Chinese Cheese

I reckon I should follow my music post with a movie post. But, as always at this time of year, I'm a bit peeved at the motion picture academy for stiffing my favourites at the Oscars. I liked "Green Book" but both "A Star is Born" and "Vice" were better in my humble opinion. But maybe therein lies the rub. My opinion of movies may just be too humble. So it will likely be movies with which you are unfamiliar of which I write today. This could be a good or bad thing depending on your personality. And I do not write for the average reader. My ideal reader is one who is daring, adventurous and unafraid to expose him/herself to an unknown movie, song, or conspiracy theory from time to time. So strap yourself in. If you have the time, this may send you on a lengthy Youtube binge or even a hunt for some obscure titles to illegally download and watch. If so, I will consider this post a success.

As a university-going young man in Thunder Bay, Ontario back in the late 80's and early 90's, I remember looking forward to late, late Tuesday night TBT (Thunder Bay Television) programming for two reasons: Benny Hill and Kung Fu Theatre. I still can't tell you which I liked better, the naughty (for his time, BAWDY) antics of the great English comic that ranged from clever witticism to cheap sideboob shots and slapstick, or the very same story re-told by a thousand Chinese filmmakers of a young boy losing his family to an evil villain, vowing revenge and dedicating his life to it and at the 2-hour point of the movie dramatically succeeding. Probably the latter for the simple reason that it was thoroughly unintentional comedy.

I was a young and virile man. Staying up till 2 AM hoping to catch a glimpse of one of Benny's Beauties' boobs was well worth a bleary-eyed 8:30 AM class the next morning. But it wasn't just that. He was always funny and sometimes (dare I say it?) ingenious especially with his songs, rhymes and acrobatic manipulation of the English language... if the acrobat were a busty, young tart in T-bar and pasties. One of my favourite sketches was the one where he substituted the "S" with the sound of "F," which was the way the old "S" looked on a very old typewriter. I've searched high and low for that one but can't find it. However, it was a common theme on the benny hill show. There's one poem written on a typewriter without an "H" and here's one with the "P" and "F" substituted. It's so pucking punny I nearly feed my fants when I heard it!

However, there's nothing quite as funny as something that is absolutely hilarious while trying to be serious. The entire canon of Kung Fu Theatre must have boasted over a thousand titles and even at that I defy you to find two movies that don't have at least ONE of the same actors. Many have almost ALL the same actors. And I use that term loosely... OVERactors might be more accurate. Like the plots and the performers, the settings rarely changed. There was always some connection to the heroic Shao Ling Temple. Even the sound effects. All exactly the same. The punches, kicks and especially the falls. The falling sound was the one from the Pink Panther cartoons. Check it out! See if I'm wrong! The super-heroic fighting scenes with ordinary people catching arrows and swords, flying through trees, leaping over buildings, I honestly am not so sure even THESE were not meant to be taken literally! And the dialogue, while it may well have been Shakespearian in Chinese, it was uproariously simple, full of amateurish profanity, grunts, unconvincing laughter... well there's nothing worse than analyzing comedy, why don't I show you? See if you can make it through this clip without laughing.

And in French? LMAO! Oui, oui!

Those were the days, eh? But Benny Hill is no longer with us. As for the movies in China, well up until very recently, they were just as crappy in my opinion. "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" was nominated for 10 Oscars and won a bunch but the plot was identical and you still had the super-heroic flying through trees. The actors were slightly better and the dialogue had improved, but this seemed a little too much attention for a movie that was pure cheese. I think maybe the Academy saw its shot to seem inclusive of Asian movies. "Damn you! Your crouching tiger is superior to my white crane kung fu. And your enchanted sword must have been forged from pure Shao Ling steel! Bastard! I am defeated! ha ha ha ha ha..." Thank goodness for "Gladiator" or it would have won more awards!

