I was right again...

On November 12th, 2016 I wrote about how I had previously predicted Donald Trump would become president. I also predicted what his presidency would be like:

I myself think that the times are about to get darker, unfortunately. Once Trump is elected, he will be undermined at every turn and challenged by sinister forces, and this growing mass of idiots is going to pose a danger to everyone who is capable of rational thought.

I might as well be a modern day prophet. I predicted with impeccable precision Russia Gate, Stormy, fake impeachment nonsense with Ukraine, you name it.

And the divide between those that think and those that don't know how to think has become ever more apparent and polarizing.

What I did not predict however, was that Trump was being spied on from the beginning. The establishment, not wanting to allow this NON establishment candidate to get in, did everything it could to try and sabotage the man, but they failed.

And now Ghislaine Maxwell has been arrested (about 26 days ago?). In those 26 days we have heard precious little.

I wonder what happens next. I know what I HOPE will happen next, and that is that a lot of deep state heads will roll.

I would love to see it. But past experience suggests that the status quo will be maintained and that the boot (establishment) will continue to smash into the face (the people) in perpetuity forever.

It COULD go differently, and I would love to see it, but I'm just not convinced it will.

I balk at the coming elections. If anyone in their right mind can say that Joe Biden is worthy of the office, then they are out of their goddamn mind.

One thing that Trump has revealed, is just how useless and incapable lifelong politicians are. They are so accustomed to feeding from the public trough that they never really had to develop any meaningful skills outside of some basic modicum of eloquence or charisma, and Joe Biden doesn't even possess these...

Which candidate is more resourceful?
Which candidate is more intelligent?
Which candidate is more creative?
Which candidate is a more strategic thinker?
Which candidate is braver and more willing to stand up for fairness?

These are all rhetorical questions of course. The answer to each and every one is Donald Trump.

That this is even up for debate...is frankly alarming.

I am sad to admit that I am beginning to agree with the world elite. Most people are too stupid to make decisions. They are too moronic to be able to discern the proper decision of two candidates given the facts. Not only are they stupid, but they do not know HOW to think, and further, are not even aware of their own stupidity.

It takes a baseline level of intelligence to recognize your own lack thereof. This would be why so many idiots are overconfident.

I am excited and nervous for what is to come. For I do not know what comes next. Either the establishment succeeds or it partially succeeds.

I see a lot of dissent right now. But its largely meaningless. People posting on a forum, or a meme on youtube, or some other social media platform.

Reddit, the Donald dot win, or somewhere else.

While these things are interesting to spread the truth and perhaps sway an election towards sanity, the truth is that meaningful change does not happen without major catalyzing events.

And no, I'm not talking about the paid for by George Soros rioting and terrorist movements happening inside of the US. That shit is fake, its manufactured. It isn't a real grassroots movement. Its just a bunch of angry sad dispossessed losers being made to feel powerful by evil rich interest taking advantage of them.

Its abuse, its horrid.

You want real change? You want to see the ruling elite play fair? You want to see them stop robbing people of their money and rights and privileges?

Here's how that happens:

Picture a mob of people storming a live in progress CNN broadcast, and they surround Don Le-Mahn and literally tear him to pieces like in a zombie movie. People on TV watch in horror as the life expires from his disembodied head. The message is clear, the people will no longer tolerate propaganda and lies.

You wanna win? You need to strike fear in your enemy.

You think they're afraid of a fucking forum? Of memes on Twitter?

Do you know how much of a badass George Washington was? Ever read the state slogan in New Hampshire?

You think George Washington would content himself with memes? He'd amass loyalists and would start shooting. There would be more blood than you or I could stomach.

And that's the irony of it all. So many people have been pacified by modern living, by the just enough comfort provided to keep them from rioting en mass that they wouldn't risk it all.

