Onward

I’m back running again. Hardly to the level I was before but at least I’m back at it. The plantar fasciitis I had is under control. There is some pain in the morning but only a little thereafter. Thank God for that, answer to prayer.

 During my last post about working out I whined about the gym policy on no showers. I can’t understand why letting members shower after a workout is asking for a spread of Covid 19, but there it is. I guess businesses have to just get on with whatever measures they need to start making money. At least Oklahoma is mostly back to normal, albeit with a few silly requirements thrown in to remind us about the pandemic. It’s forced me to go back to hitting the gym after a full day of work. I don’t love it. But until I can go back to mornings I’ll deal with the crowded night club feel. It's tough to get a decent treadmill at 5:30 in the evening though. Most of the available ones don't let you increase the hill slopes. 

So it's slow right now. The first time I got on the treadmill I hoped to get three miles. I made almost six, albeit with an extremely high heart rate to finish. I was up around 182 which is going hard. But it had been almost 10 weeks so I didn’t get too upset. Since then I’ve managed a few three mile days and a couple of fives, a few sixes. It’s too hot to get any real distance outdoors. I got up early the other day hoping for six in the sun. I managed 1 mile. ONE FREAKING MILE! I was exhausted. It wasn’t just the heat but I suspect that was the largest part. I’m just not in running shape anymore and it shows up more outdoors than on a treadmill. I need to drop a little weight as well. I got kind of lazy with the quarantine by sitting around and eating ice cream day after day. No excuses now. Gyms are open, I’m back to work and my foot feels a hundred times better.

I’ll have to reacclimatize to this heat though. It’s a process I go through every summer. I can’t go as far distance wise but I really earn every mile. Some days I just have to stop half way through the run and continue at a slower pace or drop from exhaustion. At most that’s once a week though. I still run at the gym a lot in the summer. Drinking water throughout the day helps a lot too. My body doesn’t work as hard when I’m plenty hydrated. For all the preparation you just need to actually get out and grind it out. Nothing gets you back to distance and speed like just doing the work.

Onward.

Tsunami Warning

I had a dream the other night that I was in crowded office building with friends and family. The details are fuzzy as with almost all dreams. There was an air of impending doom that surrounded all of us. A tsunami was approaching and it was clear to everyone that it might kill a lot of people. 

A tsunami in Oklahoma? Really? Yes, now stay with me.

 It would certainly be destructive and wipe out the city as we knew it. I sensed the resolve among the people to deal with whatever came. Panic was not part of the deal. We trusted that no matter what came about, God was in control even in the destruction. I noticed a giant wave 100 feet or so forming outside the windows and moving swiftly toward our position. I curled up into a ball and let it collapse the building. I was oddly calm and prayed that whatever happened to me, I trusted in His ultimate plan. Not because He brought the storm, but because He takes care of His people.

I woke up (in the dream) to family and friends around me. I felt like I had been in a coma for a short time, a few weeks I guess. They filled me in on the details of the destruction. I lost a lot of possessions and a house, for some reason I had a swimming pool in the dream where I kept a whale. Yeah I know, weird stuff. But I’m sure my emotions surrounding the riots and very real threat of civil war pushed some of this to my subconscious. The giant wave is a coming change that wipes away the existing order. Storms mean rough times, tsunamis mean destruction. I’m not sure that the destruction was a necessary one though. I’ve read that a lot of people think the violence on our cities and the destruction must happen so the evil can be exposed.

I talked about Antifa in my last post. They are likely backed by left wing money connected to Marxist groups. Candace Owens thinks it’s George Soros and Open Society, but no one is sure. They are the most well-known but they aren’t the only ones spreading violence and burning property. I’m concerned that Americans don’t understand how evil Marxism is, how it enslaves and destroys. It might be an age thing but socialism just sounds like another option or another political party to the young. This is borne out in polls. Partly because we don’t have a Soviet Union to hold up as the anti-model, we have quit teaching it as a crime against humanity. But it’s a ruthless, liberty crushing system that rewards power and encourages ends over means.

