Captain America: Civil War is More Than a Slugfest

May 10, 2016 Captain Gearhead Leave a comment

In the Silver Age of comics, when Marvel became a serious competitor for DC, there was a distinct contrast in the storytelling styles of the two publishers, especially in the team titles (DC’s Justice League of America and Marvel’s Avengers, primarily). While DC spent most of its comic panels on plotting, Marvel’s approach was something more like: “Forget this silly script treatment–let’s have somebody fight!”

The “Marvel Misunderstanding” subplot became an inside joke with comic book readers–when there were no supervillains handy, excuses were dreamed up to have Marvel’s heroes duke it out with each other.

The difference between Marvel’s characters on the silver screen and in comic book pages is almost as drastic as the spy novels of Ian Fleming compared to the cinematic James Bond in the Roger Moore days. Still, we got a little “Marvel Misunderstanding” throwback in the first Avengers flick.

As the title of this movie (“Civil War”) suggests, most of the screen time is dedicated to fraternal conflict among Marvel’s big screen pantheon. But not due to a misunderstanding–because of a fundamental disagreement about “oversight.”

Collateral damage caused in the previous Marvel movies has caused various globalist interests to call for “hero control” (my term, thank-you).

Iron Man, at one point a free market capitalist hero, is now more of a corporatist bleeding heart who believes the answer is for the Avengers to be leashed by the United Nations. Now there is a brilliant quantum leap in logic: collateral damage caused by saving the planet from despotic monsters must be curbed by putting the good guys under the direct control of an organization with a horrific track record, run exclusively by unelected bureaucrats who don’t believe in representative government and are not accountable to any people anywhere in any way.

Introducing, in the red, white & blue corner: the Title Character! With him are Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Falcon and Ant Man, — Introducing, in the red, white & blue corner: the Title Character! With him are Scarlet Witch, Bucky (AKA the Winter Soldier), Hawkeye, Falcon and Ant Man,

On the other side is Captain America. He doesn’t spell it out like I did, but amazingly, he senses the danger in such an arrangement, that would make the problem they’re trying to solve even worse (which is pretty much the de facto purpose of the United Nations).

Interesting analyses can be drawn from this scenario. It can be a metaphor for the whole “gun control” struggle or, more broadly, the march toward police statehood, and the belated reaction to it by Americans who prefer to be free men, partly represented in the Trumpening. Again, it’s amazing how accurately Tony Stark and Steve Rogers represent their respective sides, considering Hollywood’s blatant myopic axe-grinding in every other movie touching on the subject.

Marvel’s done a great job with characterization and humor in their movies, and that continues here, even though this might be their most somber one yet. Suddenly there is a whole subplot regarding Stark’s parents which affects his frame of mind in this movie. Robert Downey Jr. pulls it off with his usual panache.

...And, in this corner...the Invincible Shellhead, with a record of one knockout, one not-so-bad sequel, and one idiotic swan song! Backing him up is Black Widow, Black Panther, the Vision... — …And, in this corner…the Invincible Iron Man, with a record of one knockout, one not-so-bad sequel, and one idiotic swan song! Backing him up is Black Widow, Black Panther, the Vision, and War Machine.

There’s a lot of character tweaking I found annoying, as a one-time comic afficionado. Of course, I quit reading comics as they became 100% SJW converged, so a lot has probably changed since then. Black Widow is about 20X more badass than in the comics I read, but she has been that way in all the movies, because vagina. It was cool to see Black Panther on the big screen, but he punches way above his weight here, too. But the most annoying is Spiderman.

Apparently the webslinger is getting yet another reboot. This time Peter Parker has a younger, attractive Aunt May, and is given his costume by Tony Stark who, somehow, has discovered his secret identity without ever having met him. Normally Spiderman would be the heavy hitter of all the heroes in this story (when the character was introduced by Stan Lee originally, only Thor, the Thing and the Hulk were stronger), but he is reduced mostly to comedy relief. The way he was brought in, and dismissed, makes him seem like just an afterthought in the script. Too bad, because the actor played him better than any other has, IMO.

spidermanshield — …With special guest cameo by Spiderman 3.1! Or is it Spiderman XP? Spiderman Vista?

