy A-Force moment where Marvel Studios tries to prove that they haven’t been ignoring female superheroes, but having all the female heroes appear on screen together… something they shouldn’t have felt the need to do because real fans already know they’ve been diverse from the beginning… Captain Marvel only really gets that one big moment. After getting ahold of the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos kicks her trash into kingdom come with the Power Stone. Ultimately, it's Iron Man who manages to get the Infinity Stones away from Thanos, and snaps killing himself but dusting Thanos and his army in the process.

The film ends on a somber note. A funeral for Tony… though they appear to have forgotten that Nat died as well… thus undoing all the goodwill they tried to build up with the Radical Authoritarian Identarian Left with their cringy A-Force moment… At any rate, the remaining Avengers then decide to return all the Infinity Stones to their timelines, as well as Mjolnir. Captain America is chosen for the task but doesn’t come back. Instead, they find an old man sitting on a bench nearby. We then learn that Cap stayed behind, married, and lived his life. He passes the shield on to Falcon.

The passing of the shield to Falcon gives Disney the chance to re-introduce the fan-panned Captain Falcon. Maybe this time it will work, but I doubt it. If Captain Marvel’s controversial solo film is any indication, the long loathed SJW Marvel, which is less about superhero antics, and more about pushing Radical Leftist Identarian ideology is about to hit the films. This ending bothers me for that reason.

With that said, Anthony Mackie’s Falcon has been fairly apolitical in the films, and I hope he remains so. If he does, then I welcome this change. Should he follow in the footsteps of his Radical nutty Leftist comic counterpart, count me out. Captain Marvel fans love to remind people like me that Captain Marvel wasn’t made for me, and I agree. But then they shouldn’t call me names for pointing out exactly that and taking my business elsewhere.

Endgame was good but telegraphs the intent to follow the comics into Radical Leftist Identarian politics, a direction I cannot follow. At the same time, they still have only one mandate: Tell good stories. If they do, they can count on my money and support. If they don’t, I will take my business elsewhere.

I’m at a point that I have had it with the backlash against fan backlash. The attitude that creatives have that they are entitled to our money and that we should sit down and shut up when they move in directions that we don’t like, some even going so far as to use attacks on Fandoms as a means to attack capitalism and Free Markets, because, “fans act entitled because they feel like they should get something for their investments,” -1. As if socialist art is art made in freedom. The premise is entirely dumb. In Capitalism, if we don’t like your art, we won’t buy it. In socialism, if the government doesn’t like your art, you die. Socialism won’t save you from criticism. Not for Marvel, not for Game of Thrones or any other product that is failing their fans right now…. And there are a lot. Because of this, I no longer call myself a fan of anything. I am a customer, and you will please me, or I will take my business elsewhere. You are not entitled to my money, and if you want it, making me happy or go to hell. Sure I’m not entitled to the ending I want, but in kind, you’re not entitled to my money, period.

Art enjoys a symbiotic relationship between the creator and the sponsor. The sponsor takes many forms, but ultimately is an end user of sorts. If that end user doesn’t like what they are getting, they can and will pull their support. And again, that’s the Capitalist version. The Socialist version will end up with the creative, and their entire family, in an unmarked, shallow grave, and the entire record of their existence being erased from the record. Either way, there’s no escaping critics.

Getting off my soapbox, I wouldn’t say that Endgame was a bad film, it's not. But Captain Marvel was, and Marvel is telegraphing a future that might be as cringy, and ridiculous as the comics are now. Naturally, sales will eventually decline. Even after the success of the Captain Marvel movie, her comic book was recently canceled… again. But it looks like Marvel Studios is going to have to learn the same lesson that their comic book counterparts have had to learn, and that’s unfortunate.

Captain America’s choice to stay in the past was also severely out of character. Cap has always been about personal sacrifice for the greater good, and duty. The idea that he would shirk such responsibility is unfathomable. I believe it would have been a more satisfying ending to have Cap fall in battle and let Iron Man retire. For me, this movie is enjoyable right up to the point where Iron Man passes away. After that, it starts to fall apart, leading to an end that is disappointing, and as a long-time customer of the comics, troubling.

But then there’s one more cringy slight against the classic characters. King Thor of New Asgard

abdicates to Valkyrie because of course he does. Maybe to try and make up for forgetting to give Nat a funeral? Who knows? At the same time, I am looking forward to As-Guardians of the Galaxy. Thor belongs with the Guardians. Tonally, they’re a much better fit for Hemsworth’s hilarious take on the character.

Because they forgot that Nat died because Cap’s behavior was so out of character and because they telegraphed a foray into SJW political propaganda, I have to doc this movie points. What could have easily been a 4 or 4.5-star film is getting a 3.5 from me.

3.5/5

1- https://youtu.be/gNbQLLSoD-E

A note on the images used. These were randomly selected from a google search. I don't know whose they are but will happily provide attribution if someone can tell me who to attribute to.

The Pyrrhic Victory of Captain Marvel

2019-04-14T09:46:00.002-07:00

I’m well past sick of the controversy and debate over Brie Larson and Captain Marvel. But while most people have moved on from this topic, I feel the need to talk about this, hopefully, one last time because of a disgusting article in the Mary Sue mocking us “trolls” for our “failed” boycott. That the Progressive political shills for the extremist wing of the Democratic Party deserve to do a victory lap is a fair point, but they are missing some of the finer details that should give them pause before they spike the ball… not that any of them have ever handled a ball… but I digress. The Mary Sue makes the case that Captain Marvel made a billion dollars, and that will shut up the trolls. Well, as one of those inhuman monsters living under a bridge in Norway that feeds on the blood of Christians (which would make me a lot like the Mary Sue, wouldn’t it? (Either That or the Mary Sue is using the term, “troll” incorrectly.)) I need to make some factual corrections to their claims.

First of all, to say there was an organized boycott is misleading. There was a handful of us that decided not to see this movie. Some of us were personally boycotting Captain Marvel, but there was no organized, widespread boycott.

It should also be noted that this didn’t happen because the Fandom Menace and other groups like it hate women, in fact, many of the leaders of these groups are women. It happened because Brie Larson was making offensive and inflammatory comments about men. And no, they were not out of context. Worse, her only attempt at reconciliation with the fans was the sort of non-apology apology we see when radical Leftists in the Democratic Party say something racist. A journalist will set up an interview, summarize the controversy, then tell the subject of the interview what they actually meant to say, and then the subject will confirm it. It’s disingenuous. Sorry, shills, Brie Larson is a terrible person, and if you sincerely believe in equality and fair treatment for everyone, she is not someone who deserves your white knighting. Especially since she hates anything white. It’s not her favorite color, it turns out.

It’s also worth observing the undeniable fact that Disney went out of its way to protect this film. The deplorable methods they stooped to cut off fan’s means of being able to communicate with each other. They accomplished this by pushing Fandango to remove key features of Rotten Tomatoes, starting with the “want to see/don’t want to see,” poll, which was removed after Disney and their shills complained the movie was being, “review bombed,” when the movie wasn’t even out. No such thing was happening. The poll asked if you wanted to see the movie or not, and the overwhelming response was, “no.” RT even went so far as removing 54,000 lukewarm and negative reviews after the movie released, while leaving up thousands of favorable reviews that were clearly copy-paste jobs being posted by clone accounts. There’s no way the 54,000 deleted reviews were all trolls.

The actions Disney took here prevented word of mouth from getting out that this movie was... well... meh. Turns out the movie wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. But fans ability to communicate their feelings was interfered with in an unprecedented way, and justified by attacking disappointed fans as, “trolls,” “misogynist,” and a whole bunch of other radical Left catchphrases that allowed the Disney shill media to ignore the actual issue... Brie Larson’s own bigotry.

To the point that the movie made a billion dollars. Sure. But Disney released the film just weeks ahead of Endgame, a film bound to be a multi-billion dollar global hit. They also released it in a time frame where it would have an uncontested 3-week run.
Restated, Captain Marvel has three weeks with no competition. The minute it was challenged by another decent film (This is Us), it’s global ticket sales collapsed. But in the lead up to that, there was nothing else of interest to watch at all. Also of note, Disney had released performance expectations for Captain Marvel (CM) that it would do $450-480 million domestically. For the purposes of fairness, we will refer to the more conservative estimate. In actuality, it was closer to $377 mil, at the time of writing. So despite the unprecedented protection this film got, it DID underperform domestically, which means Disney cannot afford to dismiss dissenters as the formula for long term success for Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel isn’t there.

Now, I understand that underperforming is not bombing. It just means they didn’t quite reach their goals, a moot point, perhaps, when you consider that they did reach their global goals. But literally, no one I am aware of expected CM to bomb. Though we did hope it would for similar reasons Disney fans wanted Sony’s Venom to bomb. We fear the direction that this film’s success may steer the franchise. Disney fans fear Venom’s success means losing Peter Parker. We feared CM’s success means Peter Parker will be broomed in favor of Miles Morales. It’s essentially the same fear. They’ve already dipped their toe in that direction with Into the Spider-verse, which was actually a really fun movie, though it foreshadows danger for those hoping we’d have Tom Holland for a long time to come. Worse, the emergence of a cinematic pallet swap character like Miles Morales would only be the beginning of the characters we know being replaced with more pallet swaps. Amadeus Cho replaces Bruce Banner, Kate Bishop replaces Hawkeye, Laura Kinney becomes “Wolverine,” and on and on and on. Then they tell such original stories like, “Civil War II,” “Secret Wars II,” and ”Old Woman Laura.” Most of these iconic tales will be the same stories they’ve already told, but with the heroes we grew up with replaced with insufferable radical leftist lecturers who too easily beat the baddies, then stop for a Selfie. No joke, the comics have been that bad. Worse, even.

Marvel Comics aren’t selling that well either. We believe that they think that, once everyone sees their replacement crew on the big screen, that will turn around. Carol Danvers was a pallet swap for the original female Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau. Incidentally, Monica is African-American, but I guess not progressive enough? Let’s just admit Progressives don’t actually care about women or minorities (beyond scaring them half to death with nonsense about the evil ”other” out to get them), so poor Monica got tossed under the bus and lily-white Carol Danvers got pallet swapped in because #MarvelSoRacist. Either that or Monica is secretly a Republican and a fan of Thomas Sowell like I am. So far, Carol Danvers CM’s comics are still not selling well. But they’re doing this anyway.

The decline in comic sales didn’t happen over night. It was a process that took years and was impacted by numerous factors. The embrace of extremist Leftism was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. If the comic sales are any indication, the era of fun, amazing superhero stories are about to end. The era of fighting super villains is about to end. In their place, Leftist lectures, selfies and “smashing the patriarchy.” Don’t believe me? Go read the current Captain Marvel series, now on its umpteenth reboot since Carol Danvers took on the mantle. That series is a perfect example of the garbage writing coming down the pike. In fact, CM the movie gives more than a few hints of this new, “woke” direction. They even went so far as portraying the villainous Skrulls as misunderstood refugees, rather than a sinister war mongering race using subterfuge to conquer Earth, like in the old comics. The world created by Stan Lee and his friends is being erased, and if you think CNN is insufferable, wait till you get a load of SJW Marvel. That’s why we’ve been putting up a fight. It’s not about hating on women and minorities. It’s about hating on bad storytelling, especially when the story suffers from political agenda pushing. It’s about hating seeing characters we love, including characters like Rogue (ignored), Jean Grey (fridged for well over a decade), Black Widow (ignored), Black Panther (killed and replaced by his little sister Shuri), and Blade (ignored and quietly replaced by his daughter), swept aside or ignored while they kill off other classic characters to replace them with new “woke” versions. It’s about hating that characters don’t have trials and tribulations to overcome now, just lectures to give, and selfies to take. I keep hammering the selfie because it happens a lot, and it’s stupid. Also, Marvel’s leader has never been made to answer why they keep replacing classic heroes with pallet swaps, rather than introducing new, diverse characters. Almost as if to say that female and minority characters can’t make it without a white male mantle, a disgusting notion to be sure. #MarvelSoRacist.

