Paul Levinson's Blog: Levinson at Large, page 252

Thinking about the Egging in San Jose

I found the violence against Trump supporters in San Jose the other night, including the egging of a young woman in the face, very disturbing.

First and foremost: what was going on with the police?  Usually they're quick to illegally declare a peaceful demonstration illegal and move in to break it up, in violation of the protesters's First Amendment rights.   But in San Jose the police did just the opposite, standing by, in the video coverage I saw on MSNBC, barely moving as anti-Trump protesters surrounded and sometimes pounced on Trump supporters leaving the pro-Trump rally.

To be clear: I think Trump is a monstrosity, and I'll do everything I can to see that's he's not elected. But that does not and will never include violating other people's' rights, including the right to attend a pro-Trump rally.

Who would disagree with that?  What is the basis of these violent anti-Trump tactics?  A few of the anti-Trump people in the streets of San Jose said they were Bernie Sanders supporters.   Bernie condemned the violence the next day from anyone who claims to be one of his supporters, and that was good to see.   But is there something in Bernie's message which evokes such violence among even a sliver of his supporters?

Well, he says he wants a revolution in this country, and although he no doubt means a peaceful revolution, the word can be a magnet to people who might resort to violence.  And I think it goes too far, in any case.  I want change and improvement in this country - health care for all, two years parental leave with pay, free college for all who want it, etc - but I want to get those changes through the democratic process, through laws enacted, not through revolution which has even the slightest connotation of violence.

That's one of the many reasons I strongly support Hillary for the Democratic nomination.   But I would vote for Bernie in a heartbeat over Trump if that was the general election choice, and hope that now and in the future, whatever position Bernie may hold, he continues to speak out with passion against criminals who commit violence and disrupt the democratic process in his name.

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Bloodline Season 2: Darker Maybe Even Better than the First

Just finished slow-binging watching - over a few days - the second season of Bloodline, streaming on Netflix.  It was superb - darker, and maybe even better than the first, though such comparisons are tough to make.

Lots of spoilers follow, for both seasons, so read no further if you haven't seen them, and like to be surprised.

The second seasons starts with the immediate aftermath of John killing Danny, and Meg and Kevin helping John cover most of that up.   And actually, whether the cover was of most or less of what happened on that beautiful shore doesn't really matter, because the cover-up is no more lasting than sand in the tides of the Keys.

There are in effect two parts to this second season.   In the first, John lucks out, as his main adversary and obstacle to keeping all of this quiet is fortunately killed by someone else, not in the family, and with no intimate connection to it or John.

He's not so fortunate in the second part, in which Marco takes an increasing interest in the case, and gradually unravels it.   Danny's friend Eric has some crucial info, and John's attempt to get Marco and Sheriff Aguirre off the case narrowly fails.  The result puts the three siblings under unbearable pressure, and they finally fall apart.

I won't tell you the very ending, on the chance that you're watching the second season and have yet to see this, but I will say that one thing I didn't quite get is why Marco is so determined not only to solve this case but destroy the Rayburns in the process.   His anger at Meg leaving and lying to him doesn't quite explain it - especially since she slept with him in the middle of the second season, and seemed to enjoy it, even if he thought he was being used.

But that's a small qualm in a tightly-spun, riveting narrative, with excellent flashbacks of Danny, explanations of earlier events, and a great role for Danny's son Nolan and his mother.

Highly recommended - especially if you're on Cape Cod, as I am now, and can easily imagine walking by the Rayburn's place on the beach ...

See also Bloodline Season 1: Mainlining Family

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Muhammad Ali: The Revolutionary Power of Braggadocio

I've never been more than glancingly interested in prize fighting. But Muhammad Ali, who has died too young at 74, was one of my heroes, for at least two reasons.

One was political.  In the mid-1960s, when it seemed that everyone in power and fame was in favor of the Vietnam War, or certainly condemning of anyone who was beginning to speak out against it, Ali courageously refused to let himself be drafted to fight.  This nearly cost him his career as a boxer, and no doubt took a lot out of it in any case, but it will go down in history as as act of transcendental bravery.   It also showed his incisive intelligence, his extraordinary ability to get to the heart of the matter, when he explained, "I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger."