Physical prowess is treated inconsistently in every superhero adaptation for big and small screen. Of course part of this is necessary to conform to the feminist aspect of The Narrative. Much of it is no doubt contrived to make scenes more dramatic. Then there is the star clout of Downey Jr., who frankly got more attention in this film than the title character did. Spiderman and Captain America are not played by actors worshipped to the degree he is; therefore the characters must be depicted as inferior to his, one way or the other.

In any case, most moviegoers don’t know much about the source material anyway, so this should be a fun diversion for a couple hours.

Military, SHTF

A Counter-Narrative Hits the Big Screen

May 9, 2016 Captain Gearhead 4 Comments

…On May 13 in select cities.

Not since John Milius filmed Red Dawn (the original) has Hollywood been slapped in the face like this. And while that cold war kiddie flick has aged poorly, and dealt with only the most superficial threat to America, this one digs much deeper.

Imagine this: In the not-so-distant future, a large-scale electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the U.S. energy grid wipes out all power in the country. Electronic devices cease to function. No more phones. No Internet. No TV. Credit cards become useless as the entire banking system grinds to a halt. Food, water and mere survival become every person’s primary concerns.

“Amerigeddon” depicts a dystopia in which the American government reacts to a debilitating EMP strike by declaring martial law and stripping Americans of their constitutional rights and their guns. And by the way, it was the U.S. government, in conjunction with the United Nations, that staged the EMP attack in the first place.

It was a plot that none of the studios wanted to touch, so Norris and Heavin independently produced and financed the movie. In an interview with WND, Norris called it “a film of passion” that he and Heavin very much wanted to share with the world.

“We just decided we’re going to do it ourselves,” said Norris, the son of legendary actor and WND exclusive columnist Chuck Norris. “We said we’ll go take it to the theaters in areas that we think people would gravitate toward a film like this, and [hopefully] it’s something that resonates with people that believe in the First Amendment, the Second Amendment; people that believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights – this is a movie that was created just for them.”

No kidding the studios didn’t want to touch a story like this. Their mission is to condition movie-going audiences to irrationally fear “right-wing extremists,” not seriously consider some of their concerns.

I don’t know for sure yet what kind of quality we’re looking at, here, in screenwriting, acting, etc., but it does seem to comprise some themes that need to be explored…all of it related to the fate of our country and the world, and how it will affect each of us–our lives, liberty, and property.

Those themes have been explored in indie fiction–including some published here at Virtual Pulp. But for people who haven’t opened a book since high school and never intend to, this movie could get them thinking. At least, I hope so.

Kudos to Norris and Heavin for the guts and commitment it took to put this on the big screen. Here is a list of theaters that will be showing it.

Non-Fiction/Documentary

The Culture War Heats Up

May 3, 2016 Machine Trooper 6 Comments

There is a surging groundswell in the grass roots of America. I’ve noticed it (I daresay I’ve been a part of it) for the last few years. It is pushing back against the left-wing cultural svengalis and their Narrative. It’s not huge or sensational (yet), but it is widespread.

Anti-war protestors in the 1960s had a saying that went something like this: “What if there was a war, but nobody showed up?” Well, I’ll tell you what happens when one side doesn’t show up: that side loses.

For generations centrists and everyone right-of-center simply have not shown up for the culture wars. Predictably, the leftists have blitzed right through battlefields of opinion and ideas unopposed–like the Red Army rolling through eastern Poland in 1939–so that their monopoly on the flow of information, including creative expression, was ironclad.

It took some irritated computer nerds to show us that the left is far from invincible.

In fact, #gamergate showed the world that the SJWs, feminists and Marxists (cultural and otherwise) are not only vulnerable, they’ve become arrogant from never being challenged for so long, and prove to be weak, inept cowards when confronted by a smart, determined opposition. They are beatable. Very much so.

But you have to actually show up to the fight if you’re going to beat them.

In greater and greater numbers, the right wing is finally showing up to fight in the war for the mind and soul of our posterity.

One of the armies joining battle now is the Conservative/Libertarian Fiction Alliance.

Looking for a good book to read, but tired of sucker punches and nihilistic misery when all you want to do is relax? You’re in luck … Behold! A gallery of conservative and libertarian-friendly fiction.

