The Friday Link for 4/8/22

This week let's start with Will Smith and the infamous slap heard round the world. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences banned Smith from attending any Academy function for the next ten years for his assault of comedian Chris Rock during the Oscar's broadcast nearly two weeks ago.  It's the right decision.

Smith was out of line attacking a presenter(!). Rock was on stage to hand out the award for Best Documentary Feature. His joke was lame and dated, but he sure as heck didn't deserve to be attacked in front of a worldwide audience for it.  

Smith's reaction was so out of line when you consider what other comedians have said at awards shows.  Nothing comes close to the widespread insults and viciousness of Ricky Gervais during his final run as the host of the 2020 Golden Globes.  This is freaking brutal, and yet no one walked up on stage and slapped him. Warning - ***ADULT LANGUAGE!***

I also want to include Saturday Night Live's very funny take on Will Smith at the Oscars.  The seat fillers had a very different perspective. 

Also tonight The Daily Show is back in top form with their latest observation on what the far right media is going after Joe Biden for...spicy pizza.  

And finally tonight, Randy Rainbow being spectacular! 

The pandemic is not over! Please get vaccinated, wear a mask and be safe.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sunrise, Sunset (or The Trouble with Lazy Populism)

A few years back I was stunned at the response from voters aged 30 and under to a political issue which would be generous to describe as fringe; the ban on Sunday liquor sales in Minnesota.

I'll agree the ban was stupid, a remnant of Minnesota's Puritan, Euro-immigrant, religious restrictive standards, mutilated into a self-righteous victory for morality.  What stunned me wasn't that people were willing to entertain getting rid of the old standards, but rather the fervent attitude of those who were screaming for this political injustice to end, primarily 30 and under voters.

This is a group of voters who hopeful Democrats (nervously) bank on showing up for them during election season, but who fail to appear time and time again.  Suddenly here they were, and they were loud; so loud they scared the politicians in St. Paul into updating the rules, allowing people to stop by and get booze on the way home from church. Progress!

I call this 'Lazy Populism;' not because the issue itself (Sunday liquor sales) isn't an issue, but rather because it was a minor issue, a problem which really only affected heavy drinkers who had a penchant for failing to plan ahead.  This issue suddenly became a life-or-death issue for many young voters.  These voters don't show up in impressive numbers when it really mattered, like when Trump was on the ballot in 2016, or as their rights as students and workers were on the ballot, or as the environment was on the ballot, or as funding for the arts was on the ballot, or when a woman being able to legally get an abortion was on the ballot.  Those things didn't get them angry and to the polls, but the desire to get a pony keg of Special Export on a Sunday: "You're violating my rights!!!"

We just had another example of Lazy Populism a few weeks back when the bellyaching over turning the clocks ahead one hour for Daylight Saving Time (DST) brought an obscene amount of overly dramatic pleas to "stop the insanity!"

Daylights Saving Time in the United States (the process of taking the hour of sunlight early in the morning during Spring, Summer, and the first half of Autumn and moving it to the evening hours, to cut back on energy consumption) began in 1918 as a tactic to conserve energy during wartime.  The idea behind it makes a lot of sense; if people, companies, and municipalities did not have to turn on lights until an hour later in the evening by taking the hour of daylight from the morning when we are mostly still in bed, springing the clocks ahead one hour in Spring, that's one hour less of fuel that needs to be spent.  Then in mid Autumn, when the tilt of the earth started working against energy conservation, the people Fall back, get an extra hour of sleep, and move on with their lives.  A lot of countries started Daylight Savings during wartime, and the concept grew over time. Most of the United States partakes in the process still today.

But now a contrarian view has emerged: "Daylight Saving Time kills so many people and really doesn't save us any money, so why are we losing ONE HOUR of sleep in Spring?!?"  Having followed Republican politics, I know when someone adds horrible outcomes to a minor issue to try to give them more righteousness, provenance, and followers to their cause.  After talking with a Democratic lawmaker who is 100% convinced that changing the clocks is one of the worst things in American culture today, I stepped back. Was this argument simply 'Lazy Populism,' or was there validity in their claims that Daylight Savings Time should be stopped at all costs? 

I just spent far more time than I ever wanted reading up on this issue, and the real answer (as usual) is more complicated than it seems.  Let's start with the question:

Does Daylight Saving Time actually save on energy use?

Yes, it does, and while it's nowhere near what it did when it was originally started, it still saves a lot of energy.  

Many of the studies you find on DST energy use are focused only on domestic energy use (the energy you use in your residence).  A lot of people have honed in specifically on one study which is quoted a lot, one that looked at domestic use in Indiana.  Most 'domestic only' studies show indeed DST is no longer saving on energy consumption when it comes to US citizens in their homes.  Some studies even show DST uses more energy, but those studies are generally confined to a region or state, where other factors affect consumption (not circumstances that can be applied across the country).  Domestically, energy use today is (in most cases) the same in both DST and Standard time, and one or two studies show regional domestic energy use is actually higher under DST.

This shouldn't be too much of a surprise.  When Daylight Saving Time began, most households had only a few electrical appliances; lights, an iron, and possibly one or two other appliances.  Compare that to the modern house, with electric heating and cooling, fans, computers, charging cords, televisions, and a bevy of 'smart' household appliances.  The main reason domestic energy use is not curbed by DST is the modern household never really shuts down, so electricity use is a constant.

But here's the problem with these studies.  They only focus on domestic use, and many of them also (as I mentioned earlier) look at a specific regional slant of domestic energy consumption.  Domestic energy use is only one part of our energy consumption, so it's somewhat dishonest to present Domestic energy use as overall energy use. Part of the reason there are very few studies that factor in the 4 major uses of electrical consumption (domestic, commercial, military, and municipal) is because this is a massive study to undertake.

Management of the time zones in the United States, and hence Daylight Saving Time, falls under the prevue of the Department of Transportation (who knew!), which states when factoring all energy consumption into the equation (domestic, commercial, military, and municipal), the United States still saves about 1% of their total energy consumption while observing Daylight Saving Time.  A lot of these savings come from commercial buildings shutting down before it gets dark and municipalities and military bases not having to turn on lights for community activities until later (but there is a HUGE question mark when you factor in the last two years of workers working from home).

Let me add that a study from the Department of Energy in 2008 looked into the cost savings of expanding DST.  Their study showed a four-week extension of DST would end up saving enough energy to power 100,000 households per year, JUST IN THOSE FOUR WEEKS! 

So yes, Daylight Saving Time does still today save energy, even with domestic use far higher than it was in the past.  If someone says "No it doesn't," I guarantee the report they are about to quote only looked at domestic use, and likely was the aforementioned report which only looked at domestic use in Indiana.

Does Daylight Saving Time lead to a massive die-off every year?

This question is not so cut and dry. 

There definitely is a mysterious rise in heart attacks (not all of which equal death) in the first week of Daylight Saving Time.  Studies in both the USA and Europe point to the disruption of sleep patterns and biological rhythms as likely culprits, but medical experts really can't say for sure why this phenomenon happens.  The rise in heart attacks is about 5% for the first week of DST, and that means, definitively, some people are dying. 

Also, there are studies that point to increases in fatal traffic accidents in the first week of Daylight Saving Time, somewhere around 6%.  This is mostly chalked up to sleepy drivers, but is the problem DST or drivers who just refuse to go to bed a little earlier to combat the KNOWN shift in time? 