The other reason was more personal - and cultural.  Muhammad Ali, in the early part of his career, was often criticized for his arrogance.  But I always thought, and Ali proved it better than anyone, that modesty isn't all it's cracked up to be.   Brashness, bragging can light up a room and the world - if the bragger has the goods to back it up, to fulfill the hyperbole and make it real.  Ali backed up his braggadocio with punches and deeds and positions he took on the side of right way outside of the ring.

I've always counted myself lucky to have come of age in the 1960s - the age of JFK, MLK, the Beatles, Dylan, McLuhan, and Muhammad Ali.   They and the impact of their lives will live forever.

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Hillary Clinton's Foreign Policy Speech and JFK

I thought, as I was watching Hillary Clinton's superb speech about foreign policy in San Diego on television today, that she reminded me of JFK, his optimism for America and its engagement with the world. Later on MSNBC, Chris Matthews also said he saw a connection between Clinton's speech and JFK.

More specifically, Matthews said Clinton's speech reminded him of America's unapologetic approach to foreign policy before the Vietnam War, which can indeed be equated, at least in part, to JFK.

I was a fierce opponent of the Vietnam War.  It not only was unconstitutional but unwarranted, and it nearly tore the country apart.  I got teargassed in Washington protesting that war, and was barely able to bring myself to vote for Hubert Humphrey over Richard Nixon in 1968 because of it.   Matthews is right that among its many casualties was the bright, bold view of America as the leader of the world, and the best it has to offer.

Significantly, although JFK indeed got us far more involved in Vietnam than we should have been, it was LBJ who expanded this into the all-out war and disaster it became.   It was therefore JFK's assassination, more than JFK himself, that tragically set this in motion.

Although we've had our great moments in foreign policy and world affairs since then - including, in different ways, from Nixon (opening relations with China), Reagan (end of Soviet Union) and Obama (better relations with Iran and Cuba) - we've yet to regain that sense of confidence and moral leadership that we had under JFK.

Hillary Clinton's speech this afternoon was the first I've really heard or seen of that since the early 1960s, when I was just a kid.   Not only is it an inspiring tonic for the insanity of Trump and the dangerous isolationism of saner people on both sides of the isle, it is a blueprint for a better America and a better world, which as the speech made clear, is increasingly one and the same.

I don't know who wrote this speech, but I'm sure Ted Sorenson would've been proud.


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The Americans 4.12: Detente and Secret History

An excellent episode 4.12 of The Americans last night, in which unexpected allies and players strive to stop a virulent strain of horrendously deadly bug from entering the arms race and potentially the world.

The most surprising of these alliances is between Stan and Oleg, who comes to Stan with news that the Soviets are on the verge of obtaining this monster bug, already developed by the Americans.   Also on the Soviet side, William tells Philip he does not want to let this bug get out of the American labs, and Philip agrees.  Gabriel does not - which is somewhat surprising, since he knows the effects, personally, from a less virulent strain, and is still physically not up to par.   But he's too far into what the Center wants to suddenly change course on this operation, and the bug is still in play at the end of the hour.

It was satisfying to see Oleg and Stan working together, even for a moment, reprising what they tried to do with Nina earlier.  That, of course, did not work out.

History tells us there was no plague unleashed upon the world in the 1980s, which points out an underlying, continuing problem with this kind of story and the series in general.   We can be in total suspense about fictional characters, and their involvement in events that were below the radar of reporting in this time period.   Thus the fate of Martha remains genuinely open in this story.   But not the fate of the Eastern seaboard of the United States, which was unafflicted by plague, the way Oleg's lover worried it might happen.

But that's ok.  The Americans is doing great job not as alternate history but secret history.  I'm looking forward to the season finale next week, and glad the series has been renewed for two more.