The violence and destruction also overshadow some legitimate anger over relations between police and black men in inner cities. But it’s become for radical groups, an excuse to spread chaos and blame the country for capitalism, inequality, systemic racism, white supremacy and a mixed bag of grievance. The point of their war is to achieve power and prevent exposure of some uncomfortable truths, that corruption in Washington DC is deeper than we think. Could this be the tsunami in my dream? Will the country undergo a radical change that destroys a lot the current institutions and cultures? Is it necessary for the truth to come out about the corruption in high places?

The silver lining (in the dream) was the comfort I had in God. It was the most significant part of the dream, the clarifying element. The madness and destruction weren’t a surprise; they were expected. I don’t intend this to be anything more than a reflection of what was on my mind. I’m not predicting anything. Maybe the craziness of the last few weeks is a heavier mental weight than I imagined it to be. But when you’ve been a Christian for a few years you begin to understand when God is signaling in dreams. The rest are just pizza induced wackiness.

American Carnage; Antifa's lawlessness

The rioting is out of control. It’s been a little over a week since the barbaric killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police. Something feels different this time with the reactions from nearly everyone. Common sense tells me the meltdown and violence around the country are being stoked. But even with all the violence and carnage, the message of unity is getting out. I’ve never seen such support for the black community, from the Church and from law enforcement.

 Baltimore police took a ‘hands off’ approach to policing after the Freddie Gray incident. They still have a presence but it’s significantly reduced. Typically though, the murder rate had gone up 3 times in 2018, but what can they do? It’s too risky for the cops to stop people for shoplifting or vandalism. That's what will likely happen here, a kind of reverse 'broken windows' plan.  

 The carnage gets all the attention because it’s unprecedented in this country. Or if not unprecedented, at least it’s not something that happens every year. Los Angeles has seen terrible rioting in the 60s and the early 90s. Detroit had its day, as did Chicago during the Democratic convention of 1968. I don’t know a lot about Antifa or how they work, but you can bet they’re organized and entrenched in most major cities. I don't assume all the looting, burning and violence is by Antifa, but I do think they organize a lot of it.

The Justice department has been studying them since at least the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. They wear masks and bludgeon people, like journalist Andy Ngo, who disagree with their Marxist policies. Officially they oppose Racism, Fascism and Capitalism. But when everyone is a fascist, racist and capitalist then no one is. They think America itself is guilty of all 3. But not just guilty of past grievances, 'rooted' in white supremacy since the founding. What chance does anyone stand if the country itself is sinful? They can think whatever they want but when they start to force their views with clubs and carnage, we have a problem.

Portland, Oregon is their stronghold. They seem to have the run of the place, shutting down traffic when they want and beating up citizens who get in the way.

They use the threat of violence to shut down conservative speakers at college campuses like Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos. They just tell the college they’ll burn and pillage if the guest is allowed to speak. The college shuts it down for ‘safety’. It isn’t hard to arrest these guys either. Just set a trap and arrest everyone throwing bombs and bricks. Make an announcement that Ben Shapiro is speaking at Stanford or wherever and wait for the mob to show up. Give them a few minutes to get start rioting and bring in a massive swat force. Charge them federally and make the sentences long.

This isn’t difficult but no one does it. Is it because of fear or is there some sympathy on America’s campuses from the faculty? Free speech doesn’t go on campus anymore sadly. These are domestic thugs that break easily when you apply the pressure of a serious jail time. They’ve been treated with kid gloves and given safe haven cities to dominate. But they aren’t terrorists in the mold of Al Qaeda. They’re bratty, rent-a-mob punks.

Aggressive burning and looting allowed to go unpunished by police, or other law enforcement will bring a counter force. No one wants right wing thugs running around anymore than we want left wing thugs. But if something isn’t done about it that’s exactly what will happen, especially if they come to the suburbs. This is still a country with a strong second amendment; a lot unsavory people have stockpiled weapons. Not to mention the regular folks who have guns and plan to defend if attacked. And guess what, they don’t live on 5^th Avenue or Rodeo Drive or Michigan Avenue. And since they’ve seen the destruction on TV they’re likely preparing for violence. City store fronts and parked cars don’t fight back, country folks do.

 The police and National Guard have about 1 more week (a guess) of this kind of destruction. Then the militias will take it back. And they won’t be using clubs and spray paint either. They’ll have shotguns and tactical gear. Punk rioters won’t stand a chance against an unaccountable militia. Then it really will be war. No one wants that.

Let’s pray for peace, our president and racial harmony.