On the other side of the traffic death argument is a RAND Corporation study which shows the increase in sunlight during evening driving hours in the summer decreases traffic accidents involving vehicles by 6% to 10%, and traffic accidents involving a vehicle and pedestrians by 8% to 11%, undoubtedly saving countless lives. 

Not dismissing the increase in heart attacks and traffic accidents in the week after DST, but cutting traffic accidents for the entire run of DST probably has saved far more lives than are lost in the first week of Daylight Saving.

What are the consequences of getting rid of Daylight Saving Time?

Let me start with the things we can say definitively about this question.  First, there isn't a consensus on getting rid of DST.  Some people want to get rid of DST and stay on Standard Time all year like we used to be.  The other side wants to just adopt DST all year long.  Both sides will make their argument on which one is better but there is no consensus on which path we should take.

The one undeniable benefactor of getting rid of DST permanently is the energy industry, primarily oil, gas, and coal.  Demand for their product will go up.  It is not easy to see how many of the studies that are anti-DST are funded in part by the oil, gas, and coal industries, but considering the movement away from fossil fuels, this might be an attempt by them to maximize profits before the shoe drops.  One could make the argument, to make sure the energy industry is not pushing an agenda here, to only get rid of DST when energy production in the US is mostly renewable.

As far as consequences in regards to health and mental well-being, most of this is speculative, but I think there will be a whole slew of issues people will be upset about, regardless if we adopt DST for the year or if we return to Standard time permanently.

In Minneapolis, if we were to stay on Daylight Saving Time year-round, the sun would not even rise until 8:50 AM, almost 9 in the morning in late December! And Minneapolis is in the middle of the time zone. For a city on the western side of a time zone, like Indianapolis, the sun will rise on January 1st around 9:05 AM.  I can't say for sure what the impact of such a late sunrise would be for people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder but undoubtedly you will have more depression and more suicides with the darker mornings.

You say "Fine! We'll just go back to Standard time year round!" Overlooking the increase in traffic accidents we'll get with the loss of extra light on summer evenings, let's focus on the quality of sleep a person would get with Standard Time.  The sunrise in late June in Minneapolis will be 4:24 AM.  That's sunrise! The day will start getting light at 3:45 AM.  And once again, we're in the middle of a time zone.  In Portland Maine, on the far eastern side of the Eastern Time Zone, their SUNRISE will be at 3:57 AM! 

People will have to spend money buying heavy-duty drapes and blinds to keep their rooms dark, and undoubtedly many people will be losing sleep, or will have restless sleep, for a large portion of summer. As anti-DST people complain about the dangers of sleepy drivers for the one week after we spring ahead, will they downplay the undoubtedly FAR large amount of sleepy drivers we'll have from mid-May to mid-July if we were to return to Standard Time year round?

To all the Anti-Daylight Saving Time people out there, stop whining and just suck it up.  It's just one hour in March, an hour you get back in November.  Although it does not save energy like it used to, it still does save energy.  Although DST undeniably causes health issues and even death, there is a likely far larger cost of life to get rid of DST, regardless of how we get rid of it.

This article will not save DST.  Quite the contrary!  It's likely politicians will get rid of Daylight Saving Time.  They desperately want to look like populists, so even though the evidence DST still works is out there for anyone to read, they'll ignore the truth and go along with the lemmings in an effort to embrace the irrational zealots rallying around their cause célèbre.  They could be populists by embracing healthcare for all, or equality for all, but those issues are hard to achieve, and this one gives them a participation trophy they can proudly display on their mantle. 

This is just Lazy Populism, and if we follow through with getting rid of Daylight Saving Time, we will soon be treated to the next bout of Lazy Populism, the SAME EXACT PEOPLE who bitch and moan about losing an hour in Spring with DST will either be bitching and moaning about the late sunrise in late December, or bitching and moaning about the early sunrise in late June.  When that does happen, AND IT WILL HAPPEN, how long before we suddenly have politicians insist "We need to get back to Daylight Saving Time!"

The Friday Link For 4/1/22

Happy April Fools Day...okay, now that's out of the way.

Short and sweet this week and I've been really busy and I want to relax.  For your viewing pleasure it's two videos from Jim Gaffigan.  The first 40 minutes is him talking about fast food from his various comedy tours.  He debuted this back in 2020 when the pandemic was so young. I'm glad he has kept it up online. 

The second video is his comedy bits about animals!  I love when he's talking about bears.

Have a great weekend! 

Get vaccinated and wear a mask! 

The Friday Link for 3/25/22

God Bless Randy Rainbow!

Your first clip tonight is another of his fantastic song parodies and he's got Marjory Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert in his sights.

***Warning*** There is some naughty language but 'Gurl You're a Karen' is freaking hilarious! 

Also tonight, two clips from recent movies.  The first is a deleted clip from the new movie 'The Batman.'  Although the main villain in this movie is The Riddler, Batman apparently goes to get advice from The Joker. Played by Barry Keoghan, who also was in 'The Eternals' and 'Dunkirk,' I'm somewhat fascinated by this clip.  I do want to see more of him in this role. 

Also tonight, I really did enjoy the latest entry in 'The Matrix' franchise, 'The Matrix Resurrections.' It's worth watching and if nothing else a dynamite popcorn movie. Here's one of the fight scenes:

Have a good weekend.  Get vaccinated and wear a mask.  The Pandemic is still going on. 

Failing to Deliver

In 2014, leading up to the midterm elections, there was only one story covered in the news, Ebola.  It was EVERYWHERE!  The 24 hour news networks were wall to wall with the total of 11 total cases linked to the USA.  That's right, eleven.  Two of those 11 people died (tragically), but it clearly wasn't the national crisis being presented in the news.

Then, on Election Day 2014, something incredible happened.  The story disappeared!  I'm not saying the story went completely away, but it was mostly gone overnight. Two local news stations in Minneapolis/St. Paul didn't even mention it on Election Day, or ever again to my knowledge, and most papers (AT BEST) relegated the story to deep within the folds of the paper.  By the end of the week, the news media had completely forgotten about the Ebola crisis they had intensely reported on for the last two months.

This story was a plant, a made up crisis pushed by Republicans and their puppet masters to prevent the news media from covering the Election clearly, and to try to scare people away from the polls on Election Day.  After they accomplished their goals, they themselves stopped pushing the story, and the news media, whether in compliance with the Republicans, or blindly following the rest of the lemmings, stoped talking about the story.  It was the all the proof you needed the media of this country was hopelessly controlled by the Right.

Speaking of pandemics, the last two years we've had a bit of a rough go.  Near 80 million people in the US have contracted COVID (including yours truly), and near 975,000 people have died.  Now, if Republicans had the same intensity as they had with Ebola with COVID, those two numbers would've likely been dramatically lower.  Instead, Republicans found political value in denying vaccines worked, discouraging face masks and vilifying the medial and scientific community as a whole. 

The Republicans were so good at their messaging, there are families where a loved one DIED of Corona Virus, and yet they still refused to get vaccinated or wear a mask because the Right told them they didn't need it.  Politicians, drunk on their own press releases, started trying to tell hospitals, including the World's Best Hospital(!!!), The Mayo Clinic, how to do medicine!  And psychopathic, deranged loon balls showed up at school board meetings to threaten to murder them all if they dared shut down schools or even demand a facemark, DURING A PANDEMIC!  And the news media covered all of this as viable 'counterpoint.'