With all that said, it is odd no one is talking CM 2. Not that they shouldn’t. Carol Danvers used to be pretty cool. She used to suffer and grow like everyone else. If they allow for that, she can be an amazing character.

Disney has to know this first movie only succeeded because of how they manipulated the market and interfered with fans talking to each other about this film. They have to know they will not be able to do this every time there’s a new CM centered film. They can’t protect every movie this way. They certainly didn’t protect Dumbo. Nor can they afford simultaneous global release to minimize the impact of word of mouth. Nor can they always release during significant times of no competition. Disney won this round, but it is ultimately a pyrrhic victory. Captain Marvel is insufferable. Word of mouth is now getting around that the movie is meh. Too late to stop ticket sales now, but not future releases. Endgame will be a smash hit, but if the intention is still to have CM be the face of the MCU going forward, the fate of future MCU solo films might look, well more like Solo.

Disney and their shills can celebrate now, but to pretend this film would have performed like this under normal conditions is deceptive. And to pretend that the “40-year-old men” (and women) who were upset with Brie’s bigotry had no impact is disingenuous. Again, look at their goals. Goal: 450 million domestically. Actual: 377 Million Domestically after release in close proximity to the highest anticipated film ever, cutting into fan’s ability to communicate their dissatisfaction, simultaneous global release (which also slowed word of mouth) and having no competition at all. There can be no doubt that we did impact the film domestically. Many have reported that China’s response to the film was also very negative, with many fans over there referring to Brie Larson as “too ugly to be a superhero,” and some even going so far as to compare her to their, “angry ex-wife.” So laugh all you want, Disney, but Brie Larson is hardly endearing herself to the global fan base, especially with video of her interacting with her teammates starting to get out there. One video of her interaction with Thor’s Chris Hemsworth suggests its not just dissatisfied fans Brie has a hard time getting along with. And let’s face reality… if you fix the problems and make Brie behave like a decent human being, when she appears in public and keep the movies good, we win. Keep going woke, and you’ll go broke eventually... and we will win. Either way, SJW Marvel will lose eventually. And that’s a good thing because these participation trophy generation “creatives” can learn a lot from failures. Sadly for them, the long term writing is already on the wall, and I think the ink is already dry.

How Marvel Should Introduce The X-Men Pt. 2

2019-03-03T15:35:00.000-08:00

181: Wolverine Vs The Hulk.

The second part of my three-arc proposal would be a film simply titled 181: Wolverine Vs the Hulk. We would do this because Universal still owns the primary distribution rights of all Hulk solo films. This is a workaround. But also, 181 is a call back to the first full appearance of the Wolverine. We would also include an Easter egg in the film to justify the unusual naming convention. If not for that, I would prefer we call the Incredible Hulk: 181. This treatment borrows heavily from Hulk 180, 181, Ultimate Hulk Vs Wolverine and the cartoon film Hulk Vs Wolverine

The town has been destroyed. There’s not a single house or business intact. There are dead bodies strewn about. The grizzled man with wing-tipped hair and mutton chops kneels next to one of the smashed bodies as his eyes dart back and forth scanning for every last detail. He reports his observations to a nearby military general, James Hudson. James then asks the man, Logan, if there is anything else, he should know. Logan rises to his full height and comments that the scent of the perpetrator is weird, even toxic. James asks if he believes this could be the work of the Hulk. Logan replies there’s no doubt.

They engage in a conversation about how odd this is, considering that Banner and Hulk have become one entity (Professor Hulk), and Banner should have more control than this. Logan is then tasked with bringing down the Hulk, killing him if needed. Logan agrees as he is handed a file labeled, “Project 181.” James Hudson then advises Logan that he is now in the employ of Department H, and as such, has to comply with the Sokolov Accords, which, according to Canadian Law, requires him to wear a costume easily identifiable as a super-hero to reassure the public. Logan grumbles about this but is given a case containing the blue and yellow variant (but it should be the Astonishing X-Men variant, which would probably translate better to film.) As a call back to the original X-Men film, Logan makes a smart remark about yellow. He then observes that “at least it doesn’t have whiskers.” (An inside joke and reference to his original suit from Hulk 181.)

Logan is asked by James if there is anything other equipment he needs. Logan replies by popping the claws of his right hand and holding them up. “Nope, I got all I need right here.”

Logan immediately heads into the woods, following Hulk’s trail. After a sequence of Logan tracking, he finds the Hulk, injured, with wounds that resemble an animal attack. They are healing, but Logan is surprised to see Hulk in this condition. Still, he states that Hulk is wanted for the massacre of Appalachia. He then encourages Hulk to come willingly without a fight, but then pops his claws and says he hopes he doesn’t choose that option. Hulk insists he didn’t do anything, but Logan points back in the direction of the leveled town. Hulk is frustrated by the accusations and charges Logan, which is exactly what the Wolverine wanted. They fight. The fight is brutal, and during the fight, they discover that Adamantium hurts Hulk, and he can’t just shrug off the damage.

Feeling like he has the upper hand, Logan tries to increase his ferocity, allowing himself to go, full

berserker, Hulk, fearing for his life, breaks the alliance with Banner, and breaks from the Professor Hulk to go full Hulk, which allows him to become even stronger and less susceptible to damage. The two Berserkers battle with complete ruthlessness until a howling is heard off camera. They both pause to look in the direction of the howl and find the Wendigo charging at them full throttle. It collides with the Hulk. The collision is powerful enough to send a shockwave that sends Logan flying. As he gets up and sees the two massive creatures fighting he is shocked. He can’t smell the Wendigo. He doesn’t know why, but something seems otherworldly about this beast… supernatural. Seeing the havoc being wrecked by the creatures, Logan tries to jump between them, shouting, “All right, you freaks… Just hold it!” (Direct dialogue from Hulk 180) The two creatures pause and turn towards Logan. “If you really want to tangle with someone… why not try your luck against the Wolverine?!” (Again, direct dialogue from Hulk 180). He pops his claws and lunges into the fracas. “Heads up furries, the Wolverine is coming through!” (A slight update to actual dialogue from Hulk 181).

The three fight. Logan finds his claws are more effective against the Wendigo, so he shifts his focus to the creature and forces the Wendigo off a cliff. Logan goes with him, leaving Hulk behind. Hulk decides to leap down after them and pounces Wendigo. He shifts a smiling glance towards Logan indicating a desire to work together. “Pointy Man Help Hulk!” He says, “Beat Wendigo!”

Logan pauses, “Wendigo’s a myth!” He shouts as the Wendigo shouts its own name and smashes Logan into a nearby tree.

Borrowing actual dialogue from the comic again, (because its fun), Hulk shouts, “Wendigo is strong… but Hulk and Hulk’s friend are stronger!”

Logan is confused as to why he’s suddenly being treated as a friend, but decides to roll with it, and joins Hulk in the fray against the Wendigo. He leaps onto Wendigo’s back, hacking and slashing at him a fair bit, before leaping off, allowing Hulk to grab Wendigo and toss him into two massive trees. Both of which break and come crashing down. Logan leaps onto Wendigo running his claws through its neck as he lands.

“Dead?” Hulk asks, pointing to the Wendigo’s body.

Wolverine sheathes his claws, then shakes his head. “Well, if this really is the Wendigo, then no. Legend has it he’s immortal. He’ll just regenerate.” Logan then turns to the Hulk. He has realized there’s more to the story of the massacre and doesn’t want to hurt an innocent man. Instead, he tries to reason with him… a bit. “Look, I can vouch for you, but I have to bring you in…”

“Nooooo!” Hulk shouts and pounds his fists causing a small tremor.

“Fine!” Wolverine pops his claws, “Then it’s your turn!”

The two fight on with both feeling betrayed. However, this fight doesn’t end well for Logan. At some point in the fight, Hulk manages to get ahold of the small and feisty fight and lifts him over his head, and in a PG-13 way, tears him in half, tossing his top half to the ground, and his lower half up a mountain. Logan blacks out completely at that point.

Obviously, it can't look like this... PG-13 and all

The scene shifts to an ethereal world where Logan is standing in a bamboo forest without a shirt. He is approached by a panda who is snacking on a bamboo shaft. The panda greets him. Logan is shocked but responds with pleasantries of his own. Logan asks if he is dreaming, and the panda responds that just because it’s a dream doesn’t mean it isn’t happening (UWvH #5). Logan asks who the panda is, and the Panda is upset that he wasn’t recognized, insisting that he’s Logan’s spirit animal. Logan dismisses it insisting his spirit animal is the Wolverine. The Panda mocks him because Wolverines aren’t willing to be spirit animals in the first place. Wolverine then asks if the Panda is his heart of Gold side, which the panda finds offensive and warns that if Logan doesn’t stop, he’ll get angry… “and you won’t like me when I’m angry.” (A reference to the classic Banner line, as well as direct dialogue from UWvH # 5) Wolverine then responds that he doesn’t like the bear now, and then calls him cuddly. This angers the Panda who comes charging right for him. Logan pops his claws and charges right for the panda who gets Logan’s head in his mouth and bites, causing Logan to wake up.

Wolverine finds himself in a pool of his own blood. “Blood?” He asks. “What happened?” He manages to twist so he is lying on his back. “Me legs?” He asks. “Why can’t I feel…?” He looks down. Again, this is PG-13 so we won’t show it. “I can’t feel my legs!” He exclaims. “I can’t feel my legs!” He starts to hyperventilate. He then pops his claws on his right hand, looks at the metal and says, “unbreakable my…” He then hears a distant roar. He sniffs the air, then shifts his gaze up a nearby mountain. “He threw my legs up the mountain?!” He hears the roar again, but its further away. He then pops his claws on his other hand and starts to pull himself towards, and then up the mountain. Again, we have to be careful here, this should all be done PG-13. “I can’t believe he… up a friggin’ mountain?”

It starts to snow, and it starts to grow dark, but Wolverine makes it to his legs. As he’s reaching for them a boot stomps down in front of him. He looks up, and its Nick Fury, and General Ross. “I was under the impression you were unbreakable, Mr. Howlett…”

Logan looks up, but his vision is fading. “Fury…” he says, as the screen fades to black.

Logan awakens in a medical bay of a shield carrier. Nick Fury is there waiting for him to wake up, alongside General Ross. They explain that Logan has to hurry, and can’t afford to fail again because Canada is readying a nuclear missile that they will launch against the Hulk if he isn’t stopped. Logan tries to defend the Hulk, urging them to try and get the Canadian government to reconsider since Logan can now attest that it is the Wendigo that is at fault. The promise to pass this along but stress the urgency in Wolverine succeeding. Logan then stresses he needs to learn about the Wendigo because the key to stopping Hulk is in stopping the Wendigo. He is granted access to the Shield computers. Though he’s not much for computers and has to be instructed in their use. After a time he discovers information about the Wendigo which reveals that it is a curse that is brought to bear by a ritual. He then announces his findings to Fury, and states his intention to find the people responsible for the ritual, and force them to undo it. Fury agrees and promises to make a phone call to Department H.

Logan then gets to do a skydive out of the Helicarrier and lands in Appalachia. After searching for clues, he finds a small stone hut that has managed to not be affected by the Hulk’s battle with the Wendigo. He enters, and finds two teenagers, huddled in the corner, scared out of their minds. He allows his inner panda to come out, showing compassion, offering them each a ration he had on hand, and assuring them he’s there to help. The girl, Marie Cartier, volunteers that the whole mess is their fault. They had stumbled upon the legend of the Wendigo on the Internet. There was an Internet Challenge, but no one had been successful. She had done some research into the Dark Arts and learned that something was missing from the challenges instructions. To summon the Wendigo, the one that was to be the demon’s host would need to eat human flesh. She confesses that they had lured a homeless man to this hovel, killed him, and her brother Paul, ate from his flesh while they filmed the whole thing with the intent to put it on YouTube.