The CLFA has expanded from Facebook into their own website, and are compiling a wish-list library of books written by non-leftists (or at least sans the ubiquitous leftist Narrative rammed down our throat at every turn).

Books need not be political or moral message fiction; we’re mainly looking for good, entertaining stories that happen to embrace things we love, like individualism, self-reliance, the importance of liberty, and so on. Sometimes these books are even written by self-proclaimed leftist authors. But whatever – a good story is a good story!

Hoowah. At least one of my favorite books was written by an author who I later met, and it turned out we were quite at odds, politically. But by whatever arrangement of circumstances, he told a great story.

It’s nice to read a novel with a political slant that cuts against The Narrative. But often, it’s even nicer to read a book that’s apolitical–no message or counter-message; just a good story, told well. But even those are more and more difficult to find, so it pleases me that such books won’t be excluded from the CLFA gallery.

(BTW, have you ever noticed how right-wingers are open about their political biases, but left-wingers pretend to be impartial centrists and throw a fit when you call them out on their biases? Hmm…there’s at least one blog post in that curious state of things.)

CLFA’s gallery of fiction is in its infancy right now, but already it is proving to be as diverse as the right wing writ large. Authors run the gamut from “social libertarians” and “establishment conservatives” all the way to radical “religious right” rebels like me. You’ll find not only tradpubbed popular authors like Larry Correia and Andrew Klavan, but plenty of indie authors you’ve been missing out on until now.

The CLFA has also organized its own award. I believe this is the second year of said award. The finalists have been chosen for 2015 and voting begins in June to determine the winner.

WWII was the last time the USA fought a war with the intention of pursuing absolute victory. It wasn’t just the soldiers, sailors and marines committed to the war effort–the wives, children, parents, grandparents and 4Fs also did what they could. They bought War Bonds, collected cans, organized bake sales, wrote letters to GIs overseas, and fed them or danced with them when they came home.

If you are a reader, consider doing your part on the home front of the Culture War. When you’re looking for a good book, go somewhere like the CLFA first. (And buy using their links, to help them offset the cost of their website–and provide them incentive for the time and effort they put into doing this for us.) If you’re going to spend your “voting dollars” on a book anyway, why not vote for books written by authors who are fighting to take our culture back? When you discover a good read, don’t just finish it and go about your business–write a review and increase the book/author’s chances of being discovered by others who would appreciate it like you did. Then tell another reader about your discovery.

It’s natural to assume that documentary films and nonfiction books would be the most influential weapons in the culture war, but they’re not. Entertainment, in its various forms (fiction, movies, music, etc.) has been an enormous influence on how people think. Consider which political faction has dominated entertainment; then examine the state of our culture today. If that dominance isn’t challenged now, while it’s still possible, you are only going to get more of the same and worse…but to a greater degree.

The soldiers on our side in this war are marching to the sound of the guns. Your support would be dearly appreciated, down in the trenches.

Politics/Current Events

Let’s Give SJWs a Taste of Their Own “Logic”

April 29, 2016 Captain Gearhead 1 Comment

Everyone in North America is encouraged to be proud of whatever they are…UNLESS they are a white male heterosexual. And that’s kinda’ funny, because if you’re gonna subscribe to group/tribal identity, that particular demographic has a whole lot more bragging rights than any other.

All I can say to Bill Whittle is “Touche, bro!”

I don’t know why the video clip is cut off right where it is. If it had gone on for another second, you’d have seen the entitled female thought cop shoving her hand into the camera, blacking out the frame in classic Nazi fashion.

In actuality she was probably trying to grab the smartphone to destroy it or edit out the evidence of her behavior. The fact that the footage survived and was uploaded to Youtube means that one of the pantywaist millenials on the scene must have grown a pair and fended her off. Sadly, just the act of doing so ran the risk of arrest by the campus police–she would have made an accusation of assault or rape or similar when the owner of the device didn’t comply with her demands, and her victims would have been automatically assumed guilty.

If they didn’t have video evidence of what really happened.

Military, Socio-Sexual Studies

Warfighters, Patriots, and Masculinity

April 28, 2016 Machine Trooper 1 Comment

Quintus Curtius at ROK asks the question, “Why Does America Lack A ‘Warrior-Patriot’ Ethic?”