The real failure in both of these cases is not the Republicans.  Quite the contrary, their messaging exceeds  expectations EVERY SINGLE TIME!  They are masters at controlling narrative.  The real problem here is the Democrats, who even though have facts, science and evidence on their side, can't seem to put out an effective messaging campaign to save their asses.  BOTH of these Republican narratives would easily be countered if Democrats created uniform messaging and demanded equal time in all news outlets.  Instead they get so caught up in trying to sound nuanced and clever, trying to make themselves sound bipartisan, tolerating (or even agreeing) with Republican lunacy, and thinking a plucky attitude will win the day (it won't).

Democrats lack of follow through on messaging is so toxic right now, it's my opinion their fear of how they'll be perceived if they hold a Republican accountable for their undeniable criminal activity creates a self induced deterrent to charging CLEALY guilty people (like Trump) for their crimes.

We saw the beginnings of this failure in the W. Bush Administration.  Not only did we know W., Cheney and his Administration LIED us into the Iraq War, we actually had evidence they did so, enough to charge them!  Then suddenly, Democrats came out like whipped pups, starting at the ground, pretending to shift unseeable dirt and sand with their feet, as they meekly said they weren't going to file any charges. They had them dead to rights, and they just let them go.

Compare that to the next 8 years under President Obama. Republican MADE UP a fake narrative that something nefarious actually happened in Benghazi and then initiated 8, EIGHT(!!!), investigations into the attack.  They would have an investigation, they themselves would find absolutely ZERO evidence of the wrongdoing they claimed happened, and immediately open another investigation, claiming "We still have a lot of unanswered questions!"  They didn't.  This was only about controlling narrative. By the way, when the Trump Administration's actions clearly contributed to the deaths of US soldiers in Niger, the same Republicans said "nothing to see here," as the meek Democrats went along.

Today, I've gotten to the point where I've lost all faith the Democrats will actually hold Trump, or any Republican guilty of their crimes. Currently Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has, inexplicably, decided to not charge Trump with financial crimes his own prosecutors have said are a SLAM DUNK conviction. He's even started sending the evidence collected of Trump's crimes back to their respective witnesses. He might be bought off to make the case go away, or he might be afraid his political future might take a hit if he follows through and jails Trump.  Regardless, it's a clear failure to deliver.

As much as what the Manhattan DA is doing is a head scratcher, it's nothing compared to the lack of real action by the 1/6 Commission and the Department of Justice in regards to the Insurrection, the clear attempt to overthrow the government of the United States.  Between clearly guilty rioters getting relative slaps on the wrist, to the mountain of evidence pointing to major coordination and involvement with militia groups, the RNC, Republican Congresspeople and Senators, the Trump 2020 campaign, major factions of the Republican fund raising and organizing operations, a string of incompetent Trump lawyers, the Administration, and Trump himself, it's mind numbing there are not already REAL HARSH CHARGES being filed.  I get the impression this will be W. and the Iraqi War all over again.

And last night, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife Ginni was exposed as actively communicating with the Trump Administration, encouraging the overthrow of the government of the United States.  Not only that, but her husband was the lone justice (ON THAT COURT) to rule against Trump (and any future President???) from ever having to release internal communications to an active investigation, something we now know he was doing to prevent his wife from getting exposed as being a player in the attempted overthrow of Biden. 

Now, either Justice Thomas is making rulings which he feels his wife would want him to make, OR his wife is directly telling him how to rule on cases.  Regardless there should be an immediate impeachment hearing in the House and a trial in the Senate. I guarantee, if this was a liberal Justice's spouse caught in the same scandal, Republicans would have have 15 investigations already this morning, and a big ol' pot of impeachment brewing, as every news outlet in the country would be demanding accountability, not just reporting on the case.  I can't wait to see how the Democrats drop this ball.

Meanwhile the Republicans are still having a field day with President Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and his laptop.  Not only has the entire Joe Biden/Burisma story been proven to be a made up lie, but the supposed laptop with the supposed email which is the Right's so called "smoking gun evidence" is a laughing stock.  A computer repair store in Delaware apparently found his laptop, and instead of looking at the service ticket to figure out whose it is, they opened it up and found ONE email allegedly from Hunter Biden to someone which confirms the entire scandal...which has already been proven fraudulent. 

Yet look at how intently the Right is still screaming this story! Every week I get Republicans saying to me "just you wait until Monday! It'll be the biggest scandal in the history of the country." But when Monday comes, and no scandalous news story drops, it's always "Biden and the mainstream media are covering up the truth!"

The Republican Party and their voters might just be the greatest mind control experiment in human history.

Dear Democrats, FILE THE FREAKING CHARGES!  We've all seen the evidence!  We all know who did what and when!  We all know they're guilty of the crimes!  The Republicans will not be your friends or give you a pass even if you don't file charges, so file them!  Stop sitting there and smugly thinking "we don't have to prosecute these criminals, as 'history' will harshly condemn them for all time!"

Well, that depends on who writes the history books...

Swipe Right For Sloth!

During the Trump years, I made the following observation:  A Trump supporter could walk into their house, find Trump actively having sex with their spouse, and the first words out of their mouth would be "Damn Democrats!"

I want to update that.  It's clear at this point most Republicans could walk into their house, find a deranged Trump chainsawing their loved ones into cubes, and, after watching in adoration, cheering on the carnage, scream "Damn Democrats! Now why haven't they helped me after the loss of my family!  I'm the REAL victim!!!"

I've come to this determination after I stumbled across this meme floating around Republican circles on social media: 

It's stunning a politician and/or his allies would even attempt this farce. The argument of 'you have to stop all investigations into a CLEARLY GUILTY corrupt jackass, because if you don't they'll come after everyone else' is a laughable, pathetic escape attempt.  Any moron should be able to look at this ad and clearly see all Trump is trying to do is prevent himself from being held accountable for his actions.  

But yet the paranoid Trump fans eagerly gobble up this drivel. 

Piggy backing on my point about Trump fans finding him sleeping with their spouse, there is another ugly truth about Trump fans.  Trump fans know Trump is a horrible person, but because he validates their racism, and/or allows them to blame everyone else for their lifetime of mistakes, they create fantastical, laughable conspiracy theories about the other side to validate their love of Trump.  "Sure Trump is not perfect, but Hillary Clinton drinks blood from babies in the basement of a Maryland Pizza parlor, so I'm on the right side of this fight!"

THAT ARGUMENT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!  And it still happens today.

Like all things with the Republicans, when they have success with something, they replicate it.  This deflection technique is now not just for the extreme, far right loon balls in QAnon, but is now a mainstream argument, basically saying "Don't believe what your eyes are seeing, and your ears are hearing.  HERE is what you should believe!"  And this year it's becoming the rallying cry of the Republican politicians.  

Already I've seen at least 20 Republicans who openly railed against vaccines, calling them "dangerous" and something people should avoid, NOW insist they never once bad mouthed vaccines, only said individuals should have the choice of getting vaccinated.  They're now even freely admitting they got vaccinated early on in the process as they were spewing anti-vaxx propaganda, stating, "If I was against the vaccine, why did I get vaccinated right away (something I've intensely kept secret)."

There have already been a few dozen Republicans who PROUDLY voted against the Infrastructure and earmark bills, meaning they were against those bills passing, claiming credit for the elements of those bills which help their district. The argument they put forward is something to the effect of "I was proudly against the bill, but I did convince Biden and the Democrats to put this spending in the bill I VOTED AGAINST, so I deserve credit for it."  It Minnesota, the inclusion of those projects was not due to any Republicans, but rather the two Democratic US Senators.