See also The Americans 4.4: Life and Death ... The Americans 4.6: Martha, Martha, Martha ... The Americans 4.8: Whither Martha? ... The Day After The Americans 4.9 ... The Americans 4.10: Outstanding! ... The Americans 4.11: Close Call
And see also The Americans 3.1: Caring for People We Shouldn't ... The Americans 3.3: End Justified the Means ...  The Americans 3.4: Baptism vs. Communism ... The Americans 3.6: "Jesus Came Through for Me Tonight" ...The Americans 3.7: Martha. My Dear ... The Americans 3.8: Martha, Part 2 ... The Americans 3.10: The Truth ... The Americans 3.12: The Unwigging ... The Americans Season 3 Finale: Turning a Paige
And see also The Americans 2.1-2: The Paradox of the Spy's Children ... The Americans 2.3: Family vs. Mission ... The Americans 2.7: Embryonic Internet and Lie Detection ... The Americans 2.9: Gimme that Old Time Religion ...The American 2.12: Espionage in Motion ... The Americans Season 2 Finale: Second Generation

And see also The Americans: True and Deep ... The Americans 1.4: Preventing World War III ... The Americans 1.11:  Elizabeth's Evolution ... The Americans Season 1 Finale: Excellent with One Exception

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12 Monkeys 2.7: Ultimate Universes

A strong 12 Monkeys 2.7 last night, in which the facility housing the very time travel device is itself under mortal attack, by none other than the Darth Vader-like "Witness".

Ok, that facility is always on the verge of breaking down, as befits an operation that looks like a Rube Goldberg 1950s B-movie science fiction set taken out of storage. But that low kind of super high-tech has always been part of the series' charm.

The time-travel device, of course, had to survive in some way, otherwise the narrative couldn't continue, so that was no big surprise.   But the price was pretty high.  Eckland's death was wrenching - mitigated only by the metaphysics of death not being necessarily final when time-travel is possible - but suggests, as I've mentioned before, that there's some kind of deeper reality underlying all of this time travel, which the universe tries to adhere to and ultimately come back to, as in the case of Eckland being killed in the original narrative, and now being dead again in this one.

And Ramse's son is somewhere in the very distant past.  Which raises an intriguing question.  Who exactly is this Witness?   As someone notes during this episode, we don't even know what he witnessed.   Is there any chance that the Witness is in fact Ramse's son, stranded in the past, growing up on his own?

This would be a profound change in the narrative.  For the better part of a season and more, Ramse's actions have almost always been motivated by protecting his son.   It will be interesting to see how this shattering development plays out for Ramse and everyone else.


See also 12 Monkeys 2.1: Whatever Will Be, Will Be ... 12 Monkeys 2.2: The Serum ... 12 Monkeys 2.3: Primaries and Paradoxes ... 12 Monkeys 2.4: Saving Time ... 12 Monkeys 2.5: Jennifer's Story ... 12 Monkeys 2.6: "'Tis Death Is Dead

And see also this Italian review, w/reference to Hawking and my story, "The Chronology Protection Case"

And see also 12 Monkeys series on SyFy: Paradox Prominent and Excellent ...12 Monkeys 1.2: Your Future, His Past ... 12 Monkeys 1.3:  Paradoxes, Lies, and Near Intersections ... 12 Monkeys 1.4: "Uneasy Math" ... 12 Monkeys 1.5: The Heart of the Matter ... 12 Monkeys 1.6: Can I Get a Witness? ... 12 Monkeys 1.7: Snowden, the Virus, and the Irresistible ... 12 Monkeys 1.8: Intelligent Vaccine vs. Time Travel ... 12 Monkeys 1.9: Shelley, Keats, and Time Travel ... 12 Monkey 1.10: The Last Jump ... 12 Monkeys 1.11: What-Ifs ... 12 Monkeys 1.2: The Plunge ... 12 Monkeys Season 1 Finale: "Time Travel to Create Time Travel"

podcast review of Predestination and 12 Monkeys



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12 Monkey 2.7: Ultimate Universes

A strong 12 Monkeys 2.7 last night, in which the facility housing the very time travel device is itself under mortal attack, by none other than the Darth Vader-like "Witness".

Ok, that facility is always on the verge of breaking down, as befits an operation that looks like a Rube Goldberg 1950s B-movie science fiction set taken out of storage. But that low kind of super high-tech has always been part of the series' charm.

The time-travel device, of course, had to survive in some way, otherwise the narrative couldn't continue, so that was no big surprise.   But the price was pretty high.  Eckland's death was wrenching - mitigated only by the metaphysics of death not being necessarily final when time-travel is possible - but suggests, as I've mentioned before, that there's some kind of deeper reality underlying all of this time travel, which the universe tries to adhere to and ultimately come back to, as in the case of Eckland being killed in the original narrative, and now being dead again in this one.