He answers this well into the article.

America has spent the past forty years shaming and denigrating that ethic by systematically removing masculine virtue from the public sphere.

Unfortunately, he only answers half of the question.

An observant, intelligent, and honest person won’t deny that true masculinity is villified at every turn in our increasingly toxic culture. This is pretty well documented in the manosphere. The post handles that aspect well. But what about the patriotic aspect?

Whether inside or outside warrior circles, American patriots today comprise a marginalized counterculture. Only in America are people who love their country demonized by the establishment, mainstream media, the education cartel, pop culture, and the average Joe.

We’ve learned contempt for the American republic from all the above, beating The Narrative into our heads everywhere we go, all our lives. Finding the information to overturn all this conditioning is still possible, and not yet even all that difficult…but few citizens of this country, including “conservatives” (whatever that means) ever do discover the antidote to the anti-American worldview.

The elites have not only poisoned and confused the warrior-patriot ethic, they’ve fundamentally transformed our armed forces into a hostile environment for warrior-patriots. And their social engineering plus ubiquitous propaganda has just about driven the American warrior-patriot to extinction.

Partially on-topic is this new clip from InfoWars. Alex Jones touches on how feminization is being used to destroy the effectiveness of the Armed Forces. He also touches on drones–to include replacing human ground troops with robots.

Non-Fiction/Documentary, Politics/Current Events

The Whitewashing of Bill Clinton is Complete

April 26, 2016 Machine Trooper Leave a comment

The alternative media first grew some teeth during the Clinton Administration. Nevertheless, cucks and even the “alt right” have been programmed to believe Slick Willie’s only (or worst) crime was his perjury concerning a blowjob he received from an intern in the Oval Office.

Before Hussein occupied the White House, American politics had never seen anyone as corrupt as the Clintons, or any politician who could get away scot-free with so many blatant abuses.

Putting aside, for the moment, the Clinton’s rap sheet from Arkansas, here are just a few items from Blythe’s legacy that have been censored out of recent history:

Trading military secrets to Red China in exchange for campaign contributions. This was high treason, period. But once caught, the Democrat and mainstream media (but I repeat myself) spin doctors deflected any scrutiny of the Teflon Traitor by concocting a narrative that the real problem was in rules about campaign donations. In impressive Hegelian fashion, they got “Campaign Finance Reform” codified into something more accurately known as “The Incumbent Protection Bill,” making it harder for grass roots voter movements to compete with the elites like George Soros; David Rockafeller, Warren Buffet, Henry Kissinger, et al.
Letting the Red Chinese raid the US Patent Office. Slave labor, suicidal (on the US side) trade policies and selective environmental policing weren’t enough of an advantage for the mass murderers in Beijing. They must also be allowed to steal the inventions and ideas of Americans with no redress of grievances.
Using the FBI to spy on, intimidate and silence his political opposition in Congress. This was a precedent, by the way. Think of how the IRS has been a tool Hussein uses to intimidate and silence his enemies in the electorate.
The immolation of men, women and children after using platoons of federal troops, helicopters and armored vehicles to lay siege to peaceful civilians. The siege began with a shoot first, knock later, “search” of a home and church based on a dubious warrant after previous attempts to entrap and incriminate the victims had all proven baseless.
The lame duck presidential pardon of multiple criminals whom the Clintons owed favors for committing perjury to shield the Clintons from criminal investigations.
The theft of furnishings from the White House upon leaving office.

These are just a few examples of the high crimes (though I guess the last one was really just a petty crime) and treason committed by the Teflon Traitor as president.

He also gets (and gladly accepts) credit for the economic recovery which began before the ’92 election, which his policies slowed down. Same thing with the “balanced budgets” and renewal of the recovery orchestrated by the “Contract With America” Congressional majority elected in 1994. He fought against them every step of the way, yet receives the credit for their accomplishments.

And in a coup of unprecedented proportions, Clinton’s allies on both sides of the aisle appointed as an “independent council” (to investigate Whitewater and his other scandals as Governor of Arkansas), leftist idealogue and closet Clintonista Ken Starr, lawyer to the middleman in the treasonous deal with the Red Chinese. Predictably, the “investigation” was just another layer of coverup.