And with Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson getting peppered in the US Senate, Republicans are not only smearing her with racist statements, argument and tropes, which they try to reframe by intensely screaming "HOW DARE YOU CALL ME RACIST (for the clearly racist things I said)," but they're also floating the evil villain story they've been floating the last few years: "Sure we're horrible at leading this country, but the other side of the aisle are all child molesters, or openly supporting child molesters, so my racism, bigotry, hate, pandering to the wealthy, corporations over citizens stances, and forcing of Christianity on all people is noble and justified!"

By the way, they scream the "all Democrats are child molesters" lie as it seems the VAST majority of people arrested for child sex crimes in this country seem to be staunch Republicans. This would be what a psychologist would call 'classic projection.'  It's like when the most anti-gay politicians come out as gay, or Putin claiming he's attacking Ukraine because "they're the real Nazis."

The worst part of all of this is a weakened news media which refuses to do their job.  In the last three weeks, I've seen the news media run pro-Republican political stories obnoxiously full of lies(!), lies which are laughably easy to fact check.  Instead of simply holding the Republicans up to their own record, they instead either fail to bring up the truth surrounding the 'new found' Republican stances, or they outright publish Republican campaign talking points as 'news' but really are designed to erase the truth.  It's one or the other.

This is what we are up against this election cycle, easily fact checked lies being presented by Republicans and the news media as "truth."  It'd be like if Sloth, from the movie the Goonies (the less nauseating photo above) got on an online dating site. Knowing he has a few things going against him, to make himself more palatable, the argument he makes is "Don't let your eyes fool you!  Everyone else on this dating site is a Nazi, Fascist, Communist, Vampire, child molester who wants to force you to have an abortion, wants to abort already born children, wants to force your kids to beg for forgiveness for being white, wants to make every woman athlete in Division I sports transgender, wants to make Christianity illegal, wants to kill grandma, take your house, kill your dog and take all your money!"  Meanwhile the supposedly independent watchdog tasked with shining a light on the truth gives a big thumbs up to Sloth's claims, calling it "a bold new strategy geared to finding that special loved one!"

Swipe right for Sloth.

Friday Link for 3/18/22

I have two Star Wars related videos this week.

I love Star Wars, but one thing that hasn't aged well is the original battle in A New Hope between Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi.  Especially when you look at how bad ass Jedi's get when the special effects can match their true powers (think Luke Skywalker taking on the Empire in The Last Jedi).

As Lucas has revisited his old movies and added Ewoks, lizards and far too many droids, I wondered if he'd ever try to remaster the original lightsaber duel, to make it worthy of the series.

Leave it to some fans to put together a sensational lightsaber duel which should be inserted into A New Hope.  The images are not framed perfectly, and the special effects need to be cleaned up a little, but it's worthy of inclusion on the Star Wars universe. 

Then again, I think our minds would've exploded if this was the lightsaber fight in the original film in the 1970's. 

Also tonight another Star Wars clip, this from one of their video games which talks about the Old Republic, stories from long before the current Star Wars universe.  

When the last few Star Wars movies came out, I though they were very good.  I'm a defender of The Rise of Skywalker.  Sure Palpatine returning out of nowhere with very little explanation is a massive MacGuffin, but I think it was hard to wrap up all of those plot points and not have a few holes. 

That being said, The Empire Strikes Back is still the high-water mark for all Star Wars films, and as good as the final three were, they are still no where near as complete and as entertaining as Empire.  That's why this simple 6 minute Old Republic video game trailer is astonishing.  I think this is as good as Empire! Watching this makes me want to see a movie around all of these characters.  

Watch for yourself and see if you're like me, wanting more! 

Have a great weekend and please get vaccinated if you haven't already!

The Friday Link for 3/11/22

Here in Minnesota, we are almost out of winter.  One more morning of really cold temperatures and then we enjoy 40 and 50 degrees beginning next week.  I know a lot of people, especially people in the south, will hear that and be shocked we're excited about what sounds like cool temperatures, but most Minnesotans will be showing off their pasty white thighs in shorts if it breaks 55. 

It's been a long winter.

This week we say goodbye to the cold by remembering one of the worst snow storms of all time.  The Blizzard of 1888 was a monster, killing a lot of people along the Eastern Seaboard.  I'll let The History Guy give you the history of the storm.  He even does a very good job explaining how the storm affected city planning across the globe, but one of the things he doesn't really delve into is how the storm was also one of the first dominos in what was to become the labor movement in the United States.

This storm happened on a Sunday, but many people ended up dying because they were headed into work, or trying to get home from it. People worked 7 days a week and even in the face of a life threatening storm were headed into the office.  They ended up finding people in Philadelphia frozen to death in snowbanks, succumbed to the weather as they tried to get to work.  It's no surprise people started asking the question of "why people were trying to get into the office on a massive snowstorm," and "why was there such need for offices to be opened on a Sunday anyway."

This wasn't the one thing that borough change, but combine this with the Johnstown Flood disaster, the ruthlessness of company towns, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the rise of the union movement, brought into the US via immigrants, and the days of businesses mistreating their employees were numbered.

Speaking of old things, the other video this week is a restoration video.  This genre of videos is where they find something old and rusty and they go about painstakingly restoring it to its former glory. You see this a lot with cast iron pans, lighters and knives, but a corn sheller?

Sometimes technology of the past is so cool.  Enjoy this restoration video from Lost & Restored, but the incredible part is when they use it at the end.  That is an amazing machine! It makes me want to grow my own corn, dry it and then use the...well never mind.  That sounds exhausting, but I still can enjoy the ingenuity of the designers. 

Have a great weekend and if you still haven't gotten vaccinated, please do.  Thanks! 

Troll Bridge

The Republicans have gone NUTS in the last 24 hours.  After President Joe Biden banned Russian oil imports to prevent American dollars from supporting their evil slaughter of innocent Ukrainians, something which was achieved via a fairly large bipartisan majority, Republican spin doctors immediately began screaming about how Joe Biden was directly responsible for raising gas prices.  When the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki corrected that notion and specifically mentioned the current 9000 oil and gas leases the oil and gas industry already have in hand that are not being utilized as a contributing factor to limited gas and oil production, they lost their freaking minds.

Nothing angers Republicans today like a proud Democrat using facts to defend their position. NOTHING!

I could spend this blog post talking about how the real culprits in regards to gas price increases are the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the unused 9000 gas and oil leases not being utilized (by intention), and about how Trump in April of 2020 specifically coordinated a worldwide 10% decrease in oil production, knowing it would lead to soaring gas prices (if Trump won in 2020, he could use the high gas prices to justify opening up all the pristine wilderness to drilling/If Biden won, Republicans could blame him directly for something he did not do [WHICH THEY HAVE!]), but I want to address the mindset of these clowns.

Trump Republicans are in a delusional state today.  Most of them were 15 time losers, many of whom were racists, who couldn't get out of their own way, living a life full of angry bitterness, constantly running their endless would've, could've, should've scenarios in their mind.  Trump changed that.  He looked at them and said "you're not the loser, EVERYONE ELSE IS!"  They gobbled it up.  He recklessly validated the losers, knowing their blind allegiance would never subside.

But Trump lost, and not only that but he's become an endless embarrassment of scandals and anti-American behavior.  The Trump Republican's golden calf is now a hollow shell of it's former self, but considering the Trump Republicans are determined to never go back to reality, incapable of looking in the mirror and saying "wow! I'm the screw up!," they have decided they will gladly sink on the USS Trump.