Logan is noticeably disturbed by the whole thing. He turns to the boy, Georges Baptiste, for confirmation. Georges insists he did everything he could to talk the Cartiers out of this. That the whole challenge was meant to be a joke. Logan then asks how they can defeat the Wendigo. She then states that defeating the Wendigo is not her intention. Logan then hears something down the nearby stairs. He gets up to investigate and finds the Wendigo chained to a stone bed. Before he can finish asking what the hell, Marie reaches around his head from behind and exposes him to a powder which renders him unconscious.

The scene shifts to Marie stepping outside into the rising sun. She tells Georges they need to hurry and find the Hulk. She has a unique staff with her, as well as a bag of supplies. Georges complains that this is going too far, that Paul wouldn’t want to be freed this way. But to Marie, it doesn’t matter. She hears the Hulk roaring in the distance and follows after him. Eventually, she catches up to him. When she finds the Hulk, she finds him shifting between three forms, Banner, Hulk, Professor Hulk. Banner is trying to re-assure Hulk that he didn’t know those kids were going to try and hurt him and that they have to continue to work together to defeat the Wendigo. Hulk sees the kids, and there is a flashback which explains details left out of the story that Marie told Logan.

In her original attempt at the ritual, Marie, Paul and Georges lured Professor Hulk to their Hovel. They fed him, then tried to lull him to sleep. However, Hulk woke up during the ritual and escaped. Desperate not to be discredited on YouTube, Paul consumed the human meat they intended to force feed the sleeping Professor Hulk, and insists the ritual be completed. They complete the ritual and a demon takes Paul, turning him into the Wendigo right before their iPhones. At first, the remaining kids are excited, they completed the challenge. But then Wendigo rages and chases after Hulk where it forces Hulk into a battle. That battle destroys the whole town, people are killed trying to get away. Hulk is trying to protect people, but essentially to no avail because Wendigo just doesn’t care.

Hulk comes out of the flashback and confronts Marie about lying to him and trying to hurt him. Banner insists they work together but Hulk complains the Professor Hulk form is just not strong enough. They wrestle for control, and Marie takes advantage of this to slam her staff into the ground in a way that catches the fresh morning sun’s rays, and hits Hulk/Banner/Professor Hulk with a spell which not only puts him out but nullifies the Hulk form, returning Banner to his human form.

Despite Georges’ protests, Marie binds Banner and insists they drag him back to the hovel so they can complete the ritual the way it was meant to happen, and free her brother in the process. They drag Banner back to the Hovel, bind him to the stone bed and begin the ritual. Sadly, for them, Banner is out, leaving no one to hold the Hulk back. He shifts into full Hulk and knocks the kids aside. He roars at them but then bounces off into the distance. Marie realizes what’s happened and insists she has to go after Hulk to stop him from rampaging. Georges refuses to go with her, instead, he retreats to the Hovel.

The scene shifts back to the Hovel, Logan has come to and demands to know what’s going on. Georges looks at the unconscious Wendigo, then explains that Marie is out of control because she is trying to save her brother from this curse. He then fills Logan in on the details he was missing, but then assures him that he won’t let the Hulk be turned into the Wendigo, he doesn’t want that kind of power to fuse with that kind of monstrous evil. The Wendigo is a cannibalistic animal demon that cannot truly be stopped. If he were to gain the power of the Hulk, it could mean the end of the world. He then urges Logan not to worry he has a different plan. Logan asks for details, but Georges asks if Logan heals fast. Logan asks why, and Georges pops out a switchblade.

The scene shifts to Marie trying to find the Hulk. She finds him and starts to prepare another sleep powder while he gets ready to charge her, but then they both hear the Wendigo roar. Realizing Georges was headed back to the Hovel, she runs towards the Hovel instead, while being pursued by the Hulk. She reaches the Hovel, seeing Logan first, blood under his leg. He complains that people keep going after his legs, but they appear fine, as they have healed. Hulk steps in and laughs that Wolverine is chained up, but then notices that Marie’s gaze is locked on Georges who is transforming into the Wendigo as Paul is returning to normal.

Wolverine tries to goad Hulk into freeing him before the transformation is complete, but Hulk just mocks him again. The transformation finishes, but Wendigo, rather than fighting, bursts through the nearest wall to flee.

Marie, meanwhile, rushes to her brother who is waking up asking what happened. Marie then tells him that Georges sacrificed himself to save him. Logan cries foul because it was actually his leg that was sacrificed. He tries again to goad Hulk into freeing him, and Hulk once more mocks him. Marie then confesses that the chains are cursed to inhibit strength. That the chains were meant for Banner. Hulk then begrudgingly agrees to free Logan… by throwing him against the ground so hard the chains shatter.

Logan Gets up, pops his claws and takes an aggressive stance towards the Hulk. Hulk says, “friends?” Logan replies he’s owed an apology for tearing him in half. Hulk offers a snarky, “sorry,” to which Logan offers that this was good enough, and they both go charging after the Wendigo.

They battle the Wendigo together, and this time overcome him with ease. Hulk relinquishes part control to Banner and they merge again to become Professor Hulk. Marie volunteers bindings she just cursed to inhibit the Wendigo’s strength. She is distraught that, while she got her brother back, it cost her her dearest friend. She then volunteers to surrender to the Authorities. And speaking of the devil… Nick Fury, General Ross, and James Hudson arrive in military escort vehicles. All guns locked on the protagonists and antagonist. Hulk and Wolverine both put their hands up. Marie next.

Fury compliments Wolverine on a job well done and then encourages Professor Hulk to go along with them because if he does not, the Canadian government will be firing a nuke at him in mere moments. Professor Hulk agrees to go. Ross insists, not like that. Banner convinces Hulk to stand down, and a collar is placed around his neck that would choke him out if he changes and he is cuffed. Fury assures him that they will get everything cleared up and he’ll be free in no time. Banner asks how he knew they were there, and Fury replies that he’s Nick Fury. He knows everything.

As Hulk is escorted away and the Wendigo is being put in chains, and that binding at Marie’s insistence. Logan calls out to Banner, “Hey Banner!” Banner turns towards him. “When you get out, let’s talk about round two.” Logan smiles and punches his own hand.

Banner’s eyes turn emerald and he gives Logan a wry grin, before turning away and entering the vehicle.

FTB

A post credit scene

Logan is yelling at James Hudson over his being transferred to the States and relieved of Duty from Department H. He wants to know why. It is explained that the United States Government has requested Logan’s help with tracking down the Mutant Rogue, who put Carol Danvers into a vegetative state. Logan admits he wants revenge, because he did a mission with Carol, and enjoyed her company. Almost considered her a friend… almost. But then the room freezes, and Logan turns to find the source of the odd occurrence. There he sees a thin bald man in a wheelchair surrounded by six young men and women in colorful outfits (this, of course, would be the original five plus Storm.).

The man in the chair smiles and introduces himself. “Greetings, Logan. I’m Charles Xavior….”

Cut to black.

How Marvel Should Introduce the X-Men (Pt 1/3)

2019-02-17T14:15:00.000-08:00

There’s a ton of debate over where Marvel should go following it’s bound to be epic Avengers: Endgame. While we know that we can expect some of our favorite characters to ride off into the sunset, and newer characters to step up, we don’t know a lot about what storylines Marvel will pursue, or even how new acquisitions, such as the Fantastic Four or the X-Men will affect the franchise. This has caused a lot of fervor on the Internet as various geek sites all rise to unanimously say the exact same thing as everyone else. Give us FF and X-Men now, but keep Wolverine out of it, at least for now. I’m sorry, Screen Rant, What Culture, and everyone else...I disagree.

We’re I in a position where I could influence, I would advocate for a three-arc structure that would bring Wolverine and the X-Men into the fold, while updating the concept of the X-Men to address Deadpool’s astute observation in DP2 that the X-Men are a dated metaphor for racism in 1960s America. Despite the paranoia sold to the masses by an increasingly bias media, most prejudice in America doesn’t begin with race these days, but often collective judgements against groups of people that are usually sparked by security concerns. For instance, growing up in a pre-9-11 world, most people I knew had no idea what a Muslim really was (self-including). No one harbored any ill will towards them at all. I only knew of Islam because I worked with a

Muslim, and he was one of the coolest people I ever had the honor of working with. Post 9-11, everyone felt they knew what a Muslim was, and sadly that came with increased mistrust and fear.

As an individualist, I have always been sharply critical of collectivism, as it causes us to make assessments about people based on their group identity, rather than individual character. But if you confront people about this, they insist this has nothing to do with skin color. Regardless, it’s still bigotry, and we can update the X-Men metaphor so that it more accurately reflects the

problems America faces due to collective judgment.

My treatment would adapt the following:

Uncanny X-Men # 1, Avengers Annual # 10 (1981)

Hulk 181

Finally, Uncanny X-Men #158, and 171.

It should be noted these would be loose adaptations, and may

borrow story beats from other books.

We also make the following assumptions for the Post-Endgame MCU:

Captain America perishes

Captain Marvel becomes the new leader.

Iron-Man survives but retires.

Obviously, Hulk survives, but as Professor Hulk. We may have to modify some aspects of 181 to accommodate this change.

Captain Marvel 2: (Inspired by 1981’s Avengers Annual # 10.)

At first, despite her growing popularity with the public, Captain Marvel is having difficulty as the new leader of the Avengers. Many feel she is too new to lead, others feel like she upstages them at every turn. Concerned, Carol visits Tony Stark who advises her on how to connect better with her team and encourages her to avoid being like him. She decides to take his advice and begins to try and build a stronger bond with her teammates. She is successful.

In the post-endgame world, Carol Danvers has shifted the attention of the surviving Avengers towards Skrull hunting, as she remains concerned about a secret Skrull invasion. She becomes aware of a growing group of social outcasts led by a wanted terrorist who goes by the moniker, “Magneto.” She believes he is a Skrull, because Eric Lensher was a survivor of Auschwitz and he should have died of natural causes by now, yet somehow, he is not only alive but appears in his late Middle Ages. What’s worse is that his 2nd in command is a woman who calls herself Mystique, and she is undeniably a shapeshifter.

Magneto attacks a Nuclear base with the intent of stealing nuclear missiles he intends to use against the US government. This attack takes place early in the film. The X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, Jean, Beast, Ice-Man, and Angel) show up to assist the Avengers (minus Hulk, who is visiting Canada) and are able to help capture Magneto, but the rest of the brotherhood (Mystique, Rogue, Blob, Avalanche, Toad, and Pyro) gets away. Captain Marvel asks the X-

Men who they are and why they showed up. They explain that they are mutants who have been in hiding and were worried about how people would perceive Mutants if all they see was Magneto’s act of terror.

The Brotherhood then goes about trying to rescue Magneto by splitting their forces into two groups. One, led by Mystique, will attack the Avengers Headquarters. The other would blow try to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge. The rationale is that by luring the Avengers so far away, they won’t have time to deal with the assault on their HQ. When Captain Marvel becomes aware of the plan, she takes the bait, leading her best team away and leaving behind only minimal security. That smaller team left behind would include Scarlet Witch, who has been talking with her father, and unbeknownst to Captain Marvel, is starting to question her loyalties.

Mystique and her crew attack the Avengers HQ and meet greater resistance than they anticipated, but eventually overcome the security when they convince Scarlet Witch to switch sides and help her father. She does and helps to free Magneto. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood’s B-Team is fighting the Avengers A-Team and are losing badly until Rogue communicates to Mystique (via communicator) that she has a chance to subdue Captain Marvel. Mystique orders Rogue to take hold of her and spells out... without gloves. Rogue nearly panics over the order but complies. Captain Marvel is distracted by someone else, and Rogue latches onto her, skin to skin. She finds Carol’s powers to be overwhelming, but Mystique orders her to keep

a hold on her. The other Avengers try to rush to the aid of their leader, but the process of absorbing Carol’s powers is an explosive process, and no one can break Rogue’s grip. Finally, Carol is drained to the point where she is just shy of looking like a corpse. In a panic, Rogue uses her new powers to fly high into the sky and releases an energy burst that brightens the night sky. Realizing Carol is near death, Rogue panics again and tosses Carol into the river below before screaming and flying off at top speed. Once Rogue is gone, the remaining Brotherhood successfully blows the bridge and escape, leaving the Avengers humiliated and defeated. The media then begins reporting on the mutant menace and calling for action from the government. Action, the remaining Avengers support.