However, it's been almost 20 years and even Xi Jin Ping has gotten behind the motion picture industry in China. Surely they've come up with better movies by now! 2017's "Wolf Warrior II" is the highest grossing movie in Chinese box office history. Let's see how the Chinese movie has evolved. Here's a plot summary of their best movie:

After the events of Wolf Warrior, Leng Feng and members of his special-ops team bring his comrade's remains back to his home town and his comrade's family for his funeral, only to see it on the verge of being torn down completely. A real estate company is pulling down his house and that of his comrade's family during the funeral. The boss of the real estate company confronts them with a gun and sneers at them for presenting the remains to the family, only for the boss to be kicked to the ground. The boss calls on his henchmen to attack them but they are all swiftly disabled by Feng and the other soldiers. Police arrive shortly after and ask Leng Feng to put down the gun he confiscated from the boss. The boss gets back up and boasts that he will "make the family wish they were dead", enraging Feng to a point that he kicks the boss in the stomach, sending him crashing onto the windshield of a police car and killing him. Leng Feng is sent to a military prison for two years and discharged from the Chinese army.

After release from prison, Feng leaves for Africa, planning to wander for the rest of his life. While serving as a mercenary providing security on a freighter delivering relief supplies to Africa, he foils an attempted hijacking by Somalian pirates by defeating them in hand-to-hand combat underwater. The freighter arrives safely at its destination. For three years Feng has been carrying a bullet which he found, a clue to the kidnapping of his fiancée, Lieutenant Colonel Long Xiaoyun, that happened while she was on a mission.

Feng and some locals are partying on a beach one day when they are attacked by rebel forces aiming to overthrow the government of the African nation. Shortly after the arrival of the Rebels and mercenaries who overrun the government troops, the Chinese fleet arrives to evacuate Chinese nationals caught up in the civil war. While on board, a Chinese shop owner that he helped rescue tells him that the bullet he is carrying belongs to European mercenaries who are helping the rebels. After overhearing guards talking about needing someone to rescue workers at a factory and a VIP, Dr. Chen, who is developing the vaccine for Lamanla, a deadly endemic disease, Leng Feng volunteers. However, he is on his own as no other personnel can follow him while they are on foreign soil without permission from the Chinese military's higher authorities. He travels to the hospital, 60 kilometres away from the dock and enters the hospital building just as Dr Chen is accidentally killed by the mercenaries led by Big Daddy, a ruthless American warrior. With his dying breaths Dr Chen tells him to take his daughter, an African girl named Pasha. Leng Feng and Pasha, along with a female volunteer doctor Rachel Smith, escape the grip of the mercenaries. While escaping, he cuts his hand in a pile of Lamanla infected bodies but shakes it off and moves on. They continue their mission of saving Chinese as Leng Feng also goes to save his godson’s mother, who's working in the Hanbound factory.

Upon arriving at the Hanbound factory, Feng is confronted by security and the factory's owner's son, Zhou Yifan, a cocky fuerdai who is also an army fanatic. Big Daddy's mercenaries attack the factory to capture Pasha, thinking she is the one who has the cure for Lamanla. At the factory, Feng tells everyone that the Chinese fleet will be sending a helicopter to rescue them. The women and children will evacuate via helicopter and everyone else will walk to the fleet. Feng with his old pal and Yifan saved the factory crew members from the red scarf members and deadly mercenaries. Feng is about to be overrun when Big Daddy, the other mercenaries and rebels are ordered to fall back. The leader tells Big Daddy that no Chinese can die because he needs China when he is in power, since China is part of the United Nations Security Council. Big Daddy kills the leader of the rebellion and takes over as leader. He orders everyone to go back to the factory to retrieve Pasha and kill Feng. In the factory, Feng chooses to leave as the factory workers learn of his infection with Lamanla. He is injected with a serum for the virus and learns from Rachel that Dr Chen has manufactured a cure using infected patients that survived and developed immunity, and Pasha, who is in fact one of Dr. Chen’s patient rather than his daughter, is the only subject carrying the immunity.