Trump has been president for 3.5 years, and he's having a lot of difficulty draining the swamp. But if the people got behind him and struck deep fear into the swamp...then anything would be possible. I'm alarmed by a lot of what Trump is doing, but then I remember he has to work within the confines of a relatively fucked up system of Government. If you want real change the size and structure of Government needs to change...drastically. It needs to get much lighter, much smaller, and much more focused on simple things: Law, and civil order. Everything else should be in the hands of the people.

The mother of all creation is necessity. If you want people to be strong and capable, you need to give them responsibility. If you treat people like helpless children, do not be surprised when they behave as such and lack the confidence to try and expand.

People have to be willing to give up their comfort. Instead we're all wondering if some jackass is going to harass us for not wanting to wear a mask right now just so we can get our groceries, go home and rest up before the demands of the following work day.

As our Governments continue to print money and bury us further in debt.

As they continue to think quite foolishly that Government stimulus can help create wealth and prosperity.

As we continue to allow the further erosion of civil liberty, civil society, free speech, family values, and goddamn common sense. And ironically, God.

As we continue to bury our heads in the sand hoping it will all work out.

As the young dispossessed generation wakes up to the reality that the world does not belong to them or ever will, and that they must simply accept what they have inherited.

As career criminal politicians continue to milk the system and lie to our faces. Or get away with crimes in your face and never face the repercussions (spying on Trumps campaign is such a red herring, I just don't understand how people are not outraged over this, there should be MILLIONS rioting over this until justice is served, but we're too addicted to our iPhones...).

There are parasites clinging to us all, and we're doing our best to keep our blood clean and pure and healthy and our strength up, otherwise...it all falls down.

Infinity War - a Spoiler filled Review

So I have a confession to make.

I have not seen The Last Jedi.

I didn't see Rogue One in theaters either.

It all started when I saw The Force Awakens in theaters and hated the living shit out of it for being a cheap ploy to rekindle the synapses in my brain that formed when I saw the first original star wars film.

Since then I decided not to watch another Star Wars film again and have not regretted the decision one bit, considering how much the fans absolutely HATED the Last Jedi.

So it is with this in mind that I want to discuss Infinity War.

You see, it is interesting to me to note how two franchises that are part of the same company can be run so differently and have such wildly different results.

I am, admittedly, a late adopter. I don't generally get into things right away, I wait to see how others have reacted and follow up according to their feedback. For reference I got my first smartphone in 2011, several years after everyone else

The same is true of Marvel films. Outside of the first Ironman, which I admittedly adored, I never really got into the other films nor did I see the first Avengers.

Several years later, having gotten a subscription to Netflix and perusing the films there, I saw many Marvel films in their catalog, Captain America 1 and 2, Thor 1 and 2, Guardians 1 and 2, etc..

I started binging on them pretty hard and was amazed at how every film seemed to at least be competent. The early Thor stuff was a bit tonally unsure of itself, and the sequel admittedly a bit too derivative, but overall the quality of the films is quite high.

This is coming from someone who largely DESPISES modern cinema. But I have to admit, the films are well written, the dialogue is tight and relate-able, the energy in the films is fun, and they feel quite satisfying.

Since I binged, I started going to all the films. I went to see Ragnarok and Homecoming, both of which were very well made films, and I was further impressed at how this Studio kept consistently making the right decisions while at the same time taking risks so it doesn't become stale.

Okay now all that out of the way, I want to talk about Infinity War in more detail. I went to see it on the Saturday of its opening week end, and the energy in the room was astounding. People gasped, cheered, wept, and openly applauded the film at the end, an ovation from the audience, something that I have almost never seen in a theater.

The film should be a fucking mess. They were juggling so many characters, so many subplots and so many story threads that it shouldn't have worked, but it did. It shouldn't have felt cohesive, but it did. The degree of difficulty of this film is impressive. Really impressive. They aimed for the sky and got damn close.

There are faults to the film, for starters I thought RDJ was beginning to get bored with the role of Tony Stark, and they don't give Chris Evans enough to do in the film, but overall its gripping, it's pacing is great, the humor isn't overboard and doesn't undermine the serious moments.