Magneto celebrates their victory. He declares that Mystique has given him two great gifts, a

reunion with his daughter, and the ultimate weapon for Mutant supremacy. He then orders the

Brotherhood to find Rogue. Meanwhile back at the X-Mansion professor X warns his students that they must find Rogue before anyone else does, and they’re the only ones who can help her now.

A post credit scene reveals a small town in Canada that’s been utterly decimated. A military general is on the phone chastising General Ross over the phone for losing track of the Hulk. He makes it clear he has to take action to protect the interest of Canada. He hangs up the phone, then turns to another military man and nods. That other man puts his phone to his head and says, “Department H, we are go... send in the Wolverine.”

End Capt. Marvel 2

Next: 181: Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine

Welcome Home Spider-Man! (minimal spoilers)

2017-07-16T17:59:00.001-07:00

As Marvel began to build up its cinematic universe, they began to outdo the quality of rival film studios who had owned the rights to key Marvel characters, like Spider-Man, and the X-Men. As time went on, and the buildup for Civil War (a story arch I still contend they did too soon) began, many asked how Civil War could be faithfully replicated without Spider-Man. Against all odds, Sony’s failing Spider-Man franchise reached a breaking point which allowed for an historic deal to be made, of epic proportions. For now, at least, the two studios would share Spider-Man. While the details of this deal are still somewhat convoluted, and the long term longevity of this deal remains unclear, the first fruits of this deal manifested in a brilliant 20-minute guest appearance of Spider-Man that made Civil War, already a good movie, that much better. Tom Holland might be the third iteration of Peter Parker on the Silver Screen in less than ten years, but even in that moment he had in Civil War, it was clear he was the best one so far. For the first time since Spider-Man 2’s ending credits, I was optimistic for the future of the franchise.

Cut to today, and I could not be happier. Spider-Man Homecoming is a much-needed return to form. Playing out more like Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man series, the story does modernize Peter a bit, but refrains from making him the cell phone checking, hashtag spouting, Facebook posting type of hero we see infesting the pages of modern Marvel Comics, Peter Parker is just a dork. A super genius, brilliant, socially awkward dork who doesn’t even fit in with his fellow nerds. Just as he should be. Toby McGuire was sheepish and shy, quiet and introverted. Andrew Garfield was just another one of the bros. Tom Holland is a science nerd and a fan boy dork, exactly like I was in High School, I won’t lie. This made me so happy, because it’s always been this aspect of Peter Parker that previous film makers have struggled with, and yet finally we seem to have an actor and a director who fully understand who Peter Parker is.

They also understand the conflict he has had to deal with in the past. In the comics, his deep convictions that with great power comes great responsibility leads him to act, but he has also had ambitions to be more than what he is. Like all kids, and frankly adults, he believes he can do more than he is doing, and he is looking for a chance to prove himself. The film spends a lot of time with Peter Parker trying to prove to Tony Stark that he is ready to be a full-fledged Avenger, but Tony, while he doesn’t say so outright, knows that he’s not quite there yet, and so he keeps the boy at arm’s length, only putting in a few appearances over the course of the film.

Over the course of the film, Peter discovers an underground weapons manufacturing and sales operation, which is putting high-tech, alien technology on the streets, much of it salvaged from the remains of the Avenger’s misadventures. Peter tries to alert Tony Stark, begging for help, but feels he is not listened to, so against the direct orders of Iron Man, Peter takes matters into his own hands.

Over the course of the story, Peter finds himself withdrawing further and further from the people who matter most to him and is nearly killed several times. The last time, however, it finally clicks for him that this isn’t a game, that real lives are in danger, and in that moment Peter is finally able to set aside his ambitions to do the right thing.

While Tony Stark sort of inserts himself into a surrogate father role (even joking about it at one point), Stark ends up being vindicated in the end as Peter comes to realize he isn’t ready for the big time, nor does he want to be, he just wants to be the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and better balance his responsibilities as Peter Parker as well, and that’s okay.

This is a coming of age Teen comedy with superhero elements, and it works extremely well. Once again Marvel shows us that Super-Hero movies need not be a genre unto itself, but can be as diverse as any other genre. We have seen Marvel branch out into Spy-thrillers, comedy, and westerns (though credit Fox for that one), and each time they branch out they breathe new life into a genre that many complain is growing stale.

I really loved this movie and its Conservative message that you should listen to your parents (or mentors joking about being a sort-of-father figure) because, although they may use harsh words, they are only thinking about your best interest because they care about you. But the movie is not without its problems.

The secondary and tertiary characters were largely uninteresting. Now there are some exceptions to this, of course. I loved “Man in the chair,” Ned. I never knew Peter Parker needed a man in the chair until they gave him Ned, and I hope that Ned not only stays with us for years to come but will be the start of a sort of “team-spider” operation, especially since many of Peter Parker’s friends eventually go on, in the comics, to become other heroes and villains… Including Ned Leeds. Aunt May, while a surprisingly small role, was brilliant, and her scene at the very end gave me some of the hardest belly laughs I have had in quite some time… only to be one upped by a clever Captain America cameo at the very, very, very end. Michael Keaton was also great as the Vulture. A sympathetic, but no-nonsense, blue collar entrepreneur who got screwed by the collusion of Stark Industries with Uncle Sam. Naturally, he blames Stark, not Uncle Sam… I don’t know why people do that, but it is very true to life, not unlike how people are blaming Health Insurance companies, right now, for the mess Obamacare made… But even as sympathetic as the Vulture is, he isn’t as fun as Willem DaFoe’s Green Goblin, or as sympathetic as Alfred Molina’s Doc Oc. Part of it is that Vulture is kind of a jerk, he’s relatable, but not necessarily likable. Still, I look forward to seeing more of him, as he breaks the long standing tradition of Spider-Man villains dying at the end.

But beyond the stand outs, characters like Liz Allen Tombs, Flash Thompson, and so on, just didn’t really compel me to care much for them, especially Zendaya’s Michelle Jones. Michelle will be a controversial character because Marvel and Sony used her as an SJW character who makes cringe worthy political commentaries that are wholly unnecessary. I think the fear was that with as conservative every other aspect of the film is, dealing with family, patience, and especially respect for your elders, that they needed a Left of Center character to help the film feel balanced. I disagree. Michelle, to me, had a couple of funny moments, and I am glad to see Zendaya is a much better actress than her Disney roots have shown previously, this character is bound to be divisive among the fans.

Other problems I see are the changes made to Flash Thompson. Flash has always been a foot ball jock school bully. He had been a physical threat to Peter Parker before they eventually became friends. Making Flash another one of the nerds, who happens to be a douche, is bound to frustrate longtime fans, but even more so, the fact that Flash, like almost everyone else rounding out the cast, was just an uninteresting character in general.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy may have featured a less interesting Peter Parker, but wasn’t afraid to round out the cast with more than a few quirky and interesting characters, from the Bruce Campbell cameos (bring those back please), to the amazing JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, and all the crazy and silly journalists that worked at the Daily Bugle. Disney, Sony and Marvel should look to bringing these guys back, and since we know that Oscorp and the Goblin are inevitable, they ought to do the audience a massive service by bringing back Willem DaFoe… but this time not in a Power Ranger’s costume. I hope they build slowly toward The Green Goblin, but no one can top the brilliant way Willem DaFoe performed it.

Lastly, on the subject of Peter Parker’s love life. Gwen Stacy died ages ago. Seriously, my dad was a kid when it happened, it’s not necessary to keep digging her up, especially after the death of Gwen was dealt with in the last Andrew Garfield film. Peter Parker and Mary Jane were happily married the entire time I was growing up reading comics. The One More Day story arch, separating the two of them, is one of the most hated stories in all of Marvel Comics. Fans love PP + MJ. We are not wanting Mary Jane replaced with Michelle Jones. While I am perfectly content to Spider-Man building towards Mary Jane, I’d rather we get her back sooner, rather than later. I’m eager to see Spider-Man fully back on track.

Marvel and its partners should, not only prepare to work together for the long haul, not just on this film, but any Spider-related spin offs, but they should also fully embrace the elements of Spider-Man in the past that worked, and they shouldn’t be afraid to borrow, heavily, from the first two Raimi films. Spider-Man Homecoming is a massive step in the right direction, but I’m sure I’m not alone in a desire to see everything we loved about Spider-Man, that recent films and comics have taken away, fully restored… Including Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.

‘Nuff Said.

4 out of 5 Stars

Conservative Movie of the Year: Kubo and the Two Strings

2016-12-30T08:58:00.001-08:00

Conservatives often complain that Hollywood makes no Conservative films, and when they do, we either don’t notice, or we let them bomb. The first Atlas Shrugged was good. It bombed. The two sequels lacked the budget to be good as a result. In Kubo and the Two Strings, we have an even bigger cinematic tragedy, because here is a great movie, one that is surprisingly Conservative and without beating you over the head with it, and it tanked, badly.

The truly bizarre part is that, despite its inherent Conservatism, the film was actually well loved by critics. Certified Fresh at 97%, with an audience score of 87%, meaning viewers and critics alike really enjoyed this colorful, vibrant and imaginative movie. How is it that a movie with so much universal praise can utterly fail at the box office? I don’t know, but honestly, we need to do a much better job at finding movies like this and helping them to succeed.

The story centers around a young demi-god named Kubo, whose mother, a moon goddess, is trying to escape the wrath of her father after falling in love with, marrying, and having a child with a human named Hanzo. She barely escapes with her life, and we are led to believe that Hanzo is dead. Her father has stolen one of her son’s eyes, also, though we are not told why in the beginning.

Over the course of the next several years, Sariatu, begins to lose her grip on reality. Paranoid, freaked out, she warns Kubo to never stay out after dark, but doesn’t explain why. Soon, however, Kubo is celebrating a ritualistic day of remembrance, and prays to his father for guidance, only to not receive an answer. He becomes frustrated and loses track of time. Once the moon “sees” him, he is immediately beset upon by his aunts, both of whom are powerful witches bent on bringing him to his grandfather. His mother seemingly sacrifices herself so that he is able to escape, during which he is able to grab a piece of her hair.

Kubo awakes later to find the monkey charm he had been given as a child has sprung to life, and is

now serving as a guardian, alongside an origami samurai, and later on a beetle warrior. (Spoiler Alert) as the story progresses, Kubo begins a search for a magical set of armor and an unbreakable sword. He finds them, but more importantly, he learns that the monkey, and the beetle are actually his parents. Magic has brought them back so they could be together once more. Tragically, both are felled over the course of the journey. Kubo takes his mother’s hair, and his father’s bow strings as mementos as he prepares for the final battle with the moon god, his grandfather.

As the battle precedes, Kubo finds the magic armor and sword are not doing enough against the dark powers of his grandfather. He restrings his guitar using his hair, his mother’s hair, and his father’s bow string, and using the power that is generated from that, is able to defeat his grandfather. The thing is, his two parents and their love give him the power to overcome adversary. The villain’s daughter and her husband’s love also give him a clean slate and the opportunity to find redemption. Family saves the day. A two parent structure, saves the day. The two strings are Kubo’s mother and father. The film ends with Kubo first lamenting the loss of his parents, only for him to be reunited with them as they take spirit form to be there with them, because he needs the both of them.