My daughter asked me to describe the mindset of the modern Trump Republican and I can up with four distinct features.

1) They will do ANYTHING to avoid having to acknowledge a reality or fact they disagree with.  Trump didn't lose.  Trump was the smartest president of all time. Trump was beloved on the world stage. Trump did a fantastic job with CoronaVirus! These delusional gems are just part of the daily affirmations the standard Trump Republican has to believe.  They even go as far as believing things which contradict other things they believe; stuff like: 1/6 wasn't an insurrection, but Antifa was behind the 1/6 insurrection! Even when the world plays along with them, like in Arizona, with the election recount.  They were allowed to control every aspect of that investigation into the wrong doing they KNEW happened.  When they found no wrong doing at all, do they sit back and say "I guess we were wrong"?  NOPE! They are so convinced of the lie they just keep muttering how the election was fraudulent and EVERYONE knows it.  

They lies they convince themselves are truths are infallible in their mind, and they will NEVER not believe their made up 'truths,' even when it whacks them in the face like a 2 X 4.

2) They speak with conviction and confidence on things they know absolutely nothing about.  It is stunning.  Used to be if you didn't know about something, you said nothing. Only fools or grifters tried to sound authoritative beyond their ability.  Today, the standard Republican will tell you everything you need to know about politics, racial relations, societal breakdowns, foreign policy, medicine, voting, Russia, Ukraine, oil production, the stock market...no matter what, they all pretend to know what is REALLY going on. They don't have a freaking clue.

3) They create super villains.  It's my theory, down deep inside, most Republicans know Trump is a horrible person.  They do, but to allow themselves to feel like they are on the right side of it all, they create super villains to compare Trump with, so they can feel better about supporting him.  Example: "Sure Trump is a horrible person who clearly treats women, veterans, minorities and the poor horrifically, and seems to be a very dishonest person, but Hillary Clinton kills babies and has Satanic rituals in the basement of a Maryland pizza parlor, so I'm on the right side of this argument.  He might not be perfect, but we're fighting the devil people!"  They convince themselves these outrageous slanders are real and this is how they walk around with a clear conscious.

4) They will always consider themselves to be victims.  They are the biggest whiners I've ever met.  There is nothing they can't turn into a slight against them.  They go on television and scream their 1st Amendment Rights are violated.  They scream their rights are being taken away if you merely suggest equal rights for all people. The same people who mocked and taunted Democrats for four years of Trump can't stop blubbering about how they're the victims of a massive conspiracy to cheat them of their golden idol.  And when it came to the pandemic...SWEET LORD! Used to be we would tolerate mild inconvenience as long are we were stopping needless suffering and needless death.  Not anymore!  You need to wear a mask, "You're forcing me to wear a face diaper!" We are going to shut down schools to prevent a massive outbreak, "I don't care about the health of teachers, why aren't you doing what I want?" And suggest a vaccine to prevent the outbreak from getting worse, "You are trying to turn me into a lizard person!"  

In their minds, if they'e not the victim, then even they realize they're just massive douche bags.  They will never admit their own faults, so they quickly jump aboard the victimhood train! 

I'm not saying understanding all of this makes it any easier to deal with these clowns, but what it does do is give you an idea if someone is even worth your time.  It's gotten to the point where I can spy a waste of my time in the first sentence of their social media post.  You start to see the tell tale signs of a Trump Republican, save your brain cells and just block them.  I do, and I love it.  Down deep inside, what Trump Republicans want is to be validated, so by ignoring them, you are denying them of their much desired attention. 

Every time I block a troll, a Trump Republican sheds a tear.  I'm okay with that.

The Friday Link for 3/4/22

It doesn't surprise me when someone I know has never seen a "classic" movie.  I had a friend who shocked me about 10 years ago when he admitted he had NEVER seen the Star Wars movies, any of them. I was stunned, but he said most of his friends never watched any of them either, or had only seen one.  The more I thought about it the more his point made some sense.  

I've often talked about how popular culture skews perception into thinking EVERYONE is watching, listening or participating in something.  Actually it's pretty far from he truth.  The Super Bowl aired a few weeks back and the total audience was a little over 112 million viewers, but that doesn't factor in bars and parties.  Probably 150 to 160 million people watched the game, in a country of 330 million-ish. That means half the country didn't watch the biggest cultural event of the year, and had no interest in doing so. 

Last week I had a friend post they were watching The Godfather for the first time. I was surprised they hadn't seen it, but I once again filtered my reaction through the magnifying glass of "popularity."  Not only has most of the country not seen The Godfather, my guess is this is one of those movies where the gender imbalance is at the most extreme.  Most guys I know have seen it, but most women I know have not.

It is a classic all time great movie.  I highly encourage you watch it, and The Godfather Part II; equally as good.

Godfather scenes for you this week on the Friday Link, starting with the horse head scene.

Warning, this has a pretty gruesome ending to it, but remember it's all fake.  If you not a fan of blood, skip this one and move onto the next one.

This scene is so important to establish the nature in how the Corleone family conducts their business. 

Another scene which establishes a lot of how the mafia operates is this simple scene.  The interaction between Marlon Brando and a wildly young James Caan is amazing and so natural. 

I wish I could post the entire film, but you can't.  Here is another classic scene.  Michael takes control of the family by agreeing to take care of business. 

One last clip, but once again a warning that it get's pretty brutal in the end. Also, this clip will show you a lot of how the first Godfather ends, so if you want to see the movie without knowing the end, don't watch this clip and enjoy the whole film.

Michael's son gets baptized and business is taken care of.

Have a great weekend.  Things are getting better in Minnesota, but still get vaccinated and please wear a mask! 

The Friday Link for 2/25/22

An easy choice this week as one of the funniest videos of the year is released, the Bad Lip Reading of the NFL stars. Who could ever forget the phenomenal season of 'Jarsh.' And the usually bad lip reading of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, in all of it's glory, is there too! 

If you missed John Oliver's visit with Stephen Colbert last week, it was quite exceptional. He agreed to do an extra internet bit for The Late Show, Food Court.  His discussion of British foods is funny, and pretty spot on. 

And for the record sticky toffee pudding is fantastic!

 

Finally tonight, I REALLY wish the Doctor Who folks would have given Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor at least one more season with Bill and Nardole.  They worked SO well together. Alas, we only got one season.

I post this not as a swipe against Jodie Whittaker's fatanstic Thirteenth Doctor, but rather as a wishlist of more stories from a great team up.  Most Doctors NEVER get companions who match up with them as well as Bill and the 12th did. 

From his final story, where he ran into the First Doctor, who I loved them portraying as a grumpy old man from the 1960's, here is just a taste of how well they worked together. 

Have a great weekend.

Please get vaccinated and although the requirements have been lifted in many places, I still recommend wearing a mask.  I do.

The Friday Link for 2/18/22

This week we look back on the last few weeks of sports.  Now I won't post anything from the Super Bowl itself, although it was an entertaining game, and a win for the LA Rams.

Nope the first clip this week is the best ad of the Super Bowl season.  I say "Super Bowl season" because there are a lot of ads with big stars and big special effects which are released around the time of the Super Bowl but don't air during the Super Bowl.  Considering the price per ad just to air in the game, who blames them.