What makes this film transcendental though, is the fact that the filmmakers weren't afraid to push the envelope, they didn't stick to a formula, they kind of reinvented it.

For those of you who haven't seen the film, do not read on.

Admittedly, I didn't react much to the ending, knowing there's another film coming in a year and also knowing that the key plot device includes a gem that allows you to reverse time SEVERELY diminishes the weight of all the deaths we see on screen, never mind the sequels that are already in the works due to contracts. I highly doubt that Black Panther and Spiderman are not coming back, or Gamorrah (is that how you spell it?).

That being said, I still felt the weight of it to some degree and am HIGHLY anticipating the sequel next year. The standout performances for me were two, one was Josh Brolin as Thanos. While I will admit his motivations are not well enough fleshed out and do not hold much weight (for example if you cut the population of a planet in half, it will double back in about 30 years, also there is plenty of evidence that suggests that overpopulation is not anywhere as bad as Thanos believes it to be), his performance is flawless, and the CGI purple monster has enormous subtlety and weight to it.

His character is extremely well fleshed out and consistent throughout the film. He feels scary, and they set the tone for the villain immediately, killing Loki and Heimdahl (again no idea if this is spelled correctly). This was a very clever plot device because it gave weight to Thanos whenever he was on screen. The plot armor of all these characters were removed right at the start, anything goes and its GREAT. It made every scene with him retain a certain undercurrent of tension and uncertainty, coupled with his immense power and intellect, a captivating combination.

The second standout performance is Chris Hemsworth as Thor. This guy has evolved a lot as an actor. I'll admit Cumberbatch was awesome as Dr Strange, but what we're seeing from Hemsworth is an evolution.

The first Thor was stale, it was predictable and we could see an actor painting by numbers. Competent to be sure, but not sure enough of himself to improvise or step outside of what was expected from a hulking muscular dude.

He has improved IMMENSELY as an actor since, his performance in Ragnarok was flawless and captivating, and here is as good or better. The subtlety with which he balances the tragedies that have befallen Thor and his immense will to overcome them was captivating, and his onscreen time with rabbit as he calls him (Rocket Raccoon) work really well, oh and his entrance to the Wakanda battle kicks ass, the entire theater erupted in a chorus of cheers when he wielded that axe into battle.

Oh I forgot the mention Giant Peter Dinklage...the set pieces are fucking awesome in this movie.

If you haven't seen it, go watch it. This is a cultural event, not just a movie.

The fact is that the film industry has become stale as fuck, and these guys are still finding ways to surprise the audience and entertain. These films are HIGHLY entertaining, they just work. These guys get it, they just get it, and its great to watch.

I'll admit that comic book films will never achieve the level of weight of a film like Lawrence of Arabia or a Network, my favorite kinds of films, which is why for me they'll always be art for arts sake, but honestly I'm beginning to wonder if I'm wrong about that and they can surpass the limitations of the genre. This one feels like it, like they stepped out of the bounds of what a superhero film was supposed to be and subverted expectations in a highly satisfying way.

Oh I guess I should circle back to Star Wars and how much its sucks dog shit compared to Marvel films these days, I'm curious as to why Disney is failing so hard with one and crushing so hard with the other.

Of course failure is relative, The Last Jedi still made a fuck ton of money mostly because fanboys are too brainwashed to recognize its become SJW dog shit...time will tell if those masses wake up.

But Marvel is flying high, and next years film, if its any good, will make as much money as this one, perhaps more if the resolution of this narrative is as satisfying as its cliffhanger was.

10/10. It isn't perfect, but I can't give this film any lower of a score, as it aimed soooo high and got it all mostly right.

Book Review: When all you have is hope

See it on Amazon

So this book is really short and easy to read so I figured I would get through it in a week end and sure enough I did.

The book is less than 200 pages so you could probably finish it in one lengthy sitting or two medium ones.