Most films in Hollywood these days will have a widower father or a single mother. Rare is the movie which stands up and boldly proclaims that kids need their mothers and fathers. The film is bright and colorful, and the stop-motion animation technique looks better than ever, and especially so in 3D, if you have the capabilities. That said, seeing it in 2D won’t ruin it. 3D adds a layer of depth to the already imaginative world, but isn’t critical to the experience, it just adds a layer of polish. The film is not overtly political, not even close. The idea that a kid needs a two parent home shouldn’t be political, but has become so in our era of un-enlightenment. With so many movies centered on broken families, and celebrating those fractures, it’s beyond refreshing to see a movie which not only tells a beautiful and imaginative story, but does so while stressing firmly that you need your mom and dad, and unfortunately far too many of us don’t even realize just how much until it’s too late. Go buy this movie, then give your mom a hug, and spend some time with your dad. Let them know how much they mean to you.

Be warned though, that Laika Films has a tendency to include imagry that is a bit creepy and this may not be good for very young children. Though children ver the age of ten should be fine. Kubo and the Two Strings is available on DVD, Blu Ray and 3D Blu Ray.

4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Trump Is Not the Republican Party.

2016-10-10T09:53:00.005-07:00

NOTE: The following is a sample chapter of my upcoming book Dictators and Capitulators: A Conservative's Guide to Surviving the Age of Trump. There is no release date yet. But this is a work in progress, and may not represent the finished product.

While the Democrats would have you simultaneously believe that Trump is not a conservative and that Trump’s “Trumped up/Trickle Down” is the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan’s policies, the fact of the matter is that they were only right with the first half of their portrait of this mad man. Obama made an impassioned plea to Conservatives during the Democratic National Convention to disaffected Republicans that, “...we Democrats have always had plenty of differences with the Republican Party, and there’s nothing wrong with that; it’s precisely this contest of ideas that pushes our country forward. But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican – and it sure wasn’t conservative. “-1. This surprised me, since Obama has spent the last eight years ruthlessly demonizing us, yet, in that speech Obama acknowledged a simple truth-He knows what Conservatism is, and is not… and he basically, indirectly, admitted to demonizing us these last eight years. But in acknowledging that Trump isn’t one of us, Obama and the Democratic Party then defeat their own message that Trump is simultaneously, “Trumped up/Trickle Down Economics,” as Hillary Clinton would phrase it during her first debate with Trump. Since these two ideas contradict, only one can be true.

The reason it is important to understand this contradiction the Democratic Party tried to sell us is because they will be trying, for the rest of forever, to tie Donald Trump as an albatross around the necks of the Conservative movement. Believe me, two hundred years from now, Trump will still be a bogey man that Democrats warn their children will come for them in the night if they don’t go spend hours hounding gamers on YouTube for supposedly being sexist against women. The fact is, however, that Conservatives do not deserve this, as most rational conservatives actually fought hard against Donald Trump.

“But Daniel,” you say, “Trump was supported by Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, Franklin Graham, Sarah Palin, Eric Bolling and Rush Limbaugh!” True. Though I will cut Rush some slack. He made clear Trump was a friend of his, but also was completely willing to flat out state Trump was no conservative. -2 While all of the aforementioned would spend the election cycle trying to shame Conservatives who stood their ground, Rush should at least be give something of a pass, since his only objective was beating Hillary Clinton, a noble aspiration if there ever was one. He, at least, didn’t lie to his audience about who Trump was. Unlike Hannity, who lied day in and day out to prop Trump up as something he never was, and will never, ever be. Although, Rush didn’t go nearly as far in critiquing Trump as he could have.

But for every Sean Hannity, there was a Glenn Beck, for every Laura Ingram a Dana Loesch, for every Franklin Graham, a Senator Mike Lee, and so on. Other voices against Trump included Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klavin, and Mark Levin. The latter two agreed to vote for Trump, but only to stop Hillary, and both made clear they disavow and refuse to answer for anything stupid Trump might say.

Donald Trump was a divisive figure in the Republican Party. While the majority of us were indeed angry, a small but vocal minority of us latched onto Trump as a vessel to carry that anger. How, or why, I never fully understood. People would often attribute to him positions he never took, and things he never said. Any time you would try to put forward Trump’s actual positions, or even quote him, you were accused of being a secret commie Clinton supporter, or worse.

There can be no denial that Trump was also attractive to white supremacists, who came out of hiding to support his candidacy. Dubbing themselves, “the Alt-Right,” because Conservatism had allegedly failed, and they would carve out a new way, a new right. Trolling everyone who was not on the Trump Train, while taking over sites like www.breitbart.com, and turning countless message boards on the Internet hostile, the Alt Right made Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and every other social media experience a living, breathing nightmare. We will go deeper into the Alt-Right later on in this book. But needless to say, that while they were a small minority of a minority of people supporting Trump, their antics may have done lasting damage to the Republican Party brand, a brand that has still not recovered from the damage done during the Bush years by a corrupt congress and a president who refused to stand up for our principals.

But what can never be said, in truth, is that Trump is representative of the larger Conservative movement or the Republican Party at large. Trump was an aberration, a fluke, an accident. Trump was the result of two major problems the GOP has got to move quickly to correct so that this does not happen again. First, the deep divides within the GOP. And second, open primaries, which allow meddlesome Democrats to have a voice in our nominee selection.

To the first point, we will be addressing each faction individually later in this book, as we did its predecessor. Each faction has a role in the divides which keep us apart. As a long time voice in the wilderness screaming at the top of my lungs for party unity, I can attest that no faction is innocent. It’s time to stop the purges, it’s time to stop the name-calling, and it’s time to start listening. In short, if the establishment doesn’t want to advocate for Conservative policy anymore, they need to say so, and they need to make clear what it is they do want. If they do want Conservative policy, they need to make clear how they will lead us there. The grass roots, in the meantime, must find better candidates to challenge the establishment and needs to start moderating their tone. Yes, I admit I am an imperfect practitioner of that policy, but people who are civil with me out the gate find me very diplomatic and reasonable. We must all learn to be diplomatic and reasonable. We, the grass roots, must also find better banner carriers for our message, as the average person has no idea what Conservatism is, why we’re a better path forward than Progressivism, and what our end game is. Our message has been further polluted by the support the average person has seen of Donald Trump, who stands as a sharp contrast to what we profess to believe. Try talking to an average person, you will see.

To the second point, any Republican looking to advance primaries, instead of strengthening caucuses, should be run out of town. I’m sorry, but those advocating open primaries, or more primaries, are advocating for the suicide of the Republican party. Trump lost in most closed primary states, and almost all caucus states. In other words, Trump only won states with open primaries. When he did lose in the caucus and closed primary states, he was quick to complain that the system was “rigged” by the establishment. But the dirty little secret of caucus states, and to a lesser extent closed primary states, is that the “establishment” is the grass roots activists who volunteer their time and effort to make the party function. When the actual Republicans were able to have a clear and resound voice, we loudly said, “no,” to Donald Trump. In Utah, by Seventy Percent.

But extrapolating from that point is the grand total results, which should, in a logical and rational world, put a nail in the coffin of the idea of Trump representing the GOP and Conservatism at large. Trump did not win the nomination of the party by a majority. Not even close. Prior to Cruz and Kasich dropping out, Trump’s total percentage of the vote was only in the high 30s. But let’s skip all that math because the end result of the primary gives us the most telling look at his support. Factoring in that Trump had several states after Indiana where he had no challengers, Trump never passed the 50+1% support threshold needed for a defined majority. Again, Trump never had majority support among the party.

Let me provide you with some numbers. Since Wikipedia offers the numbers most favorable to Donald Trump, granting him a larger vote total than I can find anywhere else, and since I know Trump supporters prefer only sources favorable to Trump, we will go ahead and break my rule about not using Wikipedia this one time only. According to Wikipedia 31 million people voted in the Republican Primary. That is out of 320 million people in America. That is about ten percent of the population. Of those 31 million people, or for our purposes, let's use the grand total: 31,183,841, 14,015,993 voted for Trump (about thirteen million according to the more reliable Real Clear Politics, but who’s counting?), 17,023,394 voted against Trump, meaning Trump won with an exact voting percentage of less than 45% of the vote. Trump actually broke two records for a primary, most votes for, and also most votes against.-3 It is worth repeating over and over and over again that more people voted against him than for him, by large majorities.

That means, for the Trump supporter who was boasting that they were the “will of the people,” or even more arrogantly referring to themselves as “we the people,” their candidate never had majority support. Trump supporters were only ever a plurality. They are alone in the universe. They are not a majority. They are not "we the people." And if they had been willing to listen, the fact that they were going to lose the general would not have been a surprise. They only have themselves to blame. I'm sorry, I'm not sorry. They cost us an important election. They blew it by responding to a radical leftist by nominating a radical leftist. No one will miss Pepe the Frog and the Alt-Right. But it’s more important to point out that this means that the Democratic SJW Left’s attempts, present and future, to tie Donald Trump to our movement will be being done so disingenuously.

This, of course, does not include the efforts of #NeverTrump to #FreeTheDelegates at Convention. The movement was designed to promote the idea that, since Trump did not have majority support, the Delegates should be unbound to vote their conscious. The hope was that they would drop Trump at Convention, and allow a better nominee, perhaps Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, to claim the nomination instead. However, the establishment squashed those efforts mercilessly. More on that in a later chapter, but it is important to bring up now to drive the point home, most Republicans did not support, nor did we want Donald J. Trump. He is not now, nor was he ever one of us. We went through great pains to stop him, but in the end failed to coalesce around someone who could pull together the 50+1 majority support needed to stop him.

To ensure that the Democrats do not get to brand all of us as Trumpeters for millennia to come, you have an obligation to speak out against Donald Trump starting now. But more than that, you need to call out his leftist policies, his progressive tendencies, and yes, even his blatant misogyny and racism. The evidence of Trump’s archaic early 20^th Century Progressive views toward women and minorities is overwhelming. Trump is as disgustingly misogynist and racist as Woodrow Wilson and Lindon B Johnson ever were, and we should not hesitate to call that out.

Remember that the Democrats write the history books. They rule media and academia with an iron fist. You will be the voices calling out their lies, or no one will. You are not Trump. You are not responsible for Trump. But if you don’t let the world know that, no one will.

-1) Obama Makes His Anti-Trump Pitch… to Conservatives and Republicans, Jim Geraghty, National Review, 7/28/16. www.nationalreview.com
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/438451/obama-makes-his-anti-trump-pitch-conservatives-and-republicans Accessed 10/10/16.

-2) Rush Limbaugh's big concession: 'Are you admitting Trump is not a conservative? Damn right I am!' Oliver Darcy, Business Insider, 9/16/16. www.businessinsider.com, Read More: http://www.businessinsider.com/rush-limbaugh-donald-trump-not-conservative-2016-9 Accessed 10/10/16

-3) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/08/donald-trump-got-the-most-votes-in-gop-primary-history-a-historic-number-of-people-voted-against-him-too/

I apologize for the improper citation of item 3. It won't format correctly for this blog.

Republican 2016 Primary Election Popular Vote totals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,_2016

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/republican_vote_count.html

Note: In calculating the vote totals, I went with the numbers more favorable to Trump, but also included the smaller candidates who did win votes, whose totals were not listed by RCP.

Donald Trump Should be Scruitinized, Even Though He is The Nominee

2016-08-21T14:34:00.003-07:00

Earlier this week a friend of mine chewed me out for calling Trumpeters names... ironic because the post they were responding to was, in fact, a post I created complaining about being called names, specifically by the self-described "alt-right." Nevertheless, I challenged this individual to a debate. I asked them to consider material I had gathered which articulated my concerns about Donald Trump, and in exchange, I would look at any materials they had felt might assuage those concerns.

They sent me this video (above) by InfoWars (Alex Jones.) This video is advertised as being two things, one the video that will prove why Donald Trump deserves to be president, and according to my friend, will prove that Trump has "always been conservative." I have taken this video and analyzed it. I will admit there are some things I do agree with, but... I do not feel this video accomplishes its stated goals.

To make this easier I have broken this down into a response to each and every individual clip within the video. As always, I have provided Chicago Style citations and references at the bottom of this article.

