Peter David's Blog, page 24

Freak Out Friday – June 23, 2017

It’s been a relatively quiet week for Trump. Aside from his usual litany of idiotic tweets and his speeches to crowds as he is apparently already running for a second term, Trump has been rather sedate. But that doesn’t mean stuff hasn’t been going on.

1). Keep it to yourselves. For the first time in my memory–maybe anyone’s–the White House has declared that henceforth press conferences will not be televised. Because that’s what all fascist regimes do: they endeavor to operate behind closed doors whenever possible and keep everything to themselves. The administration has been at war with the free press since before Trump took office, and this is just another attempt to separate themselves from the public learning what they’re doing. Not only that, but they probably figure that they can then deny anything that the press says by claiming No, that didn’t happen, it’s just fake news. And if the press broadcasts excerpts in their news broadcasts, the White House can just claim that they were taken out of context. Very slick maneuver that will undoubtedly play to the Trump supporters.

2). Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. So the Senate finally unveiled its hidden health care bill, the one that they rushed through in secrecy, doing all the things that they falsely accused Obama of doing. Unfortunately the early reports indicate that it is not only no better than the House version but that it is actually worse. Billions gone from Medicaid while the rich get a tax cut. It’s so bad that several GOP senators have already said they won’t vote for it, and considering they don’t have THAT huge a majority, that would seem to kill the chances of it being passed. And the support for it among the American people is non-existent.

Yet the GOP could actually salvage this mess. Here’s how: The GOP pulls itself together and votes it into law.

And then Trump vetoes it.

It’s a win/win situation. The GOP manages to do what they said they were going to do and vote to overturn Obamacare. And then Trump gets to be the hero by declaring, “No, this bill is terrible and I must save the people from it.” The American public would absolutely love it. See! See! Trump is fighting to protect us! His sagging poll numbers would skyrocket. Sure, the Senate would take a hit, but everyone hates them anyway, so the damage is minimal. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see it pan out that way.

Did he do anything right this week? Didn’t do much of anything, which for him is a win.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – June 16, 2017

You know, I don’t seem to remember every single week of Obama’s presidency being remarkable for something incredibly stupid or opposed to the best interests of the American people. But each week of the Trump presidency has brought new waves of stupidity, either from him or those who serve him. It’s really rather remarkable.

!). Pledge allegiance to the Trump.. So Trump had his first cabinet meeting, and by all accounts, it was more or less insane. Every cabinet member had to sit there and extoll the virtues of their glorious leader and thank him for giving them the opportunity to serve him. Not serve the people of the United States, but him. Indeed, the entire concept of doing anything to benefit the people of this country has gone right out the window. Trump’s ego is so massive that anything having to do with the government must serve all of his priorities. Anything that gets in his way is Sad! Unfair! Worst in History! So this week his cabinet meeting was clearly centered on him, and that was it. Every cabinet member, following the lead of Mike Pence, did nothing but sing Trump’s praises, and he sat there and glowed, drinking it all in. It was probably the single best moment of his presidency: thoroughly in his control and an avalanche of nice words that ignored every negative thing that he has done, thought, said, and tweeted. Speaking of which:

2). So how long before he fires Mueller? . Robert Mueller is obeying the law and hiring his investigative staff while paying no attention to their political affiliation. And the man who declared that the judge in the Trump University case could not possibly be impartial because he had Mexican heritage declared that Mueller was stacking his staff with Democrats who had supported Clinton. The obvious response to that is: So? Their political affiliations have no relevance to their ability to do their job, but that doesn’t stop Trump from taking the typical action that any dictating maniac goes for when he is being investigated: launching personal attacks on his investigators. It’s a standard maneuver, really. Trump is terrified of the facts that they will unearth, and so embarks on a preemptive strike in which he attacks them as individuals in order to try and undercut whatever they wind up saying. It was his typical tactic when running (Crooked Hillary) and when he was elected (condemning news organizations as purveyors of “fake news.”). It’s a tactic that suits his core supporters, but as more time passes and more things go wrong, that core is in danger of shrinking.