The first half is quite interesting and gripping. We get a view into Frank's upbringing and his early family life, and he is brutally honest about it.

He recounts a life in which he was obviously very traumatized and troubled. I could not put the book down during this first half.

The second half is where it gets sort of murky. He vaguely describes how he got into the coffee business and how he founded second cup, some of the passages in this part are okay, we sort of get a feel for how he build his business, although most of the innovations were due to blind luck, or so it appears.

Then he sells his half of the company to his business partner Tom, after which the book loses focus almost entirely. The first half had us looking closely at this intimate portrayal of a man's life, then we back up by about 50 feet to see his business, then we back up even further and the structure of the second half falls apart rather drearily.

He jams a random chapter in his book about his wife, a random chapter in the book about kids in africa who have aids (I get it but what does this really matter in the context of his life?)

The book felt rushed, unfocused and uneven, and the great tragedies that befell him as a child, he did not in any meaningful way explain how those experiences helped him to become the man he would eventually become, and further did not go into enough detail as to how he overcame his alcoholism and his depression.

Nor did he explain how he was able to be intimate again after all the sexual abuse he endured as a young teen.

Its filled with holes and overall an unsatisfying experience, but has its moments.

3/5.

Propaganda and the Mind

You out there reading this blog, if indeed anyone is, you're the real thing.

You are the living breathing embodiment or the human condition.

That was 41 years ago. Everything in the film industry has gone downhill. Less interesting, less meat on the bones, dumber language, simpler plots, less aspiration.

Shit, basically shit.

We are living in a dark age, the dark age has come. It has come, we are living in it. There is no point in lamenting the eventual decline, we are amidst it.

The only hope is that humanity has accelerated such that the dark ages instead of lasting hundreds of years, may only last a couple of decades.

The idea is that with the ever increasing advanced of technology, everything else would advance at a corresponding increasing rate.

In other words, the recent events of Trump, Brexit and the meltdown of the mainstream media (which Beale laments above) is happening faster than anyone could have imagined.

And Bitcoin is surging, I blinked and it went for 3K to 6K, and it could be 20 K by next year.

And fiat currency, well its as stagnant as ever.

Things are moving fast, real fast. Its gotten to the point that we could potentially anticipate all of mainstream media being totally replaced by independent media within the next 5-10 years. A complete reversal from the early 90's when big conglomerates bought up every news and radio station in the world.

I'm reminded of a quote from Princess Leia in star wars, the more you tighten your fist, the more systems will slip through your fingers.

The powers that be are losing the information war, ,they can no longer peddle their truth as they once did. Once the consequences of this hits their wallets or their desires to manipulate world events enough, they will hit back, with what I wonder...

Alien Covenant, a review

In my last article, I concluded by saying "What is the point of watching something if you know the outcome?".

The other day I watched Alien: Covenant, and saw about two thirds of the film then abruptly left the theater, fighting off disgust and disdain for the shit show I was watching.

If you haven't seen it and plan to, spoilers ahead. If you haven't and don't plan to, then this won't change your mind either way.

The premise of the film is in essence a soft reboot of the original Alien. An android sabotages a crew in order to make an alien that is reminiscent of an H.R. Giger monstrosity.

What's interesting to note, is that if you haven't seen Alien before, but are half way intelligent, you'll still probably be bored by the film.

I went ahead and saw the original Alien again recently to make a comparison, and what I noticed was that Ian Holm's character in the original, Ash, was extremely subtle about his betrayal. We only discover it when Ripley hacks the computer logs near the end of the film to discover the original purpose of their mission.

What made that plot interesting was the Company's deliberate evil, they were willing to spare the lives of the crew in order to get a living specimen on board.

This time around it appears to be a total accident that they decide to visit this Alien planet, some weird transmission from Prometheus's Dr. Shaw is caught in Danny McBride's helmet (makes no friggin' sense at all) and they decide to take a massive risk and visit this rogue planet.