Clip 1: This isn’t a partisan commentary, but there are two reasons to be concerned. #1, the clip was from 1980, and Trump comments that he wants to see someone who will be strong with positions that may not be popular. Well, 1980 Reagan and Reagan’s Conservatism was very popular, so if he is looking for someone who would be unpopular, and Reagan and Conservatism were unpopular, what is he looking for? One could argue that he was looking for someone to stand against Reagan. And given that Trump himself did stand against Reagan in public discourse, going so far as to testify in congress against Reagan’s tax policy-1, I am not sure that this clip tells me anything about Trump being a conservative.

He also mentions the problem with people with big smiles and little brains… a common refrain used to attack Reagan in that era when the Left was calling him an amiable dunce. InfoWars, however, decided to use the moment to attack Rubio, by placing a picture of him in the bottom right corner. You will recall that Rubio is a part of the Conservative Tea Party. He may have screwed up on immigration, but he has been rock solid on every other issue.

Clip 2: Here he is on Oprah (a known Democrat) complaining that he is tired of seeing the country ripped off during the 80s… Consider, again, that during the 80s Trump was a critic of Reagan. Was he referring to Reagan’s Tax Plan? “We’re really making other people live like kings, and we’re not,” is awfully close to the Democratic slogan of “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” This clip does not give us a lot of detail about who he is talking about… but given the context of history, one can fairly speculate that he is calling out Reagan here.

Clip 3: To who is Trump referring as ripping the country off for the last 25 years? If you are looking at his current campaign, you might say, “China and Mexico,” but he doesn’t specifically say that here, so it’s a fill in the blank cut that is vague enough to invite conjecture. But let’s assume that it is China and Mexico. In my third video, we talked about free trade versus fair trade. Free trade is what Reagan supported, enabling global trade with only minimal tariffs, which open up markets, and create jobs. Reagan’s system worked. He created millions of jobs, lowered the unemployment rate, and created an environment where people experienced individual financial growth. Trump’s fair trade policies were tried by Herbert Hoover… it didn’t go well. There’s a reason Republicans are Free Traders, not Fair Traders. We learned the hard way on that one. But again, I am speculating because a lot of this cut removes context, and I don’t know to whom he is referring.

Clip 4: Rockefeller Republicans are Liberal Republicans. When asked why he is a Republican, Trump says he has no idea, he just believes certain principals of the Republican Party. Bare in mind Trump was a critic of Reagan during this same time frame, which is why the interviewer was so confused by learning that Trump was a Republican. Also, Trump had been registered as a Democrat prior to that. He didn’t actually register as a Republican until July of 1987, according to public records. He has been in and out of the GOP frequently since but has been more out than in. -2 While he was in the GOP he used his platform to attack Reagan. Remember, he was asked if he was a Rockefeller, Republican, or a Bush Republican because the interviewer knew one thing to be true, Trump was not a Conservative.

Clip 5: This is disturbing. This is a registered Democrat who practically begging Trump to be president. Shouldn't we be asking why?

Clip 6: Okay, here again, the trade deficit nonsense. According to the Cato institute, under Reagan, and both Bushes, when the trade deficits were at their peak, yet economic growth was booming. Unemployment was down. Given that I already addressed this in my third video, I will just refer you back to it. Fair Trade is not a Conservative position. It goes against Reagan’s Supply Side economics, and even further against the Austrian model of economic thought that I, along with the Cato Institute, prefer. By railing against Free Trade during the 80s, Trump was railing against Ronald Reagan.

Clip 7: Trump bemoaning the lack of an advocate. This isn’t necessarily a partisan commentary. Though the film editor does use this opportunity to attack the next several presidents. Which is fine, I suppose. It just doesn’t make the case that Trump is Conservative.

Clip 8: Again, fair Trade is not a Conservative position.

Clip 9: This is hilarious, here is Trump railing against the Reagan era taxes! Seriously? See Chicago Style Citation # 1. -1

Clip 10: Trump boasting about his ending gridlock. As a Conservative, I look at Gridlock as a positive. The less congress acts, the less damage they can do. As Reagan said, “government is the problem.” Bemoaning Gridlock is a Democrat tactic. Republicans don’t mind it.

Clip 11: Wounded Warriors is a bi-partisan issue. I don’t think I know of any Democrats that hate our vets actively, do you? I think this is good that he cares about wounded vets. But if the argument is that this is a specifically Conservative issue, it’s not. The reason the Military prefers Republican leadership is because we let them fight the enemy, and Democrats grand stand, posture, and negotiate with the very terrorists that we have been fighting. This clip has nothing to do with Conservatism.

Clip 12: Trump bemoaning the Iraqi war using Democrat talking points.

Clip 13: Trump criticizing Obama as not knowing how to handle business. That’s fine. During this same time, he also would praise Obama on other issues. Please see video -3

Clip 14: Trump bemoaning the difficulty of competing with China, at a time he was having the Chinese manufacture elements of his clothing line. -4 It’s also worth noting that Trump’s clothing line remains being manufactured overseas even today.

Clip 15: Trump did endorse Romney, but left the party in 2011, and later blasted Romney for being too harsh on immigration and scaring minorities away with his talk of “self-deportation.” We handled that in my second video with all appropriate and proper citations provided. Please watch it.

Clip 16: Whoah!! Trump advocating lowering interest rates! Can we say Keynesian?!!! I wish I had known this for my third video! This is John Maynard Keynes to the letter! Not a Conservative! Let’s back this up with a rap battle between Keynes and my favorite Hayek. -5. “There’s a boom and bust cycle and a reason to fear it.”

Hayek, “I blame low-interest rates,”

Keynes, “Nah, it’s the animal spirit.”

According to F.A. Hayek, wealth is created by avoiding debt and building savings. Keynes, on the other hand, bet that well-managed debt could build wealth. Calvin Coolidge sided with Hayek. Reagan tried to but had a Democratic Congress to deal with. Most other presidents have adhered to Keynesian philosophy, and I urge you to be aware that Trump is also a Keynesian. This call for lowering interest rates is the final nail in the coffin in arguments over that. It is settled. Trump is inarguably a Keynesian… meaning not a Conservative.

Clip 17: Okay, I agree with him about the problem with the cartel and oil prices. He is absolutely correct on this. See? I’m fair. When he’s right I stand with him.

Clip 18: I agree with him about the massive debt, however, our debt has nothing to do with China and everything to with congressional spending and entitlements. Trump told Hannity he doesn’t want to touch entitlements (See my videos.) So on this one, Trump is right about the diagnosis, but entirely wrong about the cause. It’s like a Doctor trying to say you got the flue because you ate at Wendy’s instead of Burger King. His anti-trade philosophy, again, is not Conservative.

That said, he is absolutely correct about how the government stops counting you in the unemployment numbers when you stop looking for work. So, he is 100% correct about that. But again, right diagnosis, incorrect causation.

Clip 19: He is right about this issue as well. It’s pathetic that we spend so much money on countries that don’t want us there. Nation building has got to stop. Foreign aid has got to stop. We have problems of our own we need to deal with, and Trump is 100% correct about this. Still, think I’m unfair?

Clip 20: Okay, the primary problem with Trump’s announcement is a right diagnosis, with a wrong causation. Our problems with the economy are entirely government spending and over-regulation. Trump also manages to take a law and order issue (immigration) and with his harsh racially insensitive language, lends credence to the Democratic Party’s accusations that our concerns over immigration are racially motivated. He is wrong about Iraq, we succeeded in Iraq, and Obama threw it away. The situation in Iraq is entirely Obama’s fault. Most of his complaints about Iraq are drawn from Democrat talking points.

I agree on the problems of the GDP, and the Labor Force Participation Rate, and the way the government skews the unemployment stats. He’s 100% correct about this. He is right about the diagnosis, however, his policies, which I dissect at length in my videos, are the real core of what we need to look at. His solutions to these problems are really bad and very liberal. That last clip is loaded with absolutely correct diagnosis, and nothing by way of solutions.

So now we have to look at two things. # 1: How consistent has Donald Trump been?

Well, let’s take a look at this, (much shorter) compilation of videos and material from the same era as the videos selected for Alex Jones’s little video.

So as you can see, Trump has not been consistent. The vast majority of Alex Jones video makes the case he has been consistent on Trade, and from that we’re supposed to understand that Trump has always been a Conservative. But that argument is precisely the reason I am so opposed to Trump. He is literally trying to redefine what it means to be a Conservative so that it matches early 20^th Century Progressivism in the vein of Herbert Hoover, a Republican, and FDR, a Democrat. I am trying to Conserve Republican Conservatism in the vein of Calvin Coolidge and William F. Buckley, and Ronald W. Reagan. Early 20^th Century Progressivism is not much different than the current crop of Progressives who run the Democratic Party. And since Trump bemoaned gridlock in Alex Jone’s video, and eagerly boasted that he will work with Democrats in the video I put together, we can see that Trump will ensure the status quo.

# 2: we have to have a hard look at Trump’s solutions. And the videos that I have posted on my own You Tube Channel will show that his policy positions are far from Reagan-style Conservatism. Like the video above, my videos are Trump on Trump. My production values are at least as good as what Alex Jones put together here, so they deserve a serious look.

But we should also look at the source of this video. Alex Jones. How seriously can we take a guy who believes that the chemicals we put in the water are turning frogs gay, or that geneticists have created fish/human hybrids?

This stuff is bat guano crazy, yet its par for the course for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Can we really consider Alex Jones and Info Wars a reliable source of information? This is the guy who popularized the 9-11 Truther movement, which was very popular among Democrats, the birther movement, popular with Hillary Clinton followers until Obama became the nominee, and then they tried to blame us for it. He also popularized the birther conspiracy theories about Ted Cruz.

Personally, anything that Alex Jones has to say on the subject of Trump is suspect. I don’t think that its accidental that there are cuts here that Jones made that removed Trump’s quotes from its context, so it's unclear who or what Trump is talking about. This forces the viewer to assume the context based on what Trump is saying today. Jones also disingenuously leaves out anything and everything Trump said in the exact same time frame that was very liberal, including an interview with Wolf Blitzer where Trump proclaims that he’s “more of a Democrat,” or when Trump proclaims that he has “New York Values,” or all the times Trump has defended Planned Parenthood, Gay marriage, or Transsexual men using the women’s rest rooms, or the fact that Trump invited Gay Rights Activist Peter Thiel to lecture the GOP about “social issues” at the GOP Convention, and then when Trump got up on stage praised the GOP for applauding Thiel… Never mind that this is abandoning the advocacy of the Traditional Family, a key pillar in the Reagan alliance. Sure, Trump says he’s all for Christians, but then why is he putting his thumb in the eye of Christians with his policies?

Alex Jones ignores so many of the problems with Donald Trump. Many Trump supporters, but obviously not all, then blast those of us who reject this guy and call us “cucks” and first demanded that we get out of the party, and many of us, self-included, have. Then they demand we ben the knee and kiss the ring. I can’t. I won’t Donald Trump violates far too many of my core Constitutional beliefs. Then they try to say we Never Trumpers are irrelevant, but they won’t ignore me, they keep attacking me. Now that the polls show no change in Trump’s head to head status against Clinton, many are now pre-blaming us for what is an inevitable loss this fall, when we tried to warn all of you, and you would not listen.

So here we are again, I looked over this video, as I have looked over Donald Trump for over two decades, watching, and trying to prepare for what I knew was coming. Only back then, I thought he’d be the Democrat nominee. Imagine my surprise when the GOP tossed all of its principals to the wind to get behind one of the most liberal Keynesian minds in modern US political history. With a presidential nominee so out of step with Reagan Conservatism, we are well within our rights to be concerned. Donald Trump should be scrutinized, especially as the nominee of the party of Reagan, Coolidge, and Lincoln.

