Please note that I DIDN'T do a basketball bracket

I'm told everyone is doing it, so here's my bracket.

(click to embiggen)


And some comments.

The only movie in the bracket that I haven't seen is The Princess and the Frog, so there's that. But I doubt it would have beaten Lilo and Stitch in any event.

There are two omissions on the Disney side that really hurt their chances in this tournament. The first is the glaring, ridiculous, what-were-they-thinking, omission of Wreck it Ralph. Put that in place of Nightmare Before Christmas or really, several other really good but not my favorite movies, and it would have gone to the final. The other omission is Meet the Robinsons which I love and would have done well.

The Pixar side is rife with structural problems. First, and biggest, is The Incredibles against Wall-E, which knocks what would have been at least a semi-finalist out in the first round. Then I had the impossible choice of Ratatouille versus Inside Out. I settled on Ratatouille because it's not only a great movie but a visual and artistic masterpiece. Inside Out is slightly less so.

And in the end, as much as I loved Moana, this wasn't close. Nothing beats The Incredibles.

Please feel free to opine in the comments.

Shame

Every American should be ashamed of this.

A US Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan says he didn't realize he'd been deported to Mexico until it was too late to turn back.

Speaking from Tijuana Monday, Miguel Perez told reporters that he's feeling well physically, but is "very confused."

Perez was escorted across the US-Mexico border from Texas and handed over to Mexican authorities Friday, ICE said in a statement. Perez says a truck took him to an airport in Indiana. He was then flown to Brownsville, Texas, ICE said.

When he got off the plane, Perez said he arrived at a "place that looked like an office."

"I did not know it was already the bridge to enter the other side," he said, adding that he walked through a door that closed quickly behind him. "When I went back they told me everything is over."

"Although I am free, there is not much joy in being free," Perez, 39, said.

Perez had been in the agency's custody since 2016.  Link

Conservatives love to say that we're being hysterical when we compare certain actions of this Administration to the Nazis. But if you're going to do things the Nazis did, then you deserve the label.

The [World War I] veterans who remained in Germany, also initially released after arrests during the Kristallnacht, received no special treatment after this, being deported to concentration camps and murdered like other Jewish German citizens. The Nazis attempted to eradicate all evidence of Jewish soldiers fighting for Germany in World War I.  Link

Serve your country faithfully, get deported. Is America great yet?

 

Go get 'em kids

On March 24, the kids and families of March For Our Lives will take to the streets of Washington DC to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in our schools today.

Fantastic Voyage - New Discovery!

Over the past week, FXMHD has been showing one of my favorite classic science fiction movies, Fantastic Voyage. Produced in 1966, Fantastic Voyage is the story of a team of military officers and doctors, miniaturized to bacterial size in a submarine and injected into a wounded scientist in order to remove a blood clot in his brain from the inside. It's famous because the special effects were really great for the time and it features the screen premier of Raquel Welch. Since then, it's been parodied a bunch of times, including by The Simpsons and Archer.

I hadn't seen the movie in a while when I watched it on Saturday night and there were quite a few things that amused me.

When Raquel is introduced as the main surgeon's assistant, the hero makes a couple of sexist remarks about her looks and the Colonel in command forbids her from the sub because "This mission is no place for a woman!" But once the surgeon insists (good for him!), she's brought aboard and for the rest of the movie treated like a professional.

The main surgeon, Dr. Duval, and Donald Pleasence (he has a character name, but come on), the doctor in charge of the mission, get into some philosophizing on the sub as they view the human body from the inside. When Duval calls the oxygenation of blood "a miracle" and Pleasence raises evolution, we discover that the "best brain surgeon in the world" is a creationist! And, of course, Pleasence's character comes across as an atheist. Guess who's the surprise traitor trying to wreck the mission!

Later in the movie, the commanding general finds an ant in the control room and they make a point of how his perspective has changed; he just can't squish it. My concern was more that there are ants in their sterile, surgical control room. The general, who's drinking coffee throughout the mission, also has a half dozen setups in the movie where you expect him to say, "Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up [controlled substance]." It's possible Airplane got the Lloyd Bridges scenes from this movie.

And finally, there's this. I caught the movie again today and recorded a specific section. This scene has the brass checking in with various doctors monitoring the patient.

To prep this clip, below is the cast list. Doctor Sawyer, in charge of hypothermia, is NOT credited and I can find nothing on the Internet identifying him.