Not airing in this year's Super Bowl would be the case for the best commercial of the Super Bowl season, the Jason Bateman Hyundai ad.  I'm a huge fan of Bateman's comedy and delivery, and he delivers here.  The subscribe plea at the end is a hoot too.

Next up are some of the better moments from this year's Winter Olympic games.  The US has had a bit of a down games this year.  There are a lot of great world athletes, so I'm not saying they didn't deserve their medals, but the US is definitely going home with less medals than normal.  A lot of it has to do with the less than stellar performances from some of our extreme sport winter athletes.  I wish if they really didn't care about being at the Olympics to represent the USA, they would just stay home and allow a person who does to take their position. 

The best moment of the games, in my opinion, is the gold medal moment for the US in snowboard cross. Lindsey Jacobellis fell a few meters before the finish line in 2006.  It cost her the gold medal.  She finally got her redemption.  Her story is wonderful and I am so proud for her.  Check out her gold medal run here. 

By the way, NBC sports demands you watch this on YouTube, so click through to enjoy.

She also got a second gold.  So proud of her! 

Nathan Chen eventually won gold, but what set it up for him was his World Record short program skate. This was a close to perfect as you can get.

Once again, click through please! 

Lastly this week is the gold medal for the US in Mixed Team aerials. This sport is nuts, and it is proof that some of the extreme sport athletes in China for the US are really trying to win.  These are fantastic jumps.

Click through!

Have a great weekend.  Please get vaccinated and wear a mask.

The Friday Link for 2/11/22

A beaut of a Friday Link lined up for you! 

First up is possibly the greatest TV show opening credit sequence ever, well at least since the mid-1980's.  Television intros used to be fantastic, with catching songs and inviting images which drew you into the show.  There were gold.  Many times the TV theme songs would become hits themselves. 

Then came the 1990's and intros where stripped down to an image with a musical stinger.  Sure a few of them were good, like Friends, but even by the end of that shows run they were doing a toned down version of the Rembrandts hit.  

Peacemaker is a TV show on HBO Max.  It's based on a DC comics character which first came to the screen in the second Suicide Squad movie.  That movie wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. 

HBO decided to make a series based on John Cena's villain/hero Peacemaker, a hyper aggressive somewhat delusional version of Captain America, and the show, although quite violent, is pretty good, worth a watch.  The opening sequence itself is epic.  I have no idea how they ever convinced all the stars from the show to do it, but it's beautiful!  Watch for yourself.

Speaking of 1980's television, let's talk Intellivision! In case you are unaware, Intellivision was one of the first home video game systems, the first main competition for Atari.  I had one.  It had a complicated control, like a phone with a joystick and side buttons, side buttons which would get stuck and wear out.  The games were better than Ataris original games, but when the other home video game companies got better, Intellivision didn't.  Eventually they ended up on the junk pile of technology.  Take that Intelligent Television!

I can't imagine the advertising helped either. When you are looking to get young kids fired up about a video game system, nothing brings in the younger demographic like...(checks notes)...George Plimpton!  I know they were going for a Carl Sagan vibe, but watching these today is hilarious. 

Finally tonight, David Letterman was on Late Night with Seth Meyers and reminisced about his first TV hosting job; NOT The Late Show With David Letterman, but rather a daytime show called The David Letterman Show.  It was freaking hilarious, but it was so out of place in daytime TV.  I watched it when it was originally on and I loved it, but I was a weird kid.

It lasted a few weeks, and was cancelled.  When he showed up again on late night TV my dad wouldn't let me stay up to watch it.  Watching highlights from the daytime show today you realize it was a mistake to put him into the daytime time slot.  He always was meant for late night.  Here are some clips from 1980.

Have a great weekend! 

Get vaccinated, wear a mask and social distance.  Thanks!

Ranking the Marvel Movies

When I had my hip replacement surgery in October and was somewhat immobile, I decided to watch all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in timeline order, watching them in the order they would've fallen on their chronological timeline.  This means the first movie I watched was the WWII based Captain America, the First Avenger, followed by the 1990's based Captain Marvel and so on and so on, until Spider-Man: No Way Home, which I finally watched on Sunday. 

One side note, the first third of the Eternals clearly would take place before the first Captain America movie, but I started watching these before Eternals was even released into theaters, and I wasn't about to start watching one third of a movie here, and 10 minutes of a movie there.

Yes it took me three months to finish watching all these movies, but unlike many people today, I can't sit for 15 hours in a single day, even with hip replacement surgery, and just watch a screen.  I love Doctor Who, the science fiction TV series, but I can only watch about 3 hours of that before I need a break. 

Also I watched Eternals about a month before I watched the final Spider-Man movie because I wanted to wait for the theater crowds to dwindle in the age of Omicron. There were like 20 total people in the movie theater last Sunday.  Perfect! 

After reading a few lists which ranked the Marvel Cinematic Universe from worst to best, and disagreeing with those lists on certain levels, I decided to do my own ranking and put forward my worst to best list of the 27 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, a movie series which has forever changed movies as a whole.

I will not rank the Disney + series from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Not saying they're bad.  Quite the contrary, I'd probably rank the Hawkeye series in the top five on this list.  It's just not fair to the movies or the TV series to merge them.  Most of these series are 6 to 7 hours long, meaning 3 movies.  Of course their stories would be better flushed out.  Making this only theatrical releases keeps it simple.  I do HIGHLY recommend watching Hawkeye, WandaVision and Loki on Disney +, even if you are not a Marvel fan.  Falcon and the Winter Soldier is good too, but a step below the others, and What If...? is really for the comic book nerd who loves these movies. 

Without any further delay, let's get to the Countdown! 

#27 - Thor: The Dark World

This movie is a mess.  Going back and watching it again after having not seen it in 10 years makes me wonder if Marvel adopted some quality control measures to prevent a clunker like this from ever being released again.  It's light years away from the complete stories you get in the more recent Marvel movies.  It did give us the reality stone but very little else.  Even Loki is dull.  And I'm saying this as a person who freely admits Thor is my favorite Marvel character!  It's just not good, but Marvel is not shying away from it. They've multiple times referred back to this movie throughout the timeline.

#26 - Iron Man 2

The worst in this franchise feels like quickly produced drivel.  It gave us Black Window and War Machine, but it also gave us the lesson that you do not just grab a few pages from a few different beloved comic book story lines and try to paste them together without continuity. 

#25 - Incredible Hulk

This is actually a good popcorn movie because it gives us the first real glimmers of what the Hulk, and the full cinematic universe, would become.  It's one thing to have Iron Man and Obediah Stain to have a fight, but when Hulk and Abomination duke it out in Harlem...WOW! The beginning is fun, the ending is great, but the middle is not good.

#24 - Guardians of the Galaxy #2

I know the low ranking for this movie will get some people upset, but having gone back and watched it again this movie just doesn't have the quality story line, continuity, acting and overall completeness of the first Guardians.  And as opposed to the first movie where them being brought together as a "family" worked, in the second movie, the often referenced "family" came off WAY TOO MUCH like Fast and Furious in space. In the first movie, the family bond was real, like Encanto.  In the second, it was a cliche to get you to the next plot point.

#23 - Iron Man 3 - A better movie than its predecessor, but still far from the original.  Tony's anxiety and manic nature works better than his blood poisoning/alcoholism from 2, but the movie does feel contrived at points.  Feels like there are about 4 different plots going on at the same time, with none of them getting the time they deserve.  Not bad, but unfulfilling. 