Big Daddy and the others arrive at the factory to capture Pasha and kill Feng. They round up the workers and wait for the Chinese helicopter to arrive. Feng arrives with Rachel and Pasha to rescue everyone trapped in the factory. The workers are saved and the helicopter arrives. Pasha and Rachel leave via helicopter, but it is shot down. The battle continues with everyone taking cover. Seeing the massive casualties taking place, the Chinese fleet fire missiles taking out the tanks. Meanwhile, in the battle while confronting Big Daddy, Feng learns that the bullet which killed his fiancée belonged to Big Daddy and, driven by rage over his fiancée's death, kills Big Daddy and saves all the crew members by taking them to UN camps.

So no change. I am sure this movie is an unintentional comedy. I haven't yet seen it, but I found it on YouTube. It might not have English dubbing or subtitles though. Rats! This would be hilarious with some bad dubbing I'm sure! What I think I'd find even more comical is what many critics, including the Chinese, are calling, "muscular nationalism," and other similar terms. Because the Chinese government exerts its control on movies (along with everything else) there has to be an element of propaganda in the films and it's laid on quite thick in this movie according to the reviews I've read. Now, it's not very different from the steady diet of "only-America-can-save-the-world" movies Hollywood has provided for years. Just cornier. So I'm guessing it'll be Kung Fu Theatre of the new millennium.

But now that I've ripped on one of the modern Chinese movies you may actually get an opportunity to see, I have to say I am intrigued by another. Here's a synopsis of the movie that includes references to some other movies you might want to check out. The movie is called, "The Wandering Earth," and it's a film adaptation of the Chinese Sci-Fi author, Liu Cixin's book by the same name. THIS guy is interesting! I think I'm going to have to go out and get "The Three-Body Problem," another of his books that is slated to be made into a movie soon.

The story of "The Wandering Earth" still includes a lot of "only-China-can-save-the-world," but it sounds like it might not be the same old Chinese movie! Hooray! In case you didn't click the link, it's about Chinese scientists in the year 2070 I think, with some help from other countries' scientists (but not America's in case you were wondering) figuring out how to build giant engines that propel the earth away from the burning out sun, out of the gravitational pull of Jupiter and into a safe, new solar system. I read that in the book (but not the movie) the absence of the U.S. is explained. You see, they had a private plan to build space ships and bring people to another planet but, as you might expect (and what would undoubtedly happen in America (and if we're being honest, in China too, just not in a government sanctioned book or movie)) only the rich were allowed to go. And this created well deserved chaos in the U.S. China, on the other hand, being the righteous country it is, chose to use its superior technology and minds to help save EVERYBODY. Yes, there's a chance that this schlocky storyline might be just as hilarious as the director's "English" name, Frant Gwo, which isn't even as good as "Big Daddy," the villain's name from Wolf Warrior II. On the other hand, I'm going to give it a try. I'll be as objective as possible, but if I laugh, I laugh. I still think it'll be good entertainment.


Epilogue: After writing this post I found Wolf Warrior II on YouTube with English subtitles and was able to make it all the way through. WOW! Just WOW! Possibly the worst movie I've ever watched. So bad it WAS funny. It was not just hooray for China (and they really DID bludgeon you with THAT blunt instrument right up to the superhero strapping the flag to his injured arm and driving into an African war zone where the Chinese are welcomed as friends, not fired upon) but it was a political and economic "Choo Choo Choose Me" to Africa from China. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that EVERY country is falling all over each other to court Africa, who are predicted to be the next China as far as economic booms. It has even been called, "China's China." Totally shameless! But good for a laugh for sure! And they made it obvious at the end that there is going to be a Wolf Warrior III too! Can't wait!

I'll Never Remember You This Way

Just a light blog post this time with a few of my latest musings. I've been singing songs from the soundtrack of "A Star is Born" non stop lately and think it might be the first album/tape/CD I'd buy, if I had the technology to play it, in about 15 years! I'm not kidding! After spending every spare dollar on music, (and recording off the radio all I could), for most of my youth, I haven't been interested enough in music for the past two decades to really purchase any of it. But recently I've been making compilations in my head. Some I'm sure are not original. But who knows? Maybe I'll inspire someone to create them. Like, wouldn't it be great to make an album of all the great songs made by people who are actors PLAYING musicians in movies? This compilation was inspired by the recent version of "A Star is Born," although I might include Barbara Streisand's song from her version of the movie, "Evergreen," and if you actually watch that movie, there are a some spectacular lyrics to her songs. I have to say her voice makes those songs a bit better than they actually are, but the lyrics alone, without tune, I find a lot more powerful.