He’s also attacking Rob Rosenstein, demanding to know how he can be under investigation for firing James Comey by Rosenstein who said he should fire Comey. Except, no, Rosenstein didn’t do that. He was asked BY TRUMP to write a memo coming up with reasons why Comey should be fired. Rosenstein did not come up with the idea himself and sell Trump on it. It was Trump who decided to fire Comey over the Russian investigation, and the reason we know this is because Trump said so himself. . His inability to grapple with the fact that he brings disaster down on himself is becoming seriously insane.

3). Obamacare vs. TrumpDon’tCare.. Remember when Mitch McConnell criticized the Democrats for “rushing through” Obamacare (11 months) and trying to do it secretly (a dozen public hearings.)? Well it’s now 2017 and McConnell is doing exactly that. Chuck Schumer stated, “In a very short time, maybe only two weeks, the Republican majority may try to jam through a health care bill that no one in America has seen.” There’s no “may” involved. That is exactly what they are going to do, and the Dems can’t stop it because they have no idea what’s in it. While we all know the problems with the House bill–24 million people lose their healthcare, Medicare gets shredded–we don’t know what the Senate is cooking up. They have completely blocked the Democrats from getting any news about it at all. They are, in short, doing everything McConnell condemned barely six years ago.

But hey, you’re not worried because you get health care through your employer! So you’re okay, right? Wrong. One of the supposed additions to the new plan would enable employers to install lifetime caps on medical insurance. Once you hit that cap, you’re on your own. So basically my stroke could have wiped us out financially if TrumpDon’tCare was in effect.

4). Well, they probably loved this in Miami.. Remember when Obama broke down the walls between us and Cuba? Well, in a speech in Florida, Trump made it clear that–if he can’t erect a wall between us and Mexico–he can certainly rebuild the one that Obama knocked over. He stated that he is going to get rid of “the previous administration’s completely one-sided deal,” which certainly cheered the anti-Cuban forces in Florida, but undoubtedly pissed off, well, pretty much the rest of the world considering America was the only country with anti-Cuban policies until Obama set them aside. So I guess this could be included in the “did he do anything right?” section if you’re still pissed off about Cuba.

Did he do anything right? Yes, he really did. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) was aimed at young illegal immigrants who had been here for so long that they had little to no memory of their originating country. Impacting some 790,000 people often referred to as Dreamers, it was an Obama-launched program that Trump swore during the campaign he was going to get rid of. Yet surprisingly it was recently announced that he’s had a change of heart and, for the time being, isn’t going to touch it. So apparently every so often he can change his mind and have it be a positive thing.

PAD

Updating my Patreon Account

If you have not yet signed up for my Patreon account, now would be a good time to start. I have posted the first chapter of my autobiography, “Mr. Sulu is Grabbing My Ass.” Available to $20 participants, the first chapter introduces the circumstances under which that happened, my participation at the Friar’s Club roast for George Takei, not to mention how I wound up getting Sulu’s first name of Hikaru into canon and my attendance of his wedding. So if you want to get on board, go here.. Thanks.

PAD

R.I.P. Adam West

My house, when I was a ten year old, was a “Stop laughing, Daddy, this is serious!” house. The program in question was “Batman,” and I took it VERY seriously. Every Thursday morning at school we would debate how in the world the dynamic duo was going to get out of the situation they were trapped in the previous night. I remember getting it right exactly one time: when the Joker had Batman and Robin strapped into electric chairs, and I properly guessed that they’d be saved by a blackout, just like the one in New York.

Many, many years later I stumbled over Batman repeats on Nickelodeon. Batman and Robin had just walked into Gotham Library, searching for the Riddler. The startled librarian said, “Batman and Robin! What are you doing here?” Batman said, “We’re wondering if you’ve seen any strange looking people here today.” Rather than provide the obvious response–“You mean besides you?”–the librarian said, “Whatever do you mean?” Robin said, “We’re looking for a man wearing a green leotard with big black question marks.” The librarian thought about this a moment and said, “I don’t recall seeing anyone like that. But you know, so many people come and go here during the day.” And I burst out laughing and realized that, Oh my God, it was a comedy. I immediately felt terrible for all the times I’d shushed my dad.