• Stephen Boyd as Grant
• Raquel Welch as Cora Peterson
• Edmond O'Brien as General Carter
• Donald Pleasence as Dr. Michaels
• Arthur O'Connell as Colonel Donald Reid 
• William Redfield as Captain Bill Owens
• Arthur Kennedy as Dr. Peter Duval
• Jean Del Val as Dr. Jan Benes
• Barry Coe as communications aide
• Ken Scott as a Secret Service agent
• Shelby Grant as nurse
• James Brolin as technician

Now watch the clip and identify the uncredited Doctor Sawyer on the monitor.

Any ideas?

I am 99% sure that's James Doohan, Scotty from Star Trek. I can't find any evidence that it's him other than how he looks and, more tellingly, how he sounds. There's also no evidence of whom it might be if it's not Doohan. I think it's him and it's kind of shocking this major science fiction connection has never been made.

Unless someone identifies him as someone else, I claim credit for this discovery.

The flaw in their plan was they forgot that he can't read

Note to dumbass:

When a dictator who has stifled his country's press, jailed his political rivals, destroyed the independence of the courts, and assassinated his opponents, wins a rigged election . . .

DON'T CONGRATULATE HIM.

What?

According to a White House statement, “President Trump congratulated President Putin on his March 18 re-election, and emphasized the importance of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The two leaders confirmed the need for the United States and Russia to continue our shared efforts on strategic stability.”

Well, maybe he didn't know.

Shortly after the absolutely unsurprising re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump was given explicit instructions in his daily briefing materials to avoid congratulating his counterpart.

But despite the all-caps notation reading “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” Trump did so anyway, according to a report Tuesday by The Washington Post.

My apologies to Beavis and Butt-Head for dragging them into this shitshow.

Change will happen

While the past year hasn't had too many moments to be proud of as an American, yesterday was full of them, as thousands of American kids walked out of their schools to protest our easy access to guns. People who want to criticize young people for being disengaged and uncaring can shut it.

Rarely have I been this proud to be an American. And hopeful.

And this was just wonderful:

BROOKLYN TEENS ERUPT IN CHEERS WHEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS STAGE THEIR OWN SCHOOL WALKOUT

Click through to watch the video.

Swamp drained!

I'm a federal worker. I have to abide by very strict ethical guidelines, especially in regards to outside employment. That's the main reason this is an anonymous blog. I don't want anyone assuming that I'm representing my agency, because I am not.

For others, who more recently joined the government, those pesky ethics rules don't seem to be much of an obstacle.

Here’s what we found: At least 187 Trump political appointees have been federal lobbyists, and despite President Trump’s campaign pledge to “drain the swamp,” many are now overseeing the industries they once lobbied on behalf of. We’ve also discovered ethics waivers that allow Trump staffers to work on subjects in which they have financial conflicts of interest.
...
We also found — for the first time — dozens of special-government employees, or SGEs, who work as paid consultants or experts for federal agencies while keeping their day jobs in the private sector. This rare government gig allows them to legally work for both industry and the Trump administration at the same time.  ProPublica

This is what corruption looks like.

Shooting from the hip

This is why it's probably not a good idea for the U.S. to work without a functioning State Department, South Korean Ambassador, or, you know, experts.

On North Korea, Trump gambles from a position of weakness

Or put another way, Trump has agreed to give Kim Jong-un exactly what he wants. North Korean leaders have sought this kind of meeting for decades because it would necessarily elevate the rogue state: it would show the world that North Korea’s leader can be treated as an equal by the Leader of the Free World. Previous American presidents - from both parties – have left open the possibility of such engagement, but only as a reward for meaningful and tangible results.

Trump, however, tends to assume his modern predecessors were fools who lacked his awesomeness. Why would this president take the one step other presidents would not? The question practically answers itself: Trump agreed to the talks precisely because other presidents didn’t. Politico had a good piece on this overnight, highlighting Trump’s “taboo-breaking instinct.”:

...

It doesn’t seem to occur to Trump to ask why others haven’t taken such actions. Worse, the president apparently hasn’t thought through the scope of the risk he’s taking. 

Remember, Trump is still an amateur, with no foreign policy vision that couldn’t fit on a bumper sticker, who has literally never been a direct participant in delicate diplomatic talks.  Link

This is what it's like being governed by someone who has no idea what he's doing.

Are we great again yet?

Clash of the Titans

Big news tonight! (And get ready for a humorous turnaround, coming up).

President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May in an effort to persuade the regime to abandon its nuclear weapon program, South Korean officials said Thursday.  Link

This will be an incredible challenge for all parties. One of these men is an unpopular, authoritarian leader of a backwards, xenophobic country, and the other is Kim Jong Un.  Bam!  (See what I did there?)