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

 Ephesians 4:3 (NIV)

 

 

Movies for Memorial Day

I’ve always liked war movies. There was a slew of them made about World War II in the 50’s and 60’s--some of them classics and some rather forgettable. As a kid I remember watching TNT on Memorial Day. They along with TBS used to play them back to back all day. I've seen a lot of greats that way. Commercial breaks during TV films were always annoying, but more so now that I stream so much. The minute I get it in my head to go to a movie on broadcast TV, one long string of ads is enough to break my habit. The commercial breaks aren’t evenly spaced either, I assume they still do it like that. You get a long beginning punctuated by a few commercials and by the end of the movie, it’s the opposite. Only someone with no other option sticks with a film until the end. Hospital patients come to mind.

I settled in to watch The Great Escape Monday night. I’m amazed by how well it holds up today. Good stories do that, they survive even after the color fades from the reels. The Great Escape is less a war movie than a caper/heist film. It’s a lot closer to Ocean’s Eleven than The Longest Day. What makes Ocean’s Eleven great (at least I think it’s great)? Colorful characters with unique skill sets and a specific plan established at the beginning. We know what the mission is so we aren’t surprised to see them work it out over the course of the movie. The Dirty Dozen has some elements of this too. But The Great Escape uses the war as a set piece. Because the men are cut off, the audience has no idea how the war effort is going. Soldiers complain to each other about their imprisonment but we don’t get long expositions on Hitler or the Nazis or successful battles. 

Since these guys are in a camp, their world is confined to planning, tunneling, and escaping detection. We're aware the inside politics from the German side. The Luftwaffe manages the camp instead of the SS, making it decent as far as prison is concerned. The SS were brutal thugs; having them as overseers would’ve been much worse. Captain Ramsey (James Donald) and Roger Bartlett (Richard Attenborough) discuss this very thing. Steve Mcqueen plays the 'cooler king' based loosely on an American pilot named William Ash. He steals every scene. He's just a great actor. 

Apparently the film takes liberties with the historical details of the escape itself. That’s a nice way of saying, there was a true escape but the details are fiction. But it’s a fun watch and doesn’t feel old in the way that some movies do. I mentioned the The Longest Day already but that one feels dated. It’s too big and too long. It tries to cover a lot of information but ends up looking like a documentary. We see A-list actors for a couple of minutes, John Wayne explaining the click device, Robert Mitchum on the beach, Henry Fonda taking fire, but we miss out on the granular story. The scenes of the men storming the beachhead at Normandy are impressive. The overhead continuous shot, was a first for its day, but it feels like a brilliant work of photography and not an emotional event.

It’s a grand spectacle that nails it historically but stays above the grubbiness of human misery. It’s ironic that The Longest Day covers literally one day and feels like 6 months; The Great Escape covers at least 6 months and feels like a week. I don’t mean to say it doesn’t stand up as a quality movie, it certainly does. As film making goes it’s incredible. But modern audiences want to know a character or group of characters and watch them grow through the ordeal.

I can’t imagine how I used to watch a 3 hour movie like that with all the commercial interruptions. No way would I do that anymore. What I’ll do instead is find as many old war movies as possible and catch up. I don’t think I’ve seen Midway yet and that’s supposed to be a Classic. A lot of these I’ve seen in bits and pieces. They run all day and unfortunately they run together in my memory.  I’ve never watched Tora! Tora! Tora! either and that one is supposedly a must.

I'll have to make this a once per month thing instead of once per year.

The Goldfinch; Review

 Every so often critics rip a movie apart that I really liked. I wasn’t sure exactly what to think. The film received universal scorn. The book won a Pulitzer prize but I never read it. My review is based solely on the movie. Normally it works the other way for me. I read the book and then see the movie. But I’ve been let down too many times; this probably explains the negative reaction from others.

This time I’m only watching the movie.

A terrorist bombing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art changes the directions and destroys the fortunes of a handful of people. Young Theo (Oakes Fegley) gets separated from his mother just before the explosion kills her and most of the patrons. Two things happen right after; first an old man gives Theo a ring with instructions to take it to an antique dealer. Second, Theo grabs the painting (The Goldfinch) and keeps it in his bag. He manages to get out in the rubble and dust without anyone questioning him. It’s the only possession he has connecting him to that day. The museum assumes it was destroyed.