No bio-hazard suits, no protective gear, no precautions of any kind, they just land and this mysterious black ooze quickly causes two aliens to hatch and the chaos begins.

I must admit, the visuals are stunning, and are blindingly real. What the film lacks is any form of tension and anticipation whatsoever. This is compounded by the fact that the character of David is so obviously a traitor from the get go, the way his eyes gloss over when they mention that they have 2,000 human beings in space pods is laughable.

What is further laughable is the script and the reactions of the crew. Every single action can be deconstructed as totally nonsensical, but for the sake of brevity I will only demonstrate two such examples. (For a silly breakdown of more nonsense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmwyWerz5KI)

Firstly, Crudup and McBrides wives carry an obviously sick human back to their drop ship, his skin is off color, hes puking out massive amounts of blood and if he does have a viral infection, than they are all contaminated at this point as he has vomited large quantities of blood onto one of the women and coughed heavily in their general direction. Airborne viruses move quickly.

And yet, minutes later, when it is a simple matter of opening the door and letting the woman through because she is stuck in the room with the man who is minutes from having an alien pop out, McBride's wife decides to let her die because she is afraid of contagion, which no doubt has already spread. Then she decides to open the door any fucking way to shoot the alien but slips on the blood fucks up and dies horribly.

The film is about as cerebral and subtle as a deliberate kick in the balls, which is very strange to say about a Ridley Scott Alien film.

The second example of stupendous idiocy is the scene where David and Crudup's character (pardon but the characters are so forgettable I can't remember their names) stumble upon an alien who has just brutally murdered one of the women in the crew. Crudup does the sensible thing and kills the beast, and David chastises him aggressively claiming that he was building trust with the animal and how could you be so cruel...about an alien that has indiscriminately murdered several of the crew.

Then David brings Crudup into a room filled with creepy experiments, descends into an even creepier basement filled with the classic Alien eggs. Crudup's character is either mentally retarded or has no capacity for rational thought, as he does not suspect David at all, nor does he find the large disgusting eggs creepy, and idiotically listens to David when he says to him "Go ahead and take a close look, its perfectly harmless".

See the script is a hastily written piece of shit by a novice, which is why the characters don't make any sense. Who in their right mind would stick their head near that alien egg, AFTER it opens its flaps? After being led down by a creepy android who is clearly a few screws loose? Not an ounce of suspicion or agency on the part of the character, that would require depth and thinking.

As an audience member who knows with exact precision what is about to happen, you just kind of sit there and wonder what the fuck these people were thinking when they made this piece of shit movie.

I repeat my previous article's statement, What is the point of watching something when you already know the outcome?

Maybe this film was hastily made just to make a buck, I don't know what the point is anymore, whatever happened to genuine inspiration and infusing actual passion into your work?

Fassbender aside (he may be predictable, but he's still somewhat entertaining to watch), there is no reason whatsoever to watch this film, which is why I didn't finish it.

Avoid at all costs.

How the NBA finals are symptomatic of our cultural divorce from reality

So the finals are now over.

The Cavs played very well in games 3, 4 and 5 and still lost, because they had to expend TONS of energy to compete with the MUCH MORE TALENTED Warriors team.

That's right, Kyrie Irving, Bron, KLove and a solid bench got beat.

You can debate the particulars of the series if you want to, maybe Kyrie expended way too much energy with all the flash, maybe Bron and KLove didn't assert themselves enough offensively, maybe Korver just missed a few open 3's he would normally make.

The macro is this:

What Kevin Durant did in the off season is symptomatic of our culture. He took the easy way out, he didn't care about the means, he only cared about the ends.

Our culture is only concerned with appearances, hence our obsession with social media, hence the rise in narcissism.

People do not seem to realize the sheer oddity of a player of Durant's caliber deciding to join a 73 win team that basically was already the best team in the league by a sizable margin. Especially since his team was up 3-1 and had he and Westbrook figured out how to play a decent 48 minutes they would have met Cleveland in the finals.