And the great comedian who led it all was Adam West. Developing a pitch-perfect deadpan years before Leslie Neilsen perfected it in Airplane!, West was my generation’s Batman. He didn’t speak in a gravelly, threatening voice, and every cop loved him. He wasn’t “The Batman.” He was just Batman. More serious comics fans may have despised him since he effectively kiddified the character, but I was a kiddie, so I loved it. West effectively disappeared from the scene and fans did their best to forget him, but in more recent years nostalgia (and a handful of bad Batman films) spurred retrospective adoration for the original series, which finally spawned DVD releases, memorial books and TV movies, and even a recent animated special.

I had the honor to speak with West at various conventions and always found him to be quite patient and charming. I’d loved to have been able to spend more time with him, to tell him how much his TV series meant to me. But I doubt I needed to because he probably heard it a million times.

Rest well, Caped Crusader.

PAD

Freak Out Friday = June 9, 2017

It just never stops. Then again, I have no idea why the Trump family would care what we say. After all, according to son Eric, anyone who is in opposition to his father is not considered to be a person. Well, let’s see what concerns the non-people this week.

1). Blaming Democrats taken to a new level.. So Trump used his favorite means of communication, Twitter, to accuse Democrats of making it impossible to post people to offices. “Dems are taking forever to approve my people, including Ambassadors. They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals.”

Except here’s the problem: Trump has presented only a handful of nominations to the Senate after ordering that all politically appointed Ambassadors resign as of January 20. He did nominate ambassadors for China, Israel and the United Nations: all approved. The New Zealand ambassador is expected to be approved shortly by the full Senate. Nominees for the Bahamas, Japan and the Vatican are in various stages of the approvals process, and that’s it. In point of fact, including Ambassadors, there are 442 appointments waiting for names to be announced. That is somewhat insane, and the fact that Trump is blaming the Democrats (who are in the minority) for his inability and unwillingness to do his damned job is just…

Well, actually, it’s typical.

2). Hope Springs Eternal.. Yesterday was James Comey Day, which became something of a national drinking game as bars put out challenges where free drinks would be served every time Trump posted: which, in a fit of sanity or self-restraint or good governing by his staff, he didn’t do. Comey, the guy who helped sink Hillary, sat in front of the Senate and–depending on who you were–either vindicated Trump (so said Trump, his attorney, and a handful of senators) or instead lay the groundwork for impeachment (everyone else, except for John McCain, who wound up spouting such an array of word salad that we just wanted to check him into Bellvue for 72 hours of observation.).

Not since Bill Clinton wanted to define the word “is” has a president’s language been so thoroughly parsed. It all comes down to Trump’s assertion that he “hoped” the Michael Flynn investigation would be halted. Was that an order or was it not? Obviously, it all comes down to context. If he says it as an offhand remark to four other guys while having drinks, yes, it’s a wish. When he says it one on one to the guy conducting the investigation, yes, it’s an order. Of course it is. When your father says to you, “I hope you understand what I’m telling you,” this isn’t a vague wish that you grasp the general principles. It’s an order. And if you don’t understand it, you’ll get punished. Which is exactly what happened to Comey. He did’t obey Trump’s wishes and he was fired. End of story. I’m sorry, but if you can impeach Clinton for lying about getting a blow job, you MUST impeach Trump for trying to stop an investigation and firing the guy who was conducting it. It’s no more complicated than that.

Did he do anything right?. He didn’t tweet. Best thing he could have done.

PAD

Random weird crap I have to deal with

So out of nowhere, I received the following email from an email I was unfamiliar with:

I can write better than you. Show me how I am wrong. I am here to HELP YOU but it’s between you and me and that’s it.

I thought that was odd and wrote back, asking who he was since he hadn’t identified himself. He told me. His name rang no bells. Apparently he’s a convention organizer. I wrote back and said:

Okay, well, I’m unaware of your writing credits, and I’m pretty satisfied with the quality of my skills, but thanks anyway.

Seemed reasonably polite. Except I guess not because he wrote back again and said:

OK.

I feel bad for your situation and all and was trying to help, but I guess “listening to me” is too far out there a concept for you to reach me…

I mean, I was sitting around, minding my own business, a non-writer writes to me and tells me he’s a better writer than I am, and when I pass on his offer to help me, he gets snarky.