I was warned as a child of thirteen
Not to act too strong
Try to look like you belong but don't push girl
Save your time and trouble
Don't misbehave
I was raised in a "no you don't world"
Overrun with rules
Memorize your lines and move as directed
That's an age old story
Everybody knows that's a worn out song
But you and I are changing that tune
We're learning new rhythms from the woman
I said the woman in the moon
Little sister, little brother
Keep on pushin'
Don't believe a word about
Things you heard about
Askin' too much too soon

'cause they can hold back the tide
But they can never hold the woman in the moon
I believe there's a best of both worlds
Mixing old and new
Recognizing change is seldom expected
As I long suspected
They believed that strange was a word for wrong
Well not in my song
'cause you, you and I are changing that tune
We're learning new rhythms from that woman in the moon
Little sister, little brother
Keep on pushin'
Don't believe a word about
Things you heard about
Askin' too much too soon
'cause they can hold back the tide
But they can never hold the woman
I said the woman in the moon

But then, is she a musician acting, an actor musicianing, or what? I'm not gonna make that call. Not qualified.

But back to the OTHER version of the movie, the latest one, that has about 5 songs I'd put on my album, we all know "Shallow," and people fell silent and left theatres all over the world sloppy with tears after "I'll Never Love Again," but my personal favourite from the movie is what I will force you to watch and listen to now: "I'll Always Remember Us This Way."

I love that! But then again, you can't beat the lyrics to the Bradley Cooper song we never get to hear all the way through. It's called "Maybe It's Time." And just soak up these lyrics!

Maybe it's time to let the old ways die
Maybe it's time to let the old ways die
It takes a lot to change a man
Hell, it takes a lot to try
Maybe it's time to let the old ways die

Nobody knows what awaits for the dead
Nobody knows what awaits for the dead
Some folks just believe in the things they've heard
And the things they read
Nobody knows what awaits for the dead

I'm glad I can't go back to where I came from
I'm glad those days are gone, gone for good
But if I could take spirits from my past and bring' 'em here
You know I would, you know I would

Nobody speaks to God these days
Nobody speaks to God these days
I'd like to think he's looking down and laughing at our ways
Nobody speaks to God these days

When I was a child they tried to fool me
Said the…

When I was a child they tried to fool me
Said the worldly man was lost and that the hell was real
Well, I've seen hell in Reno
And this world's one big ol' Catherine wheel
Spinnin' still

Maybe it's time to let the old ways die
Maybe it's time to let the old ways die
It takes a lot to change your plans
Hella drain to change your mind
Maybe it's time to let the old ways die
Oh, maybe it's time to let the old ways die

God is looking down and laughing at our ways. Yeah while he gets a big ball of clay ready to start all over again. That's brilliant! A Catherine wheel, I've heard, is a torture device for breaking the victim's bones one at a time very painfully. Well, like the word, "torture" would imply. And I can't tell you how many times I've doubted Hell and thought that this is it and Heaven must be death, our euthanasia.

Another good one, or in keeping with our genre, "good 'un" would be "Fallin' and Flyin'" from the soundtrack of  "Crazy Heart." It IS funny how fallin' feels like flyin' for a little while. I reckon old Trump will underconstubulate shortly!

I'd include a few from the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" like Tim Curry singing "Sweet Transvestite," and, of course, "Time Warp." It's astounding!

I'm going to exclude Prince and "Purple Rain" cuz it would just clog up the album. There are WAY too many! And Prince was NO actor! He cheated. So did David Bowie in all his singing parts. They were excellent, of course, but what'd you expect?