Remember, the Chinese have been preparing for a war with us they believe is inevitable, and during these same years they threatened to nuke our west coast. Thanks to Clinton, that is no longer a laughable threat.

The Monica Lewinski scandal was and is just a smokescreen to hide Willie’s crimes against we the people–they used one of his minor scandals to distract us from all the major scandals. It’s sad how effective this strategy is, even on those who fancy themselves as red pill.

Crime, Reviews, Socio-Sexual Studies

Out of the Past

April 24, 2016 Captain Gearhead Leave a comment

There are several different ideas about what film noir is and isn’t, and you can hear a lot of them on youtube.

The best interpretation of the French term would probably be phrased “dark cinema” in English. Here are some of the requirements as I learned them:

Shot in black & white.
Dark, moody lighting.
Made in the postwar years.
Featuring a femme fatale.
A very cynical outlook.

(Wow–sounds like a genre custom made for the red pill manosphere.)

This classic masterpiece written by Daniel Mainwaring and directed by Jacques Tourneur fits the criteria pretty well. Whatever someone’s chosen definition of film noir, Out of the Past is universally accepted.

This movie has much in common with The Maltese Falcon–another classic masterpiece I highly recommend (and the most I’ve liked Humphry Bogart in any flick).

Jeff Marcum (Robert Mitchum) is a tough private detective who comes off smart, is never at a loss for words and seems to have rock solid frame control. You would assume him to be an alpha…until he meets Kathie (Jane Greer).

Mitchum Greer 1 — Historical day game–he thinks he’s acing it; but really he’s entangling himself in the web of a black widow.

He completely lets his frame crumble; places Kathie on a pedestal; falls for her lies and reverse game (I’ve never seen a reference in the manosphere to women using game…but they do, and here’s an example); double-crosses his client; flushes his career down the toilet; and ultimately has to go into hiding, assuming a new identity, after realizing he’s been used to help Kathie avoid the consequences of her thieving, murdering, deceptive behavior.

At the beginning of the film his name has already been changed to “Jeff Bailey” and he runs a gas station in a small town. He’s found another girl, too–a good one: honest, feminine, submissive…a keeper back then; a unicorn today.

Mitchum Greer — Behind every frustrated chump is a conniving woman.

Kirk Douglas plays Whit, who is ostensibly the villain of the story–but is he, really? He’s the one Kathie played for a chump before Jeff came along. He’s also the client that Jeff double-crossed because of her. One of his henchmen (for lack of a better term) just happened to drive through the small town one day and saw Jeff pumping gas.

Just like that, all Jeff’s sins and foolishness come out of the past to bite him hard, in the present.

The acting is solid all around, and the production values are just plain classy. Though it takes place in a bygone era (when you really could change identities and start a new life), I consider the story timeless. However, the plot skeleton was transposed into the 1980s for the movie Against All Odds, which is also a good watch.

Politics/Current Events

Is the “Alt Right” Truly the Only Alt(ernative)?

April 21, 2016 Captain Gearhead 2 Comments

Heartfelt thanks to The Social Pathologist, and his commenters, for putting my Cassandra Complex into remission. And thanks to Free Northerner for my discovery of The Social Pathologist.

(The Cassandra Complex shares space with my Elijah Complex. Thankfully both are in remission, now.)

Our domestic enemies are in the habit of framing our choices for us.

Every election our choices are narrowed down to Socialism vs. Socialism Lite. Anyone who is an actual alternative is destroyed, one way or another.

Our choices in entertainment are:

Women/homosexuals are superior to men intellectually (sitcoms).
Women/homosexuals are superior to men morally (dramas).
Women are superior to men physically (action-adventure).

And so on. Our choices regarding Vietnam were:

Continue pouring money and young men’s lives into a “police action” with no strategic objective, that ultimately works against America’s interests.
Pull out and ensure that the sacrifices already made were completely in vain (except for how they weakened America and strengthened our enemies).

Never, ever, was the option to fight a war with the intention of winning, and truly pursuing the stated goal: “halting the spread of Communism.”

(Nixon did actually bomb North Vietnam to the peace table, which only provided Congress the excuse to abandon South Vietnam when the Communists predictably broke the treaty.)