#22 - Ant Man and the Wasp

For the record, Evangeline Lilly being an anti-vaxxer does diminish my respect for her greatly!  You have the right to your own opinion on things, but I have the right to think you're a freaking idiot for ignoring science, choosing selfishness over the betterment of humanity.

That being said, I saw this before her anti-vaxxer status became widely known and it still has more misses than hits.  Paul Rudd is fantastic in this film, having grown into his Ant Man character, but the rest of the main cast feels like they are mailing it in for a paycheck.  Ghost wasn't really a great villain, and I spent most of the movie hoping to see Goliath come to the screen.  He didn't.  It's a crime there isn't a Disney + series being made about Michael Peña, David Dastmalchian, and T.I.'s characters.  They're some of the best in the entire Marvel universe.

#21 - Captain America: The First Avenger

From this point forward, every movie on this list I'd recommend, even for the non comic book fan. They are all good stories and very approachable.

Marvel's first look at Captain America gets a lot of things right.  The back story of a weakling from Brooklyn becoming the USA's biggest weapon in World War 2 is just fun. It works as a comic book movie and a war movie, plus the romantic connection between Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell is the best in the entire movie franchise.  And the ending of this movie is great, with Cap waking up into a new world. 

#20 - Spider-Man: Far From Home

I like Tom Holland's Spider-Man (more on that in a bit), but this movie has two things which are just hard to believe. Although they do a phenomenal job at bringing the classic villain Mysterio to the big screen, the concepts of these 'bad guys' as illusions is a REALLY grandiose overreach.  It works FAR better when he is just going after Spider-Man by himself as opposed to a large metro scale crisis.  Plus with most of this movie in Europe, how is it everyone in the tour group doesn't realize one of them has to be Spider Man?  Especially after the events of the first movie in Washington DC!  You're requiring a large portion of your cast to be a father figure in a Disney Channel sitcom; criminally stupid.

#19 - Captain Marvel

This was the movie where I realized what a juggernaut the Marvel Cinematic Universe had become.  Captain Marvel is a secondary character in Marvel comics; a good character but one where most of her best stories are when she is part of a team.  They made a movie only about her and it has become the top grossing female super hero movie ever, beating the DC Movie Universe's Wonder Woman,  the most famous female comic book hero of all time, by 14 million at the box office.  

The movie itself is formulaic but enjoyable.  A person with tremendous power, who has been downplayed and dismissed, discovers her real powers and redeems herself.  Brie Larson is very likable and the 1990's locale/music pays off perfectly. 

#18 - Ant Man

As a comic book fan, I was somewhat bothered Ant Man and Wasp were not included in the original movie's Avengers cast, but I understand why they went with the six characters they did.  At the end of the Marvel Cinematic Phase 2, right after Avengers: Age of Ultron, they released the Paul Rudd movie and it worked. It helps they got away from the super serious Hank Pym version (even too serious in the comics) and went with Rudd's Scott Lang.  The special effects of shrinking and enlarging worked great, they had a really good villain in Yellowjacket, and (once again) Michael Peña, David Dastmalchian, and T.I.'s characters somewhat steal the show.

#17 - Thor

This was actually the toughest character to bring to the screen in Marvel Phase one.  Even though Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk are super heroes, they are humans who either built themselves their powers, were the subject of a successful experiment, or the subject of an unsuccessful one (in the Hulk movie, the origin moved away from a Gamma Bomb blast to a failed attempt to replicate the super soldier serum which gave Steve Rodgers his powers). 

Hemsworth, who at the time Thor came out was best known for being Kirk's dad in the Star Trek reboot, filled the role great.  It is a little ludicrous to hear some of the explanations of his existence, trying to call science and magic the same thing, but I give it leeway because this is supposedly a 'God' walking on the Earth.  And there is some nice light comedy in there too. 

#16 - Black Widow 

Poor Scarlett Johansson. Without a doubt I think she would have the highest grossing female comic book movie of all time, but COVID came and threw the movie industry into a mess.  Still Black Widow finished as the 4th biggest movie of 2021. The story actually takes place after Captain America Civil War, and follows Black Widow on her quest to deal with the Red Room, the spy group which recruited her and is still in operation.  Her association with the Black Widows still haunts her.  Great to see Marvel bring in some of the Russian heroes, but hands down, Florence Pugh's Yelena, the younger sister of Natasha, steals the show and is EASILY the best new Marvel character introduced since Endgame.

#15 - Doctor Strange

Casting in Marvel movies is amazing, and Benedict Cumberbatch is the second best casting in Marvel history behind Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. Cumberbatch IS Doctor Strange, catching all his quirks and ticks, a perfect combination of bizarre world seriousness and dry humor.  Add in a very enjoyable Benedict Wong and Mads Mikkelsen as the villain Kaecilius and it brings the 'difficult to understand' mystic concepts cleanly into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

#14 - Eternals

This is another movie that when I heard Marvel was going to adopt it for the screen, I said "how?"  Well they did it and it was really good (regardless of what critics said).  Celestials, insanely large alien beings, show up and deliver to Earth the Eternals, a super hero team which is supposed to protect the emerging population from The Deviants, a species which seems intent on wiping out the human race. There is a little bit of 'Yada, yada, yada' in regards to where exactly the Eternals were during Thanos, and a bit of a predictable twist, but overall the studio boiled down a thick, complicated history and presented it cleanly.  We also get the first look at the eventual Black Knight, the popular Avenger. 

#13 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

From this point up on this list, every movie is not only a good movie, but fun.

Ultron comes in as the lowest ranked Avenger movie for reasons which are not really their fault.  After the first Avengers film, there was going to be a need to branch out into the other superheroes fans wanted to see. Between the origin story of the Avengers and the Battle Royals which are Infinity War and Endgame, this movie had to branch out into other Avengers.  Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Vision and War Machine all make their first Avenger's appearances, but to do so they had to drastically alter the backstories of many of the characters.  Doesn't mean the movie isn't fun.  It's 1000 pounds of fun, with Iron Man taking on Hulk and Captain America fighting Ultron in South Korea. 

It's just not as clean as the other movies with a finale which got hurt by the need to get so much character development wrapped up. 

#12 - Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

The martial arts comics of the 70's were a bit racist, but they did bring super cool Asian culture to America. Every kid when I was growing up wanted to do karate or kung-fu, and these comic books (and Bruce Lee) were the reason.  

The 1970's racism is why altering the origin story from the original, in this case, was the right thing to do, and perfect.  Simu Liu is fantastic as the title character, and the fight scenes are insanely good.  I like how they bring the movie into the Marvel Universe via a similar mysticism of Doctor Strange (with some cool cameos) and Awkwafina is a freaking national treasure! 

#11 - Iron Man

The movie which finally made Hollywood step back and ask "why have we long ignored the Avengers?" The Avengers for many years were considered to be garbage properties from Marvel, with Spider Man and the X-Men viewed as far more developmental.  Iron Man changed everything.  A monster hit with the absolute perfect casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. The rest of the cast is top notch. The development of the character does not lack any holes, and Pepper Potts is addictive.  Still a long way from what the movie franchise would eventually become, it paved the way from what (at that point) was an insane concept for a movie franchise (more on that to come).

#10 - Spider-Man: Homecoming

I went back and forth on which Spider-Man movie to rank higher.  Homecoming, Tom Holland's first movie in the title role (after a memorable appearance in Captain America: Civil War) is just a great film, putting Peter Parker in high school, still trying to figure out how not to be the nerd with his insane powers, and fighting another classic villain, Michael Keaton's The Vulture.  Heck this movie even made The Shocker cool!  In the end it's a great story of proving yourself, not just relying on accessories to dictate who you are.  Comparing the WOW factor, I did  rank it behind...