Probably Kate Winslet "What if?" from the "Christmas Carol" soundtrack. She's got the best rack, the best sense of humour, the best voice, it's just not fair to the rest of womankind!

Definitely the highlight of the unpopular movie, "The Cable Guy" was Jim Carrey singing the Jefferson Airplane!

Maybe one from Joaquin and Reese as Johnny and June Carter Cash...

Nick Cage? Okay, maybe not. But honourable mention for impersonating Elvis in "Wild at Heart."

I think I'd pretty much reserve the entire B side for Jaimie Foxx doing all his Ray Charles songs! Loved Ray Charles and loved JF in that movie! Nuff said. Moving on...

Maybe Hugh Laurie, (House), singing "Minnie the Moocher," or something like that. He's GOOD!

Definitely Bruce Willis if not for his singing at least for his harp playin'!

"Man of Constant Sorrow" by the Soggy Bottom Boys is a must!

You know who else is good? Cedric Diggery! Okay, most of you losers know him from his Twilight fame, but I'm so sick of vampire crap! This guy's voice though! He's like an old guy with the blues in a young man's body! Check HIM out! Plays about 100 instruments too!

Kevin Spacey can sing almost as well as he can do impressions. If you haven't seen him do either, you're missing out! I'd just lob him requests from my catalogue of faves and see which one he does the best. Then I'd put it on the album.

I'm gonna put Jack Black in here and I'm sure that won't surprise you but it won't be for a song he sings. It'll be for his NON-singing performance of Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine." That was from the movie, "High Fidelity." Also catch his rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" in that same flick.

I think I put a Susan Sarandon (don't forget she was in Rocky Horror too) song on the album but I'm sure this is now a double album.

But okay, you've lasted this long, how about one out of left field? Someone you'd never expect. Someone you've probably heard of, (oh I think so), but would grab the mike out of his hand if he got on the stage for a relative's birthday Karaoke party. Oh yeah, brace yourselves. Jackie Chan was educated at the Peking (that's modern day Beijing) Opera School, and has released TWENTY successful albums! The things you learn when you live in China for a while!

No, I was just kidding. He's the last person I'd put on this list. Can't carry a tune in a bucket.

Ancient Chinese secret! And imagine how many times he's been Kung Fu chopped in the vocal chords! RESPECT!

I am sure I've forgotten a few so I'll leave space at the bottom of this post. But it's quite a list, no? Please comment if you feel I need to add to it.

2030 Vision

It's been a long week, but I've been formulating something new in my head. The various components aren't new but they're fitting together into something new and actually positive. I mean ACTUAL positive, not the kind of faux positive I've talked about here before. (see past post called "Living Life to Its Least). To give an example of the mental defense mechanisms many of us have developed to fake ourselves into believing we're positive, here's the kind of settling I see Americans doing all the time: How many, and I include myself in this, saw the photo or vid of Trump hugging the American flag and thought, "Well AT LEAST he didn't grab it by the pussy."

We know Trump doesn't care about the majority of Americans. He can't even come close to relating to them. And the majority of the people who are attracted by positions of leadership are from the clueless class. To give a great example:

Those audience members only got to come back for Ellen's 12 Days of Giveaways shows because Ellen is nice, she's a real person who did not grow up rich and she probably doesn't want to be president. Why not? I mean seriously! Can you think of a president who would be better? If Gates were left to his own unbelievable grocery obliviousness, those audience members woulda got jack-o-diddly! They are lucky Ellen has a spirit of giving. Where'd she get that? From growing up broke. People who grow up rich are separated from regular people their whole lives and are socialized to think of them as inferior. Other than a little noblesse oblige here and there, all us regular folk experience from the rich is a spirit of taking. That's how they get rich. We are customers to them. Consumers. Chattel for their businesses. And we are kept well beyond arms length so they think nothing of screwing us over for an extra buck because they don't know us.