Nor has the option ever been “Let’s mind our own business and only sacrifice our fighting men in the defense of our country and its interests.” Not since 1917, anyway.

The actual left-right paradigm is quite different from what you were probably taught.

Now another choice has been framed for us:

There is the traditional “right” (a bunch of NeoCons and Rinos in the pockets of the same oligarchal scumbags who own the Democrats) who consistently (by pure coincidence, of course) lose every significant battle, even when controlling both the Executive and Legislative branches of US government. Plus the normalcy bias-afflicted status quo-worshipers; moderates; and coincidence theorists who vote for them because Fox News tells them anyone better is too radical. Both the office-holding surrender monkeys and their gullible voter base have recently been labeled “cuckservatives” or “cucks” for short.

And now there is the “Alt Right”–those who intentionally lump you together with the cucks if you value individual liberty and representative government higher than racial identity. In other words, the loudest voices in the “Alt Right” are both the mirror image of the goose-stepping collectivist SJWs on the left, and the caricature of a “right-winger” that those goose-stepping collectivist SJWs cling to as a vital component of The Narrative.

If you don’t want to join the hive mind of the left, then your choice is either to assimilate with the socialists in “conservative” drag (NeoCons, RINOs, cucksevatives, the GOPe, etc.); or to buy into white supremacy (also referred to as “Western Civilization” in the white tribalist blogosphere).

My greatest fear for the dissident right has always been capture by Stormfront entryists. Unfortunately, this seems to have come to pass with the successful influence of Stormfront types who have successfully (been) able to rebrand themselves as the alt-Right.

“Stormfront” is probably a good euphemism for these “Western Civilization!” screaming individuals who seem to be reading from a script written by Marxists who want there to be no reasonable alternatives. Evidently “1488” is another term for Neo-Nazis/white supremacists trying to contaminate us by association.

…(H)ow are they even “Right” at all? Pro abortion, Pro Homo, Eugenics, strong anti-capitalism, Anti Christian: how the hell are they even considered right at all?

How indeed? Well, I’ll tell you how. They are considered “right-wing” because we have allowed the left-wing to revise history and redefine what “left” and “right” mean…in addition to their Orwellian redefinitions of terms like “liberal,” “unemployment” and “budget cuts.”

Instead, you were probably taught that left-wing and right-wing are something similar to what's on this chart. — Instead, you were probably taught that left-wing and right-wing are something similar to what’s on this chart.

The “Alt Right” weltanschuang is simplistic, but with an increasing list of addendums. Basically, if you are not a superficial dolt (who can type big words in a comment thread occasionally) whose universe revolves entirely around skin color, then you are no different from the Boehners, Ryans, Bushes, Romneys, McCains, Doles, et al.

What separates the 1488-ers from the radical Left is the subject of race, not much else.

Ah, but skin color is not enough! We can’t forget about the sinister Jooooooooooooos! You may look white, but you’re not racially pure if you happen to be Semitic, and therefore are an enemy regardless of what you actually do, think or say, because WESTERN CIVILIZATION!!!!!!!!!!!

Doesn’t matter that the vast majority of the enemies of freedom are apostate Gentiles, they’ll keep searching for a Jew until they find one. They don’t even notice that the left hates Israel more than they do…

…Most of their reasoning begins and ends with, “Do you even Nazi, brah?”

I hadn’t heard of “NRx” prior to reading the post. But apparently Virtual Pulp is and has been “NRx” from the start, going by the implied definition in the linked post. Still, I would like to know what the letters stand for, before I start using the term.

NRx seemed to provide a space where intelligent ideas could be discussed freely and a rallying point for those intelligent but dissatisfied people of the right. However, with the infusion of the alt-Right, thought policing–admittedly of different kind–has returned with methods of the SJW, driving away the intelligent people.

…For the Left, this state of affairs is particularly fortuitous and sometimes you have to wonder if they bring out their alt-Right hitmen every now and then to discredit intelligent Rightists through guilt by association.

I’ve wondered this for a long time, actually.

As pointed out here, previously, the rising tide of white tribalism is fueled by the discrimination mandated and enforced by the “Social Justice” industry.