Now the Warriors are about to sweep the field, and it happened because a player was allowed to tip the balance of power in an extremely lopsided manner.

The fact is that this has never happened before. LeBron went to average or lottery teams and made them contenders, he didn't JOIN a contender to make them a super contender. He still wanted to show that HE was a major part of the reason that his team made it to the top of the mountain, he relishes the JOURNEY.

Durant just wants the outcome. Its like a dude who can't lose his virginity so he hires a hooker. All that matters to him is busting a nut, not a meaningful connection.

We no longer seem to be interested as a culture in an authentic meaningful experience, we just want the outcome that we imagine will make us happy. Our instant gratification culture has bled into major sports now, with this move being defended and glossed over as okay and justified with various precedents.

I am reminded of when I was a teenager and we would go to my cousin's house to play Risk. He would always win, which seemed odd at the time. Years later he admitted to us that he always stacked the deck so that he would always have more soldiers than we did.

The NBA is now a sport where the team with the best shooters wins, by virtue of the fact that officiating is skewed towards the offensive player. When the game is less physical it becomes purely a matter of offensive ability. The Warriors, already having the best offense in the league were allowed to add the best offensive player not on their team onto their team.

And now the anticlimactic result of the Warriors winning has happened, and they will of course win again next year, barring a major choke job or a major injury. They will have home court and will be damn near impossible to beat in a best of seven series.

The Cavs will retool and arm themselves up even further so that they can compete, cementing a fourth straight finals appearance of the same two teams. What a snooze fest.

The reason people are touting around as to why Durant made this move is that supposedly players are only measured by whether they won a championship and by how many they have won and so he did what made 'sense' to cement his legacy...

In essence what they are admitting is that our culture has become so shallow and transparent that we only care about the end result, not the journey, not the details.

We only care about cliff notes, not actually reading the book.

We judge people based on meaningless numbers, not the details.

We read our news in bite size chunks because we lack the patience for meaningful content.

Our news articles contain fewer and fewer facts and more conjecture and propaganda.

Championships are the measure of greatness, not actual skill or impact. It matters not that this was a cakewalk, what matters is the outcome.

I myself have no desire to watch the NBA anymore, no parity, no post play, all threes and layups, every team is adopting the same style of play. The league is becoming homogeneous and what makes matters worse is that the officiating is as terrible as its ever been.

What is the point of watching something if you know the outcome?

The Sheer Stupidity of PC Culture

The other Day President Barack Obama, with his last few remaining months of relevancy, decided to give medals of freedom to a bunch of celebrities and athletes.

If you want the details of who was awarded with this meaningless piece of metal, go ahead and google it.

Freedom....celebrities...athletes.

I just don't get it.

Why do we exalt these people to the status of deity in our modern culture? (I use the term culture loosely here, a culture is defined by a set of rules and norms and limitations on human behaviour, I do not believe our modern existence can properly be defined as culture)

I'm sure there are some humanitarian pursuits that these people have engaged in, but the key aspect that they represent (well the athletes anyway) is hard work, dedication, an elite mindset and sheer willpower. The celebrities represent hedonism, childishness, self indulgence, and immaturity.

What the fuck does that have to do with freedom? Ellen DeGeneres (is that how you spell it?) interviews famous people all day and makes light of everything. Her show is like televised Soma (go read Brave New World).

Why does our PC culture give these people so much importance? They're propaganda puppets for the establishment. Pro-Hillary every last one, shit even my childhood idol Michael Jordan received a useless medal.

Propaganda. We're supposed to do what they tell us, think how they want us, and they want to make us envy this nonsense.

The worst part for me is Kareem was there, I respect Kareem like hell, that is one authentic dude. I guess he's just along for the ride or something, but goddamn the vapidity of our culture is beginning to irk me.

I think I need to quit Facebook.