Seriously, this could be a complete fiasco, a nothingburger, or a true harbinger of peace and the first step towards a safer, more peaceful planet.

And this is the guy we've chosen to represent us at these critical talks.

Okay, that was a cheap shot. Here's a better, more representative, picture.

Maybe we'll get lucky and Trump will defect to North Korea.

Health Report - March 2018

It's been a while since I've posted one of these.

During the month of February, I visited nearly all my doctors. I went to the dentist, the eye doctor, got my regular blood test, and visited my family doctor.  I also saw a neurologist.

Here are the results of my blood test:

 93 Glucose
122 Total Cholesterol
207 Triglycerides (only number that's out of range)
 54 LDL (bad) Cholesterol
 41 HDL (good) Cholesterol
5.2 A1C

These are some excellent numbers.

The good news from my physician and the eye doctor is that my diabetes is under control. There's no evidence of diabetic eye disease and my blood numbers are great. I did report to my doctor that I've been having somewhat more frequent diabetic neuropathy incidents and I have a numb spot on my thigh. So, that's why I visited the neurologist.

The neurologist was quick to diagnose the numb spot as Meralgia Paresthetica which is probably due to a bit of weight gain and the way I prop my knees up on the seat in front of me so I can sleep on the Metro. I'm working on losing a few pounds and no longer propping up my knees to sleep (which is making me very sad). The numbness should go away over time.

My dental report was also excellent.

So it's all good. If you have insurance, go see your doctors regularly. If you don't have insurance, don't vote for Republicans.

2018 Movies

It's March 4th. Here's the list of all the movies I want/expect to see in theaters this year. The list will undoubtedly change because of reviews and my schedule, but these are the movies I want to see on the big screen. (In release order)

A Wrinkle in Time (I'm squishy on this one)
Tomb Raider
Pacific Rim Uprising
Ready Player One
Avengers: Infinity War
Deadpool 2
Solo: A Star Wars Story
The Incredibles 2
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Ant-Man and the Wasp
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2
Aquaman

Yeah, that's a lot of superhero movies. And nothing that's not a genre film. But I like spectacle, I guess, so long as there's a good story and characters behind it.

El Presidente

WARNING: HARSH LANGUAGE AHEAD

Chinese President Xi Jinping is coming up on the Communist Party's two term limit, instituted after Mao, China's ruthless dictator, died. Unfortunately for the world, the Party just eliminated the two term limit so Xi can serve indefinitely. That didn't work out so well last time, so this is bad news all around.

Except to one American.

“He’s now president for life, president for life. And he’s great . . ."

Yes, this is the President of the United States, happy about China becoming more of a dictatorship.

This is, by itself, horrible and stupid and anti-democratic. Not because China is a democracy, but because it moves them further from becoming a democracy and makes them much more authoritarian, subject to the whims of one man. The idea that a U.S. President would praise such an event would have been unthinkable before this human dumpster fire became President.

But that's not the worst part. Because, nevertheless, he persisted.

“And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday,” 

Okay, here come the swears.

FUCK YOU, YOU DELUSIONAL SACK OF AUTHORITARIAN SHIT. Most people in this country don't want your sorry, ignorant ass in office another week, much less for the rest of your miserable, stingy, intolerant, addled, paranoid life. We want to see you rot in jail, asshole.

Okay, swears over.

This is the President of the United States (joking?) about becoming a dictator. I'll assume he was sort of jesting, but we've seen enough of Trump to know that there's always some nugget of seriousness in everything he says. He doesn't really have a sense of humor because he's not smart enough to know if the joke is on him. Don't believe me, watch him react when watching something funny. He laughs when other people laugh but looks confused and never laughs at himself. I'm sure he was half serious when he said it.

And here's another fun dose of modern America in the age of Trump.

[Moronic Comment] . . .  Trump said to cheers and applause from supporters.

Please take a minute to seriously contemplate the reaction from Republicans if President Obama had ever said he would consider being "President for life". Oh, you don't have to. They promoted all kinds of stupid conspiracy theories that his intent was exactly that. Because they're hypocritical, unpatriotic idiots who want to be ruled by a know-nothing, banana republic dictator. Because "winning" I guess.

And the best part is, this wasn't even the most outrageous thing Trump said or did this week.

Oh, and Trump? FUCK YOU AGAIN, ASSHOLE.

Sorry, I guess the swears weren't quite over.