The real life discrimination against whites is seen as a sort of cosmic Karma for the sins of the past and so many leftists are prepared to accept some discrimination against the whites since they feel it’s a payback for the past. Of course, punishing someone for someone else’s sins is totally unjust, but intellectual consistency isn’t a feature of mob logic. I think quite a few “soft” righties are sympathetic to this view as well.

All this theater is summed up pretty well in this statement:

Nationalism does not have to be toxic. The alt-Right makes it so.

Politics/Current Events

The Trumpening is a Big “Up Yours” to the GOP (Democrat Lite) Establishment

April 20, 2016 Machine Trooper 1 Comment

Captain Capitalism nails it once in a while, as in paragraphs like these, aimed at the Lesser Evil Party:

You couldn’t protect the constitution if your wife’s loyalty depended upon it.

No matter what you say, no matter what politician you throw forth, you have lost 100% of the GENUINE, REAL republican American constituency, and we are now voting for anybody (and I mean ANYBODY) who isn’t a career politician and actually might make a change.

The key thing to understand (and I know that’s hard for you lazy, fat establishment types, not to mention baby boomers who are stuck in the Nixon era) is that no matter how much you HATE and LOATHE Trump, the American republicans HATE AND LOATHE you even more. They’re sick of your non-performance, they’re sick of your corruption, and they’re sick of you impotence and incompetence. They are so sick of you they’d rather vote for what is clearly an opportunist over your “best” candidate you present forward because he is at least “different.”

What he (and most Americans) miss is that the pattern of GOP betrayal is not due to well-intentioned buffoonery. It’s not because “Republican leadership” is incompetent. It’s not because they’re cowards (though they are). It’s not because they’re corrupt in a general sense (though they are). It’s because they are owned/controlled by the same foreign and domestic enemies who own/control the Democrats.

You are under the assumption that we the people are the boss, and our public servants are beholden to us (who pay their exorbitant salaries) who they allegedly represent. But they changed sides while you were napping. Their real job now is to sell us down the river, bleed us dry, all while pretending to be our hapless advocates who are just too consistently incompetent to ever win a significant victory or stop our leftward slide over the cliff.

It is also their job to sabotage and assassinate the character of any Republican who is not compromised like they are. This is why they fight harder against the Tea Party than against the Democrats. It’s also why some of them go on record admitting they will vote for Hillary if Trump wins the nomination. (Or, in some cases, if Cruz wins the nomination. )

Trump may prove to be just as corrupt (in a general sense) as they are. He may institute/accept/perpetuate disastrous, suicidal, anti-American policies just like they do. But the puppeteers can not allow somebody they don’t own/control to attain a position of such importance. Period.

You need to realize the problem is not with Trump, but that it is with you. YOU are the problem. YOU are the ones who failed. You are so corrupt, but more so, inept and cowardly that the real Americans would rather vote for a potty-mouthed, straight shooter, than any of the “Slop v. 3.0” you’re going to serve up this round.

This reminds me of how I once broke up with a girlfriend. She was absolutely convinced that it was because I must have found someone else. My response to her assumption was approximately this: “Don’t flatter yourself. The only woman to blame for me leaving you is you.”

Action, Reviews, Sports

Creed, Rocky, and the Warrior Spirit

April 19, 2016 Machine Trooper 3 Comments

Rocky did to boxing what The Fast and the Furious did to street racing and motorsports, unfortunately.

People who have never boxed, know nothing about boxing, and would probably never voluntarily watch a fight, have all seen at least one of the Rocky movies. And because of that (plus “boxercise” and similar fads) a whole lot of them think they know something about the sport.

But I’m not here to knock the Rocky movies or the mythos they built. How can you not appreciate an underdog who overcomes much adversity; who fights on when there’s no realistic hope of success; who beats astronomical odds to achieve the most preposterous victory, yet never stops being a humble, decent guy even when on top of the world?

The franchise is full of masculine and heroic themes that resonate with red-blooded Americans–especially young men. Certain scenes from the movies are universally remembered; and certain dialog has become household cliches.

Rocky I is probably the “best” of all the franchise. My personal favorite is Rocky III. And now, even in his advance years, Rocky Balboa is still appealing to our primordial masculine instincts–this time by taking the son of Apollo Creed under his wing. The old imparting wisdom to the young–a Biblical concept that is all but forgotten as every living generation has become increasingly selfish, foolish, and mercurial.

