The Village Elliot
Blogs on Energy, Space, Politics, Religion, Sports and other reasonably cool stuff.
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Now It's a Ballgame: Harris Vs Trump
Friday, August 18, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy is the only Candidate who makes sense to me. Why? Let's keep it simple. Ramaswamy is promising to pardon Donald Trump. Other Republicans are wishy-washy about what would happen, whereas the Democrats universally call for trial, conviction and jail time.
The Democrats need to be rebuked. They need to understand that it is not realistic to obtain a guilty verdict via jury trial against President Trump. Why not? Because the jury will be inevitably become known publicly and thus in imminent danger of death by mob violence, and their families will be in the same situation also. This is not to suggest organized crime, but DISorganized fans of Donald Trump will certainly react, and everyone with an IQ over 1/2 should understand this. So how are we going to find 12 people willing to risk their lives and the lives of their families to deliver a guilty verdict? Hello, Democrats, you are not going to do that. It is not possible. The visions of a contrite Donald shuffling off to jail will never ever come true because obtain a guilty verdict via a jury trial is not possible with 12 Democrats in a jury, and that in itself would be a sham. If you have 10 Democrats and 2 Republicans it will be at best a hung jury, and the 10 Democrats will still be in terrible danger when the trial is over. You cannot do this.
The only way to successfully disengage from this disastrous path is for the next President, whoever he or she is, to grant President Trump a pardon.
Ramaswamy is the only candidate who promises to pardon Donald Trump. This is just such common sense. Every other candidate, both Democrat and Republican is so beholden to party interests that they are headed to a crisis and they can't see it coming. Dealing with the trial of Donald Trump is a headache that this country does not need. It is conceivable that the two sides might resort to Civil War to alleviate their angst.
On the other hand the country cannot allow Trump back into the Oval Office because he might never leave. That would be the end of the Constitutional Republic and the US government would basically become a family-owned business.
Biden would certainly not consider a Trump pardon. He would see nothing wrong with leading the USA into a new Civil War as long as he believed that the Democrats would win it. Moreover, there is no opposition Democrat, since the party refuses to sponsor primary debates. So forget all about that. The nomination process is indeed rigged so that Biden will be the nominee whether the people like it or not.
You can look at Trump's rising numbers and interpret them as rising confidence in him by Republicans, and perhaps this is so. However, it may also be that Republicans are bailing on the party's choice, Florida Governor DeSantis, just as they bailed on party choice Florida Governor Jeb Bush in 2016. For whatever reason, Americans seem to not like being told who to vote for. It may be that the Republican platform is a bit out of touch with the way voters really feel. My personal feeling is that Republicans talk a good ballgame of fiscal responsibility, but if you vote them in, they will spend like hell on their friends (compromising in some cases by also spending on some of the Democrats' friends), generally protecting big dollar programs while damaging American workers and people who need help. If you don't understand what I mean, go back to the 2016 debates and listen how the other candidates referred to America's "investment" in Iraq, while Donald Trump called Iraq a "disastrous mistake." That's why big dollar Republicans wanted Jeb Bush to maintain the status quo, and the voters rejected the wishes of the party, much to their chagrin.
Look, you can't have a system in which we try to throw the previous Administration in jail all the time. You are not locking up Obama or the Clintons. You are not locking up Biden, either, despite the fact that he is a hardliner daring Trump to start something. Nor are you locking up Trump. That's just not how our system works. This is not the French Revolution, where we chop people's heads off and accept no compromises.
Hello, this is America, where we used to--and will again--have a loyal opposition, in which we talk to each and reason with one another. Republicans and Democrats both love their children and get along.
That is why Trump is going to be pardoned and someone else is going to run in his place. It should be someone like Vivek Ramaswamy, rather than a party favorite. Right now, he is the only one making any sense in the Republican field.
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Peace in Ukraine has no Military Solution
Peace in Ukraine has no Military Solution
Nevertheless, as of July 30, breathless reporting by CNN is telling us about key battles around the towns of Staromalorske and Velyka Novosylka, trying to convince us that there is real hope for a military breakthrough.
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Kennel's Law of Internet Sarcasm
I had better write this down so I can take credit for it:
Kennel's Law of Internet Sarcasm: Nothing you can post on the internet is so stupid that someone won't take it seriously.
The consequences of this simple law are quite profound. It means that you have to be very careful about attempting to use sarcastic humor. Ethnic jokes? Racial humor? Usually not a good idea.
It's too bad. From the time of William Shakespeare, Anglo Saxons have enjoyed making fun of themselves and laughing together. I am not Anglo by blood, but I've grown up in America, so culturally I'm pretty much tuned in to their way of thought. I let you make fun of me, you let me make fun of you, and we are both jolly good fellows. We are willing to let our guard down with each other. However, not all cultures are like that!! Some cultures assume you mean what you say, and insults are insults.
In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal" in which he suggested that poor Irish people should sell their children as food to rich English people. This was satire. Swift's point was that the English upper class were way too rich and draconian in their approach to their Irish neighbors. They should have come up with some reasonable plan to help ease unfair economic conditions involving Irish people. Most readers got the point and were sympathetic to the cause of the oppressed Irish people, or at least put off by the draconian aristocracy mocked by Swift's satire.