Now you might be saying, "Hold on there Dave, Bill Gates gives more to charity than anybody!" I'm not going to say that's all his wife Melinda, but it could be. Actually, I think Bill might be starting to enjoy the feeling he gets from sharing his wealth. And good for him! But even his billions in philanthropy aren't really coming close to what he should be paying in taxes. But not to belittle the wonderful wave of rich people becoming charitable, here's a list of pretty good  American billionaires. They're out there. I mean, they didn't have to give ANYthing. So, kudos to them! Really! But again, if things were the way they should be, if we had Ellen as POTUS, not Whacka-cheese-doodle Trump, these guys would all be paying their fair shares of taxes and wouldn't NEED to be charitable. Also, their taxes would go to a fairly transparent, regulated, non-corrupt government that would spend them properly.

SIGH! Seems like a dream, doesn't it? If this were the case, even Joe Wallmart worker would own his house that has a two-car garage and a swimming pool. This isn't as big a pipedream as some people would have you believe. The people who would have us believe this ARE the people in charge of most countries, banks and businesses in the world today. Most, but not all. There are some places where they do things right. And if we don't hurry up and follow their leads, we're all going to be swamped by the age of automation. It's coming folks, and countries like Canada, the U.S., China, and many others, are being run by small groups of people who want to force automation onto the public without paying us for it.

That's a bit of a confusing statement so let me cite a couple of things I've found in my research that help explain it. Some I've taught of and blogged about before, but some I haven't. In 2013 Oxford University did a study that published the scary statement that 47% of all U.S. jobs are at risk of automation. They studied 702 occupations, what they reckon worked out to about 97% of all jobs in the U.S., and found that the jobs most at risk were repetitive, low skill, replicatable through machine learning. A LOT of the jobs we're focusing on with the new and crappy math/science-heavy education systems in North America. The jobs that are safest? The ones that require creativity and social intelligence. Now I bet you wish you didn't allow your kids' schools to eliminate art, P.E., literature, music and languages, don't you? I remember when this disastrous trend began in Canada and I really hated it. Do you think this was done innocently? I'll come back to that.

Certainly there will be new jobs that take the place of old jobs. Remember when bank machines came out? People thought they stole tellers' jobs. Actually tellers just expanded their duties. (I still don't think we should have to pay to use them though!) This will happen for some. And others will need to retrain. But it's gonna suck for a 40-year-old truck driver being replaced by a self-driving vehicle to go back to school and become a social worker. Especially with the present state of education nowadays in which schools, like governments, are run like corporations and care less about good education than money.

I know this is still sounding really negative, but hang in there. Here comes the hope. Sorta... In 1930, John Maynard Keynes, maybe the best known economist ever, wrote a letter to the people of 2030 that he called his grandchildren. In it he predicted (in the midst of the depression!) an economic output of 8 times what there was in 1930. While that has proven to be very likely (we're over half way there already) he also, naturally, assumed we'd all be rich. Also, and this is the huge snag in his fortune telling, Keynes figured people would be down to about a 15-hour week. Yeah. While still rich. And producing way more. Old Keynes made one massive error in expecting humanity to follow the social path of working together in brotherhood and recognizing the greed for money as what it is: a "disgusting morbidity." He didn't think chrematistics would dominate world commerce. He foresaw capitalism as an ugly, temporary, but necessary stage in human development in which a generation or two work hard to make an easier future for our kids. By now we should be concentrating our time and efforts on more noble pursuits in the development of humanity. And we could be. SHOULD be! If not for just a few people.

Whether you agree with me and Keynesy or not, and whether you agree with that Oxford study or not, automation is coming and it's going to be a very, very, very, very hard thing to ask our employers if they would kindly give us more money for working fewer hours in exchange for this automation. But that is exactly what needs to happen. The days of increasing wealth and working our arses off are over! We've EARNED automation! It really should not be something to fear, rather, it would be welcomed in a proper society. But our societies teach us that robots are stealing our jobs. I don't like using the damn self-checkout at the grocery store or the friggin' slow, malfunctioning automated order boards at fast food restaurants. I honestly want to rip them all out of the floor and run them over with a truck. And we all really should think that way because Safeway, McDonald's, Burger King, THEY didn't buy those things, WE did. If they want our permission to use the automation, they need to pay us more and lower our workweeks.