 He is wracked by grief over the death of his mother. His Father (Luke Wilson) doesn’t show up to claim him till a few months later. He is an unstable man with gambling issues and debt, living in Las Vegas with his girlfriend. Theo has been taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue family until his dad could be located. He moves out to Las Vegas with his dad and falls into adolescent drug and alcohol abuse. His companion is a Russian kid whose father is never around, providing both boys ample opportunity for trouble. After a few years in Vegas, Theo runs away to New York where the antiques dealer, Hobie (played by Jeffrey Wright) lets him live and work.

Goldfinch unfolds mystery like, putting some of the end near the beginning and the beginning near the end. It’s about grief and tragedy, but also fate and seeing how events change the trajectory of life. Theo is a mixture of the people in his life who influence him after the event. We see the bombing in a handful of chopped up scenes that reveal a little more each time, until it all makes sense.  

 Critics hated the way the story breezed through the characters and flattened their development. Book comparisons are always unfair; who really wants to see an 18 hour movie? 

The real theme is the way random connections work to make us into the person we become. Tragedy is often the spark that pushes people together. It’s a long movie (2 ½ hours) but it succeeds as showing instead of telling. The painting is the one constant thing in his life, or so we think. He hides his grief in the painting that he keeps in a storage unit along with prescription drugs. Ansel Elgort, who plays the adult Theo, reminds me of Matt Damon from The Talented Mr. Ripley-a well-mannered and sophisticated guy, with dark secrets and a lack of ethics. His charm is mostly a veneer. 

   

The scenes are beautifully shot with lots of detail. That might have influenced my opinion more than I admit. You can't create a film around a piece of art and not obsess over the pictures you show the audience.

 I can see where the story is thin in spots, like the last 30 minutes or so seem to come out of nowhere and conclude all at once. But it’s a grand spectacle I’m a fan of great shots. I found Nicole Kidman, who plays the matriarch of the wealthy New York family, to be a little wooden. The idea was to turn her from a WASP-y snob into a warmer person late in life. She undergoes a tragedy as well that changes the direction of her life. But there just wasn’t enough of her in the movie to pull it off convincingly.

   

Most critics see The Goldfinch as a pretty mess, I loved it.

Do We Have a Deal?

It's looking like baseball is a go. I'm convinced the players and owners will work out their differences on the revenue sharing thing. I might be missing a few key items but I think I have the main ingredients.  The players agreed to prorate their salaries when it became clear the season might be cut short if it happened at all. Since the games are likely to go on without fans, the deal isn't so good for the owners. They want to base salaries on a 50/50 split of revenues. Which I guess means money from the TV networks and whatever merchandise they can sell. Because ticket sales, concessions and parking fees won't exist. Obviously the players won't go for this.

Teams are telling players that the organizations will lose $640,000 per game with the current prorated salary option. It's probably not true but I'm sure they would lose something. If the owners were going to get crushed like that, and they believed the season to be a loss, why would they even consider playing? They would shut it down right away. But this is silly season when it comes to negotiating. Everyone starts with their most ridiculous proposal. Rays pitcher Blake Snell made an equally dumb argument.

“Bro, I’m risking my life,” the lefty said. “What do you mean it should not be a thing? It should 100% be a thing. If I’m gonna play, I should be getting the money I signed to be getting paid. I should not be getting half of what I”m getting paid because the season’s cut in half, on top of a 33% cut of the half that’s already there - so I’m really getting, like, 25%."

It's a good thing he doesn't have to work in a hospital and "risk his life" or even stock shelves at Walmart. He is entitled to reject the plan on whatever basis he wants, but why does it become more risky with a pay cut? He seems to think he would make the same salary without a season at all. Athletes do this on occasion. They remind us all of how rich and out of touch they are. But this is the negotiation phase and both sides would like the public to understand their cause.

I usually side with ownership in these labor disputes. Maybe I'm a hopelessly cruel Republican who longs for the days of indentured servitude and 12 hour working days? Or maybe I just really hate when teams overpay for talent. Baseball isn't a classic business like manufacturing with public financials making critical products for the nation. It's private, we don't know exactly how much it makes and needless, the owners probably fudge the numbers anyway. I'm certain that no one is struggling to keep their house. But they do have employees and taxes and all the usual stuff related to running a business. 