1-Of Course: Trump Trashed Reagan Tax Cuts as Democrat-Called 'Expert' Witness

Guy Benson, 4/19/2016, townhall.com, http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2016/04/19/video-trump-trashes-reagan-tax-cuts-as-democratcalled-expert-witness-in-1991-n2151131 Accessed 8/21/16. Also worth noting, Townhall has been a pro-Trump website since the beginning. They were at least honest enough on this issue, though.

2-Donald Trump changed political parties at least five times: report

Jessica Chasmar, The Washington Times - Tuesday, June 16, 2015, www.washingtiontimes.com, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/16/donald-trump-changed-political-parties-at-least-fi/

3-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvlHvntyb1Y Wolf Blitzer with Donald Trump CNN interview, December 18, 2008

If the hypertext does not work, please copy and paste it into your web browser’s navigation bar.

4-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8vvfmUucIA Donald Trump destroyed by David Letterman, posted by Sam Dreiberg, published 7/4/16.

5-Fear the Boom and Bust Fight of the Century a Hayek vs Keynes Rap Battle Round 1

JonasSunshine, 11/14/14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbUj3fCatHY

Accessed 8/21/16

My videos on Trump:

Part One:

Part Two:

Part three:

Time to Put Down the Pitchforks

2016-08-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

Looking ahead to the upcoming election, our prospects are not good. The Real Clear Political Average shows us losing the majority in the Senate, by three seats, and losing twenty seats in the House, dropping from some 240 some odd seats, down to 220 some odd… still in the majority, but just barely. It's time to face some hard truths, then decide where we go from here. The havoc Donald Trump will wreck will leave the party in the worst shape it’s been in my entire life. Trump will lose, and he will weaken the GOP in the process.

Rather than reign Trump in, and try to triangulate, or adjust his tactics, Trump, and his supporters, continue to respond to concerned voices with hostility and name calling. When I point out that it's exactly this irrational and vile behavior that has put me in the Never Trump camp, the name calling only gets worse. I swear I have half of Facebook blocked, I can't deal with it anymore. The Trumpeters will be quick to harp on you for pointing out what is clear and obvious, and then play the victim when you point facts and figures that validate the concern that Trump is crashing and burning and taking the party with him. They are far more interested in either dismissing the polls, which they used to cling to religiously (even though those same polls showed Trump losing to Hillary during the primary too) or laying blame for his loss in advance.

People like Hannity will want to blame people like me, even though we have been loudly proclaiming

The Pope of the 1st Church of Trump, Sean Hannity

that we cannot get behind Trump because of his behavior from the outset. Forgive me, but I have hated and despised Donald Trump since I was a kid. I have gone over the rather long and extensive list as to why I hate him in the past, and I am not going to rehash it here. But along with numerous other voices out there, I have been abundantly clear that this fool’s idol will never be my god, and I will never kiss his ring. I do not bow to bullies. As with many others out there, I disavow Donald Trump in the strongest of terms. I renounce him. He has no claim to me, no title over my vote, and we all warned you that we would be the least of Trump's electoral problems. I apologize for my harshness, but with that said, it is worth pointing out that we Never Trump folks have utterly failed to stop Trump so far... so when he does lose, it will not be by our hand, but by a failure of Trump's to connect with the general election voter.

Trump and his supporter constantly remind us that they can win with without Conservatives. -1 Which explains why he has spent more time, attacking fellow Republican, Ted Cruz, than he has Hillary Clinton. He has also said that, since he doesn’t need or want Conservatives, he will just pick up a few Bernie Sanders voters… -2 Never mind that most Sanders supporters have signed onto Hillary and those that haven’t have gotten behind Green Party candidate, Jill Stein. Ultimately, this is on Trump and some very poor decisions he has made, especially since Convention. At a time when he should have been promoting healing and party unity, he kicked the dead horse and chased after voters he will never be able to get. Thus, pointing our fingers at each other, at this phase, serves no purpose when the Senate and House can still be salvaged.

The face of the Establishment, Mitch McConnell, has used Trump to crush Conservatives

Making it difficult to salvage the House and Senate, however, is the fact that the Establishment has been able to use Trump to increase their own power, and stomp on the foot of the Conservative movement. The Establishment has managed to quash numerous Tea Party uprisings, including the challenge to Chamber of Commies favorite, Todd Young, for Senate in Indiana. Marlin Stutzman was the Conservative in that race. But the people who came to the ballot to support Trump supported the “moderate,” establishment candidate in that Senate race.

Note: I use the quotations around the term Moderate because a number of Progressive Leftists have been hiding behind the label of late. I have no problems at all with actual moderates.

More shocking: in Kansas, incumbent Conservative Tim Huelskamp was beaten in his primary by the Establishment and Chamber of Commies pick. This should never have happened since Huelskamp was the brave man who led the fight to depose Establishment hack and chronic capitulator, John Boehner. This man should be held up as a hero. In both cases, despite the losing candidate's Conservative credentials, the Trump camp celebrated. Why? Because in both cases the candidate had supported someone else for the Presidential nomination. What’s funny is that Huelskamp, in particular, was not hostile toward Trump. He never was “Never Trump.” But he had endorsed Ted Cruz, so he had to go, according to Trumpeters Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.

I am saying “no,” to Donald Trump because of how he treats people. Yes, I want a strong leader,

Trump be like, "Look at it!!!"

someone who will take it to Hillary… But Trump has spent more time joining the Mushy "Moderates" in bashing Ted Cruz than targeting Hillary. It’s as though he is Prince Joffrey showing us (in the role of Sansa Stark) the head of Ned Stark and forcing us to look at it. And before you accuse me of plagiarizing Ben Shapiro, I beat him to the Game of Thrones analogy two weeks before he used it on his show… just check my Facebook feed. Sometimes some people just think alike. But I digress.

Trump isn’t strong. He has spent the majority of this election attacking Republicans, and ignoring Hillary, and is now telling audiences he wants to go home. -2 This is reminiscent of when Bush was asking his audience to clap. It’s over for Trump, he knows it’s over, and instead of fighting to restore himself to glory, he is rolling over and accepting it. The Establishment is already putting out articles blaming Conservatives for the Trump ascendancy, even though they squashed our efforts to stop Trump at Convention, and their wholly owned subsidiary posing as a News Company, Fox News, lit the world on fire to stop Ted Cruz, even though that meant helping Trump. Meanwhile, Trump's most ardent supporters continue blaming #NeverTrump, even though they were the ones dismissing us as irrelevant, and urging us to get out of the party… which many of us did. For the first time in my adult life, I have been registered as a Libertarian for more than a 1 week post-election loss tantrum, and it’s not that I don’t want to be a Republican. I do! I am a proud Jeffersonian -Republican. I adore Abraham Lincoln (it’s not a contradiction if you understand the context of history.) I adore Coolidge and Reagan. But between the rampaging Trumpeting Alt Right, and the Establishment Progressives masquerading as moderates who bash us all the time, and I do mean ALL THE TIME, without ever being willing to hear us out, or even ask why we have been angry… It’s very hard to do anything other than just watch the party collapse.

The truth is, this nonsense has to stop. Moderates like to point out the Conservatives are no longer the majority, but I have news for them. Neither are they. There is no dominant philosophy in America, and therein lies the problem. That’s also why a third party will not work. The only philosophers out there trying to sell their message are the socialists. Anyone with even a modicum of historical knowledge knows that socialism is a nightmare, but who is offering an alternative? If moderates think they’re all that and a bag of chips, why don’t they start by telling us what they believe in? Incrementalism? What have you won against the Democrats? The ability to sell oil overseas? Literally, no one cares about that! How does that make my life less expensive? Or make it easier for me to start a business, or help pay for my crushing student loan debt? These are the things people are talking about, while the Orrin Hatches and John McCains of the world are boasting of legalizing selling oil overseas. I dare say that it’s the moderate wing of the party that is wildly out of touch. And if they care one iota about the future of the GOP, it's time to stop lecturing, casting aspersions and start listening! We can work together, and we must. But the time has come for the establishment to use their mouths a little less, and their ears a little more.

Conservatives have our own problem. We have been divided on whether or not to support Trump. But by and large, no one knows what we stand for because we have been too busy railing against, and doing so in a very personal way. See, Obama rails against Republicans, a faceless, meaningless organization that does not defend itself against the Left, so it is easily demonized. His attack against Generic Republican is why no one outside our party looks at him as being the rude, inconsiderate jerk that he is. We, in contrast, have been attacking him. And in doing so, we look like the bad guys. We should have been attacking his philosophy, his ideas. We should have been putting a clear and alternative path together, for all Americans to see, and educating people on why it's a better path! We should be attacking generic Democrats, not individuals that the public either likes or are indifferent toward. Our ideas are our strength. Yet we allow ourselves to be goaded into very personal and destructive battles that we cannot win. We are nerds and wonks. We will never win on personality. But our ideas work, and we have Jefferson, and Lincoln, and Coolidge and Reagan to prove it. Apart from Lincoln, who was a wartime president, the economy has never been better than when the aforementioned lead our country with Conservative ideas at the helm.

The fight between the Conservatives and Moderates to purge one another is inevitable. But I urge both groups to not do it. Moderates, first be aware of the Progressives among you... but more importantly, if you have a vision for America, it’s time to articulate it. Conservatives, if you have a message for America, it’s time to articulate it. Trumpeters, if you have a vision for America, people won’t hear it if it’s limited to “he’s not Hillary.”

As always, I am sorry for my part in all the division. It’s been very hard with “millions and millions of new voters,” as Trump would say, calling me names on Facebook, but ultimately that’s no excuse. I’m going to try to do better. It’s time to put the pitchforks down and come together.

1: Exact quote, “I think it would be better if it were unified. I think there would be something good about it, but I don’t actually think it has to be unified… I have to stay true to my principles also. And I’m a conservative, but don’t forget: This is called the ‘Republican Party,’ not the ‘conservative party…’ ” Trump: I don't think GOP has to be unified, Harper Neidig.5/7/16 www.thehill.com, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279135-trump-i-dont-think-gop-has-to-be-unified Accessed 8/8/16

2: Donald Trump's new target: Bernie Sanders supporters, MJ Lee, CNN, 4/29/16, www.CNN.com, http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/29/politics/donald-trump-bernie-sanders/ Accessed 8/16/16

3: Donald Trump, tired of losing, tells Pennsylvania crowd he just wants to go home, Daily News Bin, August 12, 2016, www.dailynewsbin.com, http://www.dailynewsbin.com/news/defeated-donald-trump-tells-pennsylvania-crowd-he-just-wants-to-go-home/25632/ Accessed 8/14/16

Marvel, Sony and the GOPe Need to Grow Up

2016-07-15T15:11:00.001-07:00

It’s difficult to pick a single topic to write about this week. A lot has happened. Marvel Comics’s SJW nonsense is on full display, as we now know that Civil War 2 will leave us with very few of our original heroes. The X-Men may be wiped out completely. In their place, politically correct re-envisionings. Hulk is dead, replaced. Iron Man MIA, replaced... the list goes on. I have zero interest the replacement characters because of the political way that Marvel introduced them. After all, if you prefer Steve Rogers, The Real Thor, Tony Stark, or Logan… you must be an old white supremacist, don’t you know. Doubly so if you express your concern over the way these new “heroes” can’t seem to just share the world with the pre-existing heroes, but have to replace them. You are not welcome in this new "Progressive" Marvel. Its only for "New Demographics." DC, meanwhile, is moving in the opposite direction, restoring the original status quo. I grew up Marvel, but I guess Batman it is, until Marvel realizes it’s possible to have diversity, without alienating and outright attacking their longtime fans. Marvel needs to grow up.

Meanwhile, Sony has unleashed it’s Ghostbusters reboot on the world, and it is everything those of us

who hated the trailer were afraid it would be. A terrible movie. Apparently, now hating a lousy movie is sexist, and misogynistic. No one I have known has ever once complained about the cast. They complained because the movie looked bad, and it is bad. Nevertheless, to fend off the critics, Sony Pictures has unleashed cries of discrimination, because if you don’t like it, you’re sexist. In the Progressive world, not liking something is a crime against humanity, don't you know. Sony needs to grow up.