Remember when Trump promised millions in tax credits to the Carrier company and promised new jobs? Then they just screwed the workers, cut jobs and bought machines to replace them? This sort of shit happens ALL THE TIME! So instead of giving us easier lives in which we will have the time to spend our wealth, machines will make it harder to find work and people will actually become LESS wealthy. Because of the unsustainability of capitalist greed as a way of life.

But, okay, let's finally get to the good part. I promised positivity and I will deliver. There really IS a way to get the social development that we need to happen concurrently with automation. And it doesn't require violent protests, strikes, or even government overhauls, though we might see them. As mentioned, there ARE some countries already preparing for automation. They're making their 2030's brighter than Canada or the U.S. will experience. And they're starting with (well DUH) education.

I have difficulty watching this next video without shedding a tear. It's like paradise right here on earth! Where is it? Finland!

 

 

Here's a link just in case.

It's the longest video I've tried to put on this blog before so it might not work, but it describes how Finland has cut the average school time for kids to a few hours a day. Some days they don't go at all. And they study useful things. They have fun. The best part and the very first step every country needs to take is Finland has no private schools. They're illegal. This way rich kids go to the same schools as poor kids. Although there are no "poor" kids, just kids who are not as rich. Rich families want their kids to get the best education like every country in the world, so the rich families make sure the public schools are the best. Financing is not a problem. Finnish kids have almost no homework and more time after school to develop socially. With their friends. Friends from school. Rich and not as rich kids become friends. So when someone becomes a banker or politician or CEO and he/she has an opportunity to screw somebody over, it's going to be a friend. So probably not as easy. You wanna know how everybody in Norway got rich off their oil? The government charged the drillers high tax rates and actually gave the money to the people. This is how that happens, folks! It doesn't happen in the socially maladapted cultures of the U.S. and Canada and we both have way more oil than Norway.

Finland and some other countries who are properly progressing are used to short work days and short work weeks in schools and workplaces. Any skeptics might see this as the hole in the system. Au contraire mes amis. It has been studied to the hilt and ignored way past the hilt and all the way down the handle of the sword, that in school as well as on the job, people are just not productive working 8 hour days and 40 hour weeks. So if you think Finnish students or workers lag behind, you'd be wrong. They get more done by studying and working less.

People pay taxes because the taxation is fair. The rich have no problem paying high taxes because they are helping friends and their own kids by making their country better as we've seen in the example of the schools. Everybody's lives are just better. Any country who tries these things will have the same results. And they know it. But they choose not to let us enjoy our lives like the Scandinavians.

We have countries in which the separation of haves and have-nots is just increasing. This increases the competitiveness of the people. Strangers are seen as competitors and enemies, not as friends and brothers. Computers and machines are viewed as job-stealers instead of conveniences and quality of life improvements. Mistrust leads to violence, stress and overworked/underpaid, shitty lives. And our governments, banks and rich people make sure our schools suck and our jobs suck. They keep things this way on purpose.

Maybe this could partly explain the intriguing "Hitchbot" experiment.

Here's what happens to some robots in America. It appears 2030 is farther away in some countries than others. Unless you want to end up like Hitchbot, let's eliminate private schools. That's where we need to start. I am the result of the good school system Canada used to have and has eliminated, otherwise I might not know this. Time to turn that around. All over the world. Because things are getting way out of hand and 2030 is coming fast.

2020 Vision

You know what I love? People who talk about something they hate after asking, "You know what I love?" I love watching and listening to people trying to make a legitimate statement about extreme feminism, "Me Too" run amok, or reverse sexual discrimination without appearing to think that any of those things actually exist in the world. It's not exclusively, but mostly men I'm talking about. Men who are afraid of women. You know what else I love? That dude's hat. Here's an example I stumbled upon:

 

People apologizing for having Sanders speak at a women's march weren't doing so because he's not a feminist, he is, not because his policies don't help women, they do, not because he isn