Also, teams are eternal and players are temporary. It makes sense to pay them well, for a time. But when players over the age of 33 get big money and long deals it hurts the club. In other words, it hurts the competitiveness of the team long term. It's ultimately the clubs that agree to pay these crazy salaries though. I can't fault the players for getting the best deal. 

Assuming they get the money worked out, here are a couple of possibilities. Every team could have a DH (designated hitter) and an expanded roster. Playoffs could include more teams and they might try out some new rules like ending the game in a tie if no winner exists after 12 innings. Some want to see how a robot umpire might fare.

 This is all proposal stuff but it's fun to imagine. I've always been against the DH rule for the national league. But what the heck, give it a try. I can't believe they haven't gotten rid of these 13, 14, 15 inning games by now to determine a winner. It's bad for everyone to play late into the night and use up all the pitchers. This 12 inning tie thing needs to happen now.

There is always the obligatory social distancing stuff and the clean dugouts, clean bathrooms. That stuff bores me to no end so I won't dwell on it. Just work it out please and lets get baseball back. 

Feeling Conspiratorial

I find myself praying for the country quite a bit lately.

 I’m getting more conspiratorial with every passing day. After what happened with the totally fabricated Russian collusion hoax I think anything is possible.

 Information spills out about the fraud every day. The lies began with the FISA warrants to surveil the Trump campaign in 2016, the election year. Worst of all, the mainstream media pushed Russia collusion nonsense for all 3 years. Actively campaigning to splash Democrat lies across the TV screens. They were a part of the biggest scam in American political history and every day that passes shows just how deep the rot went.

 If the lies about the Vietnam War weakened the trust Americans had in their government the Russia collusion hoax might completely break it. 

 From Obama to the intelligence apparatus and the Mueller report, they were all a part of the corruption. If the Justice Department does it right than they should all go to jail. Americans who go up against the FBI don’t stand a chance. The same standard should apply when the FBI goes up against the American people. That’s what happened by the way. A cabal of elite DC insiders acted to undermine the election of a sitting president. Why? Because he is a bully? Because he doesn’t come from their class, education? Because he isn’t schooled in the right way to act? Because he fires up Twitter and swings back at every slight?

The FISA abuse will peel back the onion on the false Russia narrative into a plan that takes down a lot of intelligence people and former officials. I’m waiting to see who flips first and starts dishing dirt.

Is there more going on in Ukraine as it concerns American politicians? I assume it’s like Cuba was in the fifties before Castro came in and threw out the mafia. Corruption defined the island country like Cohibas and humidity. It’s a pure guess on my part but I think Ukraine is another place where the political class hides money. I read a story just today that showed the former Ambassador to Ukraine (Marie Yovanovitch) who testified she only had scant knowledge about Burisma (company Hunter Biden worked for). The article shows records of her meeting with top officials on the board, whoops. Ukraine isn’t even part of the Russia collusion stuff but might open up yet another window into deep fraud.

How does it happen that Congressman and Congresswomen become so wealthy when they leave office? We know what their salaries are, it’s public record. But they all seem to have charities and nonprofits that the wealthy can ‘donate’ to. This isn’t new. We know what’s going on but it’s technically legal. Where it is corrupt, it’s hardly worth the effort and time to go after. The best thing that could come of this effort to get Trump is exposure, in all of its ugliness. The Justice Department needs to drip, drip, drip the fraud out in weekly segments the way the Russia story unfolded on cable news every night.

Trump has said this should never happen again. I think in order to do it we need to see jail time. I understand the problem with persecuting the previous administration. It threatens making it a permit feature of our elections. The next guy in puts together a team and goes after Trump and his crew on some dumb process crimes just to even the score. But without the rule of law, what are we doing? Is it really better to let this attack on democracy go unpunished? Doing so would just encourage another level of corruption and further until the only ones left in DC, and any government, would be gangsters in suits and ties. These gangsters would run away with the wealth of the country and protect themselves through the courts. Some think we are already there.

The unknown factor in this sordid Russia thing is how much of an appetite the American people have for this. The drip, drip, drip of crimes could put people off so much that they just tune out. I wouldn’t blame them. The full scandal must be shown or we lose a further connection to our democratic republic and the “deep state” becomes a very real thing and not just a punchline.