#9 - Spider-Man: No Way Home

Movie schools for the next 100 yeas should teach this movie for how to bring in a ton of characters into a film without diluting the film too much (part of the problem with Ultron).  I don't want to say too much about this film because it's still in the theaters and a lot of people still want to see it.  Doctor Strange shows up and the movie gives us our first real look (well outside of the Loki and What if...? TV series) of what is going to be a driving element of the next Marvel movies, the multiverse.  This movie completely resets the franchise but in a way which is so gratifying for Marvel's biggest fans.  Go see it.

#8 - Captain America: Civil War

This is another movie which can be taught to show people how to introduce a lot of characters without diluting the film too much.  In the aftermath of Age of Ultron, and after a terrible accident while on a mission in Africa, the Avengers are being brought under control.  It's a simple concept: 1) understand your powers are too much to be trusted for you to make the call on when to use them, or 2) insist the best people to decide how and when to use your powers are the people with the powers.  This is a Pollyanna-ish view on this issue (Amazon's TV series The Boys takes a different angle, asking "why aren't more people reigning these corrupt super heroes in?"), but the end result is some very entertaining fights, first at an airport in Germany and then in an abandoned Russian base.  It's a classic comic book come to life. 

And although it is a team movie, with the major introductions of Black Panther and Spider-Man, it's still a Captain American movie, where we dive deeper into his friendship with Bucky, the Winter Soldier.

#7 - Avengers: Endgame

This movie is just plain fun, the blockbuster to hold all other blockbusters up to, in order to weigh their entertainment value.  The time heist plot and final extended battle scene are insanely good. I will never forget the sound of the audience when Captain America picked up Thor's hammer and started to beat Thanos with it, or the the loud cheers from the crowd when he utters the iconic "Avengers, Assemble!"

Why does it come below Avengers: Infinity War.  I thought about this for awhile. I think it's because they end up leaning on three fringe characters (Nebula, Rocket and War Machine) too much.  That and the Thor gag ended up becoming annoying, until the final battle.  Plus how many endings did that movie really end up having?

#6 - Guardians of the Galaxy 

When they announced this movie, I thought Marvel was over reaching.  This was a fringe hero group from their own archives, based in space, and with more bad story lines than good (just being honest).  What ended up on the screen was a freaking treat.  Visually stunning, packed with character development, a top notch script, and special effects which make you want to go to space.  They hit it out of the park!  When this movie became a hit it made me realize Marvel had come across a formula where they could feasibly turn any fringe characters from the comic book pages into their own movie series, something they've now done repeatedly.

#5 - The Avengers

I remember going into the movie theater with my son to go watch this movie.  It blew my mind what Marvel had done up until that point.  They launched four movie franchises just to get to this one movie.  And it worked!  Six characters who all had their individual personalities origins and storylines come together to form a pretty unstoppable team.  Although a lot can be said about the fight between Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, as well as the final battle for Manhattan, it was the fight between Hulk and Thor on the flight deck of the helicarrier which had every comic book fan staring wide eyed at the screen like a ten year old.  

#4 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I'm stunned this movie places so low on many other lists. I think this is one of the best spy movies I've ever seen.  Captain America trying to restart his life stumbles upon major corruption within SHEILD itself, and in the process discovers his long lost buddy from 70 years earlier.  The fight scenes are very well staged, the plot is tight and paced very well, and FREAKING ROBERT REDFORD!  This movie is one of my favorites.

#3 - Avengers: Infinity War

I'm not going to be the contrarian, the guy who screams "this is better than Endgame because of the tragic ending."  This movie is incredibly well paced considering the scope of all they are trying to bring together. Every battle scene is well coordinated, the plot is relatively complete, and the passion comes through in this movie.  Infinity War was crafted by people who loved comic books and wanted this to be an homage to everything great about them.  And yes, sometimes you lose.  I particularly LOVE the fight scene on Titan with Iron Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange and the remains of the Guardians of the Galaxy verses Thanos.  They actually won that fight!  Thor needs to stop beating himself up in Endgame because it really was Starlord who cost the universe everything!

#2 - Black Panther

This movie is just amazing from top to bottom. Chadwick Boseman is the perfect hero the world needs, Michael B. Jordon is the best villain since Loki, and the story is remarkably relevant today.  If you have a gift to share with the world, do you share it or do you force it on others?  Is the villain really wrong for wanting to avenge centuries of mistreatment by the rest of the world?  How do you make a film which does not ignore historic injustice while focusing on the brighter future we can all have together?  I'm a white guy.  I think it's irresponsible for me to talk authoritatively about the clear cultural relevance of this film to the Black community.  What I'll say is Black Panther completely destroyed the idea films with a majority black cast could not be massive blockbusters, and Black Panther is one of my favorite heroes.

#1 - Thor: Ragnarok

Yes I end this list as I began it, with Thor, but this movie if FAR more than just him. When they announced Ragnarok was coming to the big screen, I let out a huge ho-hum.  I remembered how disappointed I was in the last Thor film.  When saw Taika Waititi was picked to direct I said "well I guess no one else wanted to do it." Man was I wrong.

This movie is perfect.  From the beginning where he battles lava demons and a dragon to the sounds of Led Zeppelin, to the meeting with Doctor Strange, to meeting his sister (a stellar Cate Blanchett as Hela), to being cast out to the brightly colored garbage world of Sakar to meet Jeff FREAKING Goldblum (in top Goldblum form), to the arena battle with the Hulk, to forming the Revengers with Loki, and finally the battle on the Rainbow Bridge with Led Zeppelin back.  Unbelievable!  There isn't a wasted scene, line or cast member.  It's so visually pleasing it's hard to understand why it didn't win a lot of awards.  The Hulk/Thor arena fight is the battle we all wanted to see, and will go down as (in my opinion) the best action scene in all of Marvel.  This movie was so unexpected and fulfilling.  I still get shivers watching it today, for about the 40th time.  With this movie, Marvel could allow Iron Man and Captain America to leave, placing the future leadership of the Avengers onto Thor's capable shoulders.  Can't wait for Love and Thunder.

There you go!

Disagree if you like.  I'm not a know it all movie guy, just a fan.  You can watch most of these movies and have a good time.  Enjoy.

The Friday Link for 2/4/22

Howdy all!  This week I've been working on a really long post where I rank the movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  I jokingly thought I'd have that done on Tuesday after starting it Sunday night.  HA!

Some familiar faces in this week's Friday Link.

As much as Trump fans want to condemn the 2020 election as fraudulent, it wasn't.  Joe Biden won fair and square.  He did.  There have been over 80 lawsuits claiming fraud, but when it came time to produce the evidence, none of the Trump supporters had any.  Their argument was basically "give us the ballots and some privacy and we'll eventually find the corruption!"  Judges were not amused.  

For real fraud, not much tops the election of 1876.  That was a mess, and through the cheating, lies and backstabbing which eventually produced President Rutherford B. Hayes, the real victims were black southerners, who freedoms had become a lobbying chip for the two candidates who wanted to win. The History Guy has more.

Also tonight, let's check in with ZeFrank and his True Facts: Macaques!

I'm going to go watch the Olympics.  I promise the Marvel movie post tomorrow...maybe...

Get vaccinated, wear a mask, and social distance.  Thanks!