Nowadays, if this were published online, someone would think that Swift was seriously proposing that Irish children should be eaten by rich English people. This would be standard fare on AM radio. Some people would get very offended, or worse, others would think it is a good idea. It's hard to imagine Democrats and Republicans agreeing on anything, so one party would probably wind up supporting it.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
Mustang to Paducah has Comedy, Suspense, Mystery, 60's Vibe
Mustang to Paducah is Raul Ramos y Sanchez's newest, and--in this reviewer's opinion--best work to date. What could be more iconic than a shiny new Ford Mustang in the 1960's? What if someone was willing to pay you and your best friend to drive it cross-country? Nothing could be finer, unless of course, you and your best friend are magnets for trouble, which is exactly the situation of two likeable young men in Mustang to Paducah. Sometimes the trouble is the law, sometimes it's about women and sometimes it's lawless thugs, but somehow they either find trouble or trouble finds them.
Hopefully this book will be made into a movie, because it has that feel. If you liked The Fugitive, with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, you will like this book. However, this is not the story of an action hero like Harrison Ford, it's more like a comic duo Cheech and Chong, the two hippies from the 1960's. This book is definitely a comedy. It is quick paced and fun.
This is also a period piece, so you may find yourself immersed in the 1960s like Forrest Gump. An interesting wrinkle in this story is that one of the characters, Nestor "Cruiser" Cruz, was born in Cuba but has lived in America since age 11 and considers himself fully Americanized. But reminders of his heritage pop up in unexpected ways.
Has Hollywood ever made a comedy about the 1960s? If not, why not? Hurry the hell up before we die, how about? Mustang to Paducah could be the perfect vehicle.
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Elvis Lives! Austin Butler's Star is Born!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp2BNHwbwvI
I was the first kid on my block to see Elvis, attending without hours of the first release at Regal, a few hundred yards from my house. I give this one five stars. I don't get why some of the early reviews were intensely negative, although in his career some people loved Elvis and some hated him.
My family was an anti-Elvis family. My Dad liked Hank Snow, the former straight-laced touring mate of Elvis who thought that Elvis was immoral. My Mom was taught by American missionaries in Korea that all music except for European classical music was created by and for barbarians (literally). They were especially taught not to play drums. So she wasn't much of a fan either.
I didn't recognize Tom Hanks, who deserves an Oscar. I had never heard of Austin Butler prior to this film, but he too deserves an Oscar, because he makes Elvis come to life, especially on stage. It's easy to impersonate Elvis, but hard to make him real. Butler was remarkable. Like the old murder mysteries, Butler did it!
I predict that this movie will trigger an Elvis revival this summer. Elvis has never really left the building, but our culture is really determined by those of us who are, say, 13 to 23 years old. Music is meant to be danced to by single people. It's in our blood from prehistory. It's how young men and women find each other, and that is exactly what is going to happen again.
As an adult I have understood that Rock 'n Roll was tightly connected to the music of Africa and that the chord progressions are Scotch-Irish overlaid on the the African Blues Scale. But what I didn't realize was that Elvis was heavily and directly influenced by African American gospel music as a kid. I thought it was a cliche that Elvis was a white kid who sung black, but the movie made clear exactly what was meant. In fact, I didn't know much about Elvis as a child, so that part was totally new for me and very interesting.
In that way, Elvis truly connects African American and European cultures. It is much more than just sound. It's why the rest of the world is so fascinated by America. Maybe Americans have never fully understood or appreciated our unique role, and many have been terrified by it.
As a period piece, it was a great movie. I am more than 20 years younger than Elvis, but we are close enough in age that I think I know what his world should look like and how it should feel, and, at least to me, they pretty much nailed it.
One story that was not covered was the first concert north of the Mason-Dixon Line, which occurred in the Circle Theater in Cleveland in 1954. It's part of the rationale for locating the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The show was called Hillbilly Jamboree and two of the people in the audience included my future parents, Byron Kennel and Sook Cha Lee.
The version I heard was that the screaming was definitely for real, but they did not know who this kid was and they were not impressed. My mother supposedly fell asleep, but my theory is that this was an act of passive aggression to show how mad she was at being taken to a crowd of literal barbarians.
But later, I realized that this fusion of African and Scotch Irish music was the most awesome sound God could ever give humanity. My parents didn't think so, but it was. This is what made us Americans.
It took me back into the 1960s. Even though I saw Elvis through a teen's eyes, my kid's brain was recording information back then, and probably working better then than it is now, to be quite candid. I remember the phenomenon quite clearly, the good and the bad. The movie took me back and gave me an earlier starting point on his life, and of course told the story from the inside, rather than from the perspective of a fan or outsider.
It would be so interesting to learn how today's teenagers will view this movie. My kids have not seen it yet. I wonder if they will reignite the craze, or whether they will figure, well, we've seen Elvis impersonators before, so it's not big of a deal. I have to believe things are going to get All Shook Up before the summer is over.
Elvis Lives!!
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Is Vladimir Putin Too Big to Fail?
Okay? So no aircraft for Ukraine, no A-10 tank killers, nothing that might result in the Ukraine actually winning.