Never Trump failed to have even a ghost of a chance to even have a debate over allowing delegates to vote their conscious, and quite possibly stop Trump before he leads us to disaster in November. The establishment lead the effort to quash the efforts to amend the rules to stop Trump, or even amend our election process so this cannot happen again. They basically just reinstated the 2012 rules to “avoid drama.” And yet, we now see Establishment commentators, Jason Taylor and Jay Caruso are chastising the Tea Party for being angry at the Establishment for caving in left and right, and blaming the Tea Party for the rise of Trump. They tell us to grow up or get out. Meanwhile Trump supporters tell us to bow down or get out. The Establishment, Trump and his supporters need to grow up.

Marvel comics sales are way down. They are averaging 20-30,000 copies per issue at best, and are in decline. The exceptions are Star Wars, and ironically, Nazi Cap. Both of which were top ten titles last month. DC dominated the sales charts last month, not Marvel. Marvel should be careful what they wish for. Longtime fans may actually leave.

Sony’s mistreating of the people who don’t like their new Ghostbusters movie may find empty seats in the theater, and they desperately need this film to be a success. If this movie under performs, then their SJW nonsense that they have hidden behind to deflect criticism will make them look all the more foolish.

Trump, and the GOP establishment are both playing a very dangerous game. The establishment flocked to Trump immediately after Bush imploded. Rather than helping actual Republicans like Ted Cruz, the only one in the race who had a real shot at beating Trump, the establishment flocked to Trump, because “he will make deals.” Hatch, Boehner, McConnell, all of Faux News, GOPe cronie after GOPe crony all fell in line behind Trump… And now they are already blaming us for what THEY did. Because they don’t want us in their little elite party. Trump also does not want us in the party he bought and paid for. But the GOP may soon learn the lesson Marvel and Sony may well yet learn. When you tell people they are not welcome, they do leave. And come November, when the GOP is wiped out, and they lose the House, the Senate and the White House in the worst catastrophe since the Goldwater landslide, there will be no one to blame but themselves.

Just as DC Comics is there for spurned Marvel fans, spurned Conservatives may find the invitation to the Libertarian Party difficult to resist. Be careful what you all wish for. You just might get it.

Trump Has Given Us President Hillary

2016-07-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

Thank the Donald for this

I know there are some people who will freak out on me for calling this race already, but it’s pretty obvious that this is the inevitable outcome, unless the Delegates show some real balls at Convention. Donald Trump was the only Republican candidate regularly losing to Hillary in the polls from the time of his announcement. Even Ted Cruz, until the last month of a prolonged and particularly nasty primary, was ahead of Hillary in most polls. Logic would dictate that Republicans should have picked anyone other than Trump, but this was not a logical year.

Despite having low favorable, Hillary Clinton is leading Trump on an average of a whopping 6 to 12 points, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls. By being rude, crude, and a general know-nothing, Trump is singlehandedly turning people away from the GOP in droves. Registration for the third party Libertarian Party has skyrocketed, though they nominated someone as morally objectionable on social matters as Trump is on every single issue ever.

But for the idiocracy on the right, the FBI’s decision to let Clinton off the hook would not matter. She would have lost to anyone but Trump. But the fact of the matter is that the FBI acknowledged she was “careless,” a carefully chosen word to cover up gross negligence. We know that Hillary’s husband, Bill, met with the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, just a short time before the announcement. We know deals were made. We know how the system works, or more precicely doesn't work. We also know that if you or I got caught up in any sort of similar scandal, we’d be in jail by now. But I think we also knew she would get off the hook. Her name is Hillary Clinton, after all. Crime and scandal are nothing new to her family. Punishment for her crimes would be new though… but there is no way the Democratic controlled bureaucracy would ever lock a fellow Democrat up… ever. This is why it’s so important to force the Democrats out.

Tragically, this is not a serious conversation we can have right now, because our nominee has legal trouble up and coming too. A fraud case against Trump University looks to be just the beginning. I highly doubt Trump will be let off the hook. He may have spent the vast majority of his life as a Democrat, but for the last year he has been registered with the wrong party. Instead of a chior full of worshipful, "yeah, but Trump," to defend him, "yeah but Trump..." will be the clarion call of the Left to deflect criticism away from Hillary.

Moreover, actual Tea Party minded Republicans are getting squashed here in Utah by Count my Millions. As the Super Mega-Rich use the new system exactly as I feared they would, ignoring the people and flooding the air waves with negative attack ads… It’s hard to even want to be in the same party as some of those so called “moderates,” who are not interested in the needs of the people, and only care about writing laws to benefit their own business desires. Or as our Governor would say to the lobbyists representing those business interests, “we may not agree on everything, but if you donate to me now, I will give you everything you want!”

We will have four years of absolute Democrat control because we cannot get our act together. We can largely thank Trump for that, but certainly he is not alone. We can also thank the Chamber of Commies as well, the so-called “business men” who keep mucking things up for us, so they can float themselves off our backs. I wonder if in four years Republican voters will lose their infatuation with business men and once more start supporting candidates who are serious about liberty, law and order? Is that too much to hope for?

What The Media Won't Tell You About "Gun Violence."

2016-06-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

As I begin this episode I must confess that I am at a loss for words. Tragedies like what happened in Orlando should never happen. Yet they persist, even though I do not recall this being a problem under Bush. Both sides of the isle seem to be pointing fingers at the wrong things. I heard on the radio someone saying that the LGBT community should reject the well-wishing from Christians, and that the LGBT community should stand with Blacks and Latinos against the Christians, because religious bigotry lead to this incident. This, of course, was said in response to well-wishing from Donald Trump, promising to stand with the LGBT community against this sort of insanity.

This sort of division isn’t helped by the preacher I heard on the radio celebrating the death of fifty supposedly pedophiles. This isn’t a Christian attitude. We recognize the reality of sin, but we reach out to those who are sinning with love because we care about them, and want good things for them. This sort of hate, on both sides, has America locked in a war with each other, which allows the real enemy to slip in and attack. We are so busy fighting each other we were not prepared for:

Binghamton, New York — May, 2009

Bronx, New York — May, 2009

Little Rock, Arkansas — June, 2009

New York and Colorado – September 21, 2009

Dallas, Texas — September 22, 2009

Fort Hood, Texas — November, 2009

Detroit, Michigan – December, 2009

May, 1st, 2010 United States New York City, New York

Thwarted attack in November 2010 by ‘Christmas tree bomber’

Frankfort, Germany United States Military base, March 2011

San Bernadino, California December 2015,

And now Orlando, Florida June 2016.

It is wrong to try to pin this on all Muslims. There are many Muslims out there, like Suddhi Jasher, good, decent people just trying to get by. But at the same time, there is no sense in blame shifting away from Islamic Inspired Terrorism. The Liberals want to blame all guns. Donald Trump has renewed his call for a ban on all Muslims. Both propose preposterous violations of the United States Constitution in their proposals. And don’t think your gun rights will be safe with Donald Trump. Trumpeters might want to tune out, I’m about to blaspheme against your god… But Donald Trump said he would work with the NRA to pass legislation to deny guns to people on the terror watch list. Clearly he doesn’t understand the concept of due process.

A watch list is a list of people who, due to something about their background, may or may not engage in criminality. Many people on those lists never actually do. Should we practice law like Minority Report, denying people their civil liberties based on what they might do?

The gun is not the problem. Law abiding citizens owning guns, even those scary mythical Assault Riffles, which don’t actually exist because AR means ArmaLight, not Assault Riffle, a term coined by the Communists on the Left who have been trying to get guns out of civilian hands since they went after black gun owners in the south in the 1960s. It’s a term designed to engender fear. It also distracts from the real problem.

I sincerely do not recall events like this during the Bush years, and by this I mean mass shootings, not just terror attacks. What did Bush do differently that this sort of thing never happened? Well, in all probability he had law enforcement focused on the correct things. All of the mass shooters from Adam Lanza to Jared Loughner, and even Dylan Roof have all been sold to you as allegedly right wing extremists, but in reality, all were socialists, yes even Roof, because Nazi is a National Socialist, and he had Nazi sympathies. He was not friendly to traditional Conservatives such as myself at all… But they all had one other thing in common which was more likely the central problem… they were all psychotically mentally ill, and were not getting adequate treatment for their illness. But never mind that, blame guns. Or blame video games, if you’re Glenn Beck… sorry, Glenn. In order to have some level of universal appeal I have to point out failings on both sides…

Meanwhile, the events I mentioned earlier, from Binghamton, New York to Orlando Florida have all been ideologically driven. Again, I’m not blaming all Muslims, I am just acknowledging there is a strain of Islam that encourages and condones this violence. It’s worth noting that the shooter, Omar Mateen, pledged loyalty to the Islamic State. ISIS, in turn, took credit for this shooting.

It’s also worth noting that many of the previously listed locations and incidents were gun free zones, or states with very strict Gun Laws, particularly New York, Michigan, California and Germany. What’s more, strict gun bans have failed to stop terror attacks like this in England, and more recently, France, and even the Netherlands that Comrade Bernie loves so much.

Gun Control won’t solve the problem. But believe you me, if more citizens are armed, that will either detour violent eruptions like this, or end them quickly. Imagine if just one of the Orlando club’s patrons was a member of Pink Pistols. How many lives could have been saved, while they were waiting, seemingly forever, for the police to arrive? But is saying to the LGBT community I support your right to your life, and your right to live it as you see fit, even if my scriptures are in disagreement with your lifestyle even a worthwhile endeavor? Is it worth our time to assure our gay neighbors that we love them, and care about them, even if we disagree with them on a few issues going to change anything? Or is recommending that they arm themselves so that no one, regardless of the villain’s religious affiliation, can ever cause their community this kind of harm again going to fall on deaf ears?

I know only one thing. I mean it when I say I love all people. A deep commitment to Christian love is a part of Conservative Culture. The people telling you that we all hate you all are fear mongers who do not care about your wellbeing. If they did, the media would be encouraging you to arm up, and not discourage you from speaking to us. Because if you talked to us, you might learn that we’re not so bad… the same way we came to learn that you are not so bad. Yes we believe sin is real, but we also believe it’s up to you to decide to accept or reject our faith. He that hath an ear to listen, may listen. We just want to live in peace with everyone. We’re not your enemy, and by letting the Left distract you from the real enemy, severe mental illness, and ideologically driven terror attacks, we are all being put in further danger.

I believe it’s time for America to stop yelling and screaming at each other and start looking at a very real fact. This stuff didn’t happen under Bush, sans 9-11. I believe the reason was because he had his eye on the correct thing. Obama is ignoring the root causes of mental illness and ideologically driven terror so that he can continue to use these incidents to push for massive gun control. That gun control, of course, will take the guns out of the hands of the law abiding citizen, and put us all at further risk. And sadly, it looks like Trump has bought at least part of the argument. No I don’t need an AR-15… but I want one because it’s an excellent sports riffle used for sports shooting, something my wife and I enjoy recreationally. But a lot of my friends also do use it for hunting. It’s a very proficient and versatile weapon. Why should I, a man with no criminal record, who has long been a loving and loyal law abiding citizen, be punished because of the actions of a small few?

Perhaps the solution is for the government to stop hacking at leaves and start working on the root causes. Of course, that would mean Obama and the Democrats would have to stop letting people be killed by people the Bush administration would have stopped well before anything could happen… And that might mean doing things like profiling, or acknowledging the reality that the majority of these terror attacks are caused by Radicalized Islamists, a term I use to differentiate them from ordinary Muslims, not Christian Crusaders from a thousand years ago.

And perhaps the solution for we the people is to stop yelling at each other and accusing each other, but starting to talk to each other rationally, and logically.

But you know what? I am so sick of politics. All the politicians make me sick to my stomach.

I love you all. Have a good night.

Unapologetic Apologist Radio Show 6-10-16 (made with Spreaker)

2016-06-13T19:48:00.001-07:00