And Ramse's son is somewhere in the very distant past.  Which raises an intriguing question.  Who exactly is this Witness?   As someone notes during this episode, we don't even know what he witnessed.   Is there any chance that the Witness is in fact Ramse's son, stranded in the past, growing up on his own?

This would be a profound change in the narrative.  For the better part of a season and more, Ramse's actions have almost always been motivated by protecting his son.   It will be interesting to see how this shattering development plays out for Ramse and everyone else.


See also 12 Monkeys 2.1: Whatever Will Be, Will Be ... 12 Monkeys 2.2: The Serum ... 12 Monkeys 2.3: Primaries and Paradoxes ... 12 Monkeys 2.4: Saving Time ... 12 Monkeys 2.5: Jennifer's Story ... 12 Monkeys 2.6: "'Tis Death Is Dead

And see also this Italian review, w/reference to Hawking and my story, "The Chronology Protection Case"

And see also 12 Monkeys series on SyFy: Paradox Prominent and Excellent ...12 Monkeys 1.2: Your Future, His Past ... 12 Monkeys 1.3:  Paradoxes, Lies, and Near Intersections ... 12 Monkeys 1.4: "Uneasy Math" ... 12 Monkeys 1.5: The Heart of the Matter ... 12 Monkeys 1.6: Can I Get a Witness? ... 12 Monkeys 1.7: Snowden, the Virus, and the Irresistible ... 12 Monkeys 1.8: Intelligent Vaccine vs. Time Travel ... 12 Monkeys 1.9: Shelley, Keats, and Time Travel ... 12 Monkey 1.10: The Last Jump ... 12 Monkeys 1.11: What-Ifs ... 12 Monkeys 1.2: The Plunge ... 12 Monkeys Season 1 Finale: "Time Travel to Create Time Travel"

podcast review of Predestination and 12 Monkeys



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Glad that Jerry Brown Endorsed Hillary Clinton

Good for Jerry Brown, Governor of California, to endorse Hillary Clinton today.  I met him about a decade ago when he was speaker at a conference about Marshall McLuhan at Fordham University, and our lengthy conversation before his talk confirmed what I already knew:  Jerry Brown is one of the brightest people, profoundest of thinkers, not only in politics but across the board in all professions.

He first caught my attention when he was serving as the 34th Governor of California in the mid-1970s through the early 1980s.   I was impressed by his championship of the space program, and his idea that California should get its own space effort going, with a space academy and its own satellite. This of course was not to get military advantage over an adversary, as the US space program had sought to do vis-a-vis the Soviet Union in the 1960s. Brown's idea showed a real understanding of the cosmic import of getting humans off this planet.

Brown's endorsement of Hillary also shows admirable integrity and clear thinking about what's best for the country today.  Given his nasty exchange in a 1992 Democratic debate with Bill Clinton about Hillary, Brown had every reason to go with Bernie now or sit this out.  But he correctly sees that Hillary will get the nomination, and a win in California can strengthen her hand in the battle ahead with Trump.

I look forward to Jerry Brown getting an important position that befits the depth of his intellect in the Clinton administration.




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Game of Thrones 6.6: The Exhortation

Well, the high point of Game of Thrones 6.6 was at the very end - just like the high point of last week's 6.5 - except this time it was Daenerys astride her dragon, exhorting her Dothraki army to sail across the sea with her to reclaim her throne.   Except while last week's ending was a great, fantastical resolution of a neat little paradoxical story, this week's was long overdue. Daenerys should have making that speech at least a season or two ago.

Still, it was good to see, and with it the approaching battle to end all battles, between the fire-spewing dragons and the awesome icy powers of the far north, and the various kingdoms of mostly just plain old human beings sandwiched in between.

Tonight's episode also had a continuation of the Shakespearean retelling of the fall of the House of Lannister we saw last week.  This play within a play was a nice, unexpected touch.

As for what's happened with the actual Lannisters, that's another story, and a bit worn at this point, too.   Tommen turns out to not only be a lot sweeter than his brother, but also something of a bore. His exile of his uncle-really-father serves no real purpose except getting Jaime out of town, never the best move in a narrative.

On the other hand, we finally get a good, long Samwell story in 6.6, with a look at his despicable father, decent and long-suffering mother, and a chance for Samwell to continue to stand up and act like a man,   Or, almost.  He sneaks away in the night rather than standing up to his father, but his taking of the Valyrian sword was a notable moment and promises some profound developments ahead.

Which is true of Game of Thrones in general, and I'll be looking forward to it all.

See also Game of Thrones 6.1: Where Are the Dragons ... Game of Thrones 6.2: The Waking ...
And see also Game of Thrones 5.1: Unsetting the Table ... Game of Thrones 5.8: The Power of Frigid Death ... Game of Thrones 5.9: Dragon in Action; Sickening Scene with Stannis ... Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale: Punishment

And see also Games of Thrones Season 4 Premiere: Salient Points ... Game of Thrones 4.2: Whodunnit? ... Game of Thrones 4.3: Who Will Save Tyrion ...Game of Thrones 4.4: Glimpse of the Ultimate Battle ... Game of Thrones 4.6: Tyrion on Trial ... Game of Thrones 4.8: Beetles and Battle ...Game of Thrones 4.9: The Fight for Castle Black ... Games of Thrones Season 4 Finale: Woven Threads

And see also  Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere ... Game of Thrones 3.3: The Heart of Jaime Lannister ... Game of Thrones 3.6: Extraordinary Cinematography ...Game of Thrones 3.7: Heroic Jaime ...  Game of Thrones 3.9: A Critique 
And see also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ... Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ... Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

And here's a Spanish article in Semana, the leading news magazine in Colombia, in which I'm quoted about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.

And see "'Game of Thrones': Why the Buzz is So Big" article in The Christian Science Monitor, 8 April 2014, with my quotes.

Also: CNN article, "How 'Game of Thrones' Is Like America," with quote from me

 
"I was here, in Carthage, three months from now." 

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Outlander 2.8: The Conversation

The most interesting part of the just-concluded Outlander 2.8 - for the devotee of time-travel - is the conversation between Claire and Jamie at the beginning.

Claire tells Jamie that "history dictates" that the Scots will fail in their battle against the English.  She of course knows this from her vantage point from the future - which says all of their work to break free of the English will be in vain.   But Jamie counters that Claire has already changed history - as when, for example, she stopped an outbreak of smallpox in Paris with her knowledge of the illness garnered in the future 20th century.

But the problem with such examples is that they are unknown to us - that is, the viewers.   We have no record of a smallpox outbreak in mid-18th-century Paris stopped by a woman wielding white magic or some kind of 20th-century knowledge of epidemics.   Thus, while Jamie's examples may be impressive - at least, somewhat - to Claire, they aren't to us, upon any kind of more careful consideration.

In order for a time-travel story to be truly impressive about changing the past to change the future, it has to show us a future different from what we know.  Otherwise, it can still be impressive, but it must do that in other ways.

As the conversation between Claire and Jamie continues, she says that their failures to change history and stop the English thus far, and their continuing to try, over and over again, is a sign of "insanity" - more precisely, Claire says "they say" it's a sign of insanity.   Jamie's clever retort is "they" likely never heard of time travel.

Now, in our reality, the definition of insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" is most often attributed to Einstein.   Which is interesting,  since Einstein certainly knew about time travel - at the very least, of its appearance in H. G. Wells' The Time Machine, which is the effective grandsire of all 20th- and 21st-century time-travel stories, including Outlander - which deserves credit for at least delving into these fascinating metaphysical labyrinths, if not (yet) coming even remotely close to resolving them.  But that's ok - there's still time (travel).


See also Outlander 2.1: Split Hour ... Outlander 2.2: The King and the Forest ... Outlander 2.3: Mother and Dr. Dog ... Outlander 2.5: The Unappreciated Paradox ... Outlander 2.7: The Duel and the Offspring ... Outlander 2.8: Further into the Future

And see also Outlander 1.1-3: The Hope of Time Travel ... Outlander 1.6:  Outstanding ... Outlander 1.7: Tender Intertemporal Polygamy ...Outlander 1.8: The Other Side ... Outlander 1.9: Spanking Good ... Outlander 1.10: A Glimmer of Paradox ... Outlander 1.11: Vaccination and Time Travel ... Outlander 1.12: Black Jack's Progeny ...Outlander 1.13: Mother's Day ... Outlander 1.14: All That Jazz ... Outlander Season 1 Finale: Let's Change History



Sierra Waters series, #1, time travel

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