There are days sometimes I think publicizing my email was a mistake.

PAD

My Patreon account is up and running

Many people have suggested that I open up a Patreon account to avoid any future tangles with the IRS. It is a notion that I have readily embraced, and Kathleen has set it up.

Those who sign up will receive a host of neat stuff, including original artwork, chapters of my future autobiography, chapters of forthcoming books, Cowboy Pete, my observations on writing, Q&As, and all other kinds of neat stuff.

Just click here for my Patreon Account. . Spread the word. And enjoy the ride.

PAD

Cowboy Pete’s Movie Round Up

I am going to be switching Cowboy Pete to be a regular feature on my Patreon account. No, not everything will be: Freaky Friday is going to be remaining right here. But I figure so many people have been asking about it, why not reinstitute it? The TV aspects of it will be minimal during the summer as everything is in repeats, but God knows I see enough movies, so that will get us through the summer.

So what will be discussed in this last public outing? Two recent films.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES. Why in the hell are people bashing this film?

I have to admit, I’ve always had a weakness for these films. People seemed to be hyper critical of the second and third installments, claiming they were overlong and needlessly complicated. Me, I loved the complicated stuff and never once lost track of the plot. The fourth installment never really sang to me–Blackbeard was uninvolving as a villain and Jack was uninvolving as a hero–although there were some moments that were entertaining. What the fourth film proved was that Jack was the most interesting when he was a side character to another hero’s quest. Apparently the folks at Disney realized this as well as “Dead Men” kicks off with exactly that: the son of Will Turner, who first showed up in a post-credits sequence at the end of the third film, is now twenty years old, has a name (Henry), a new actor (Brenton Thwaites) and is looking to free dad from the curse he’s living under. Apparently the last ten years have been hard on Will and he’s starting to get as scrungy looking as his predecessor. But what would a young hero be without a heroine? And that is Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) who is constantly accused of being a witch because she is an intelligent woman, as opposed to nowadays where she would just be accused of being a bitch. They are both looking for the same thing: the trident of Poseidon, Henry in order to free his dad from the curse, and Carina because of her thirst of knowledge that she partly got from her unknown father (whose identity I managed to figure out a half hour into the film.). Meanwhile Jack Sparrow is once again being pursued by an unnatural individual, the formidable Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) who died while pursing Jack but didn’t let that stop him. A full blown ghost with the unique ability to have hair that keeps moving even when he’s standing still, Salazar has managed to escape captivity and is looking to kill Jack once and for all. And it’s up to Jack (Johnny Depp, of course) to ride herd on all this insanity while also keeping his dissatisfied crew happy.

Basically it’s a soft reboot of the series, taking the most popular elements of the first three and crafting a film that could stand as the last one or possibly set off a new series of adventures thanks to yet again a post credit sequence that drove my daughter Caroline nuts trying to suss it out. I found it perfectly entertaining, adventurous, engaging and diverting. Meanwhile everyone else is condemning it harder than Kathy Griffin’s photograph. I can’t even begin to understand why. Did they see the same movie I did? Are they still that pissed off over the fourth film which made over a billion dollars despite negative reviews? I can’t begin to figure it out. All I can tell you is that it was a fun two hours spent at the movies and if you like pirate films or ANY of the first three, it’s definitely worth your time.

WONDER WOMAN.. The whole Marvel vs. DC dynamic has been that Marvel has theatrical films down pat while DC rules the TV waves. Except that now seems to be shifting. Not only does SHIELD remain a fun hour (although they spent WAY too long in the computer world) but the Netflix Marvel series have been great (yes, even Iron Fist, sorry haters). Meanwhile the one thing that every fan in the world agreed on with Batman vs. Superman is that the best thing in it was Diana Prince. Whether it was Diana speaking privately with Bruce Wayne or Wonder Woman grimly smiling as she faced Doomsday, the Amazonian princess walked away with every scene she was in. Now we get her origin and it is quite simply the best DC superhero film since Dark Knight. Forget Man of Steel or Green Lantern or (God help us) Jonah Hex. Wonder Woman is the standard against which all future DC superhero films will be measured.