Adonis (“Donny”) Johnson is the byproduct of an extramarital affair Apollo Creed once had. Apollo died before Donny was born. Donny’s mother did about as good a job as the average single mother in the real world does: her son has been in trouble all his life–most likely on a road to drugs, violent crime and prison or premature death.

Settle down, ladies, because it’s a woman who steers him off that path. Apollo’s widow (the one he cheated on) takes Adonis in and becomes his mother, giving him the love he needs to turn him away from self-destruction. Now this is a female role model our culture needs to see more of, instead of the obligatory amazon superninja (or action hero with tits).

The old teaching the young--as it should be. — The old teaching the young–as it should be.

But no matter how saintly a mother figure may be, she can never fulfill the role of a father. A young man craves a positive father figure, and anyone who says different is pushing an agenda. Absent a father and lacking wise council to focus their masculine instincts, some boys will pursue a career in sports; some will join gangs; some will join the military; some will abandon masculinity altogether and become feminists, sodomites, or gender-bent freakshows.

Adonis Creed is consistently stupid through most of the film. He endangers his girlfriend’s career and reputation by attacking some headlining rap star for calling him “Baby Creed.” He loses his classic Mustang on a sucker’s bet that he can’t be hit by a fighter with much more experience than he has. One of the first and worst moments of stupidity is when, after just getting a promotion in a some white collar job presumably with career-to-retirement potential, he flushes it down the toilet (and breaks his adopted mother’s heart, incidentally) to pursue a professional boxing career.

I can relate to that bonehead move. As a young man I turned down all the military specialties that promised an easy life and skills which translate to civilian occupations…and insisted on the infantry.

Both me and Donny’s choices were idiotic from a strictly objective viewpoint. But, silly as it sounds to put it in words, boys and young men (especially those lacking a father figure) feel a strong compulsion to immerse themselves in a masculine milleu and reclaim their lost warrior heritage (if they had one; or to start one if they didn’t).

Some boxers have died as a result of a fight, but it’s pretty rare. According to the characters in the movie, though, it seems to be commonplace. Even a trainer at Apollo’s old gym refuses to let Adonis train there, for some unexplained reason. All the possible reasons are dubious, but the audience is left to assume it’s because the trainer just knows Creed Jr. will be hurt or killed if he laces on the gloves.

While I’m on the subject of silly crap, I might as well address the fight scenes. All cinematic fight scenes are full of overly dramatic choreography, and most of the ones in this movie are no exception. What makes it stand out worse here is that some scenes show an actor throwing fundamentally sound combinations…and then in the very next shot he’s sending Western Union roundhouse Hollywood haymakers, which is the first habit a competent trainer (at the amateur level, no less) will get you to break.

In one shot an actor will slip punches, bob and weave like he’s been schooled in the sweet science. In the next shot he’s just standing there waiting to get clocked by one of those aforementioned haymakers. There would be a lot of deaths in the sport if professional fighters routinely absorbed the kind of punches that get eaten in this movie (probably all the Rocky movies, truth be told). In the scene below, it looks like they just had the actors spar, and the result was so much more believable. The movie would have benefited from more scenes like this (and this is all one shot, BTW).

Also, once Rocky begins to train Donny, the kid quantum-leaps from raw brawler to contender level. Come-on now, Hollywood, give him some experience, first. At least some tune-up fights. Even if you have to reduce it to a montage. The overall film would be no less dramatic, and would be far more credible. You can save screen time by cutting out some of the window dressing–the romantic subplot, for instance. There’s not enough substance there to be meaningful, anyway.

And then there’s old Rocky. He’s even more likeable as a has-been than he was as a Cinderella Story. But while it’s hard not to like him, it’s also hard to respect a guy who is so easily, and frequently, persuaded to do things he is dead-set against. Either he doesn’t believe his own words when he says this or that is a bad idea; or he is too weak-minded to follow his convictions. Either way, this is not the kind of man you want to be.

Like any other flick in the Rocky franchise, Creed is not a great movie for a boxing fan. But it is a memorable (perhaps even inspirational) myth for the Everyman.

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Red-Blooded American Men Examine Pop-Culture and the World