The filmmakers wisely set it during World War I. This was exactly the right move. Not only is that time period far less explored cinematically than World War II, but it avoids comparison with Captain America: The First Avenger. . It also enables Diana (Gal Godot, an Israeli actress whose nationality got it banned in Lebanon) to come across as astoundingly naive. Yes, she leaves Paradise Island (I’m not going to even try to spell the actual name) because she meets Steve Trevor (Chris Pine doing the best acting he’s ever done), but she is also certain that the God Ares is creating the war to end all wars. So she figures all she has to do is kill Ares and war will stop. Now yes, granted, Ares is out there, and once again I figured out his identity (this time it took me forty five minutes) but Diana is on a steep learning curve as she slowly figures out the world doesn’t conform to her remarkably simplistic worldview. It’s a wonderfully thought out script as we see things from Diana’s POV and know how horrible it is going to be when she learns the truth: that mankind is far more screwed up than she could possibly have imagined. One can only wonder what she thought of World War II.

One can only hope that this film finally puts a lie to the belief that movies with super heroine leads are always going to tank at the box office, if for no other reason than that maybe we can get a Fallen Angel movie launched.

PAD

Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin is being pilloried for a photograph she put up where she is holding up a bloodied head of Trump.

And rightly so. It is legitimate to criticize a president as much as you want, but images of violence having been inflicted on him are too much. Both the left and most especially the right understand that.

Which is why so much condemnation was thrown at this:

Or this:

Yes, thank God the right cried out against such things.

I admire their consistency.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – June 2, 2017

Once again I was going to take the week off because of, y’know, emotional stuff. But I can’t, because as much as we have been saying that Trump’s election means the end of the world, this week he genuinely took a major step toward, well, ending the world.

1). We’ll always not have Paris. So far, Trump has been batting zero in his array of loopy campaign promises. The Muslim ban has failed at every judicial level, the Mexican wall construction is blocked, Hillary Clinton will not be going to jail in our lifetimes. But he has now managed to carry through on the single most dangerous promise he made: to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, the keystone to Obama’s progress toward endeavoring to save the planet. Now technically the pullout can’t occur for several years yet. In point of fact, we won’t actually withdraw until the day after Election Day in 2020, which means that if the right person (i.e., a sane person) manages to take back the office, this insane decision can be minimized. Trump, meanwhile, in his classic stupidity, declared that he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Naturally he chose Pittsburgh because he liked the alliteration. But the facts of the world once again didn’t support him, because Pittsburgh actually voted 60-40 for Hillary. So since Hillary voters, being presumably sane, don’t believe for a second that global warming is a Chinese fabrication, then by his own words, Trump should immediately reverse his position to honor the voters’ wishes. Which naturally he won’t do, because for Trump, it’s not about doing what the voters want, or what the law requires, or what’s good for the planet. It’s all about satisfying his demented supporters and his ego, and not in that order.

So where the hell is Senate oversight and their endeavors to keep an eye on his twisted priorities? Funny you should ask.

2). You can’t touch this. The White House is completely stonewalling any Democratic attempts at oversight. Democratic requests for material required for oversight are being turned down flat as the Trumpies institute a brand spanking new rule: all oversight requests must come from committee chairmen, all of whom are naturally GOP and aren’t asking. This is making the Dems completely nuts. Granted, the Obama White House could be slow when it was the GOP endlessly asking for oversight materials, but there was never an issuance of a flat stonewalling policy aimed at the opposition party. So apparently Trump cannot build his Mexican wall, but that is not deterring him from throwing up walls internally in yet another attempt to bring the government to a crashing halt, all to his benefit.

Did he do anything right?. Well, his poll numbers went up five percent because naturally his base approved of his foreign trip, despite the array of goofs, blunders and obnoxious behavior that has served to crumble America’s dominance as a world leader. So that’s good…I guess.

PAD

Updated at 11:48–The mayors of 61 cities and governors of three states–New York, California and Washington–have stated they will ignore Trump and continue to enforce the agreements in the Paris Climate accords. And one of the Mayors? The Mayor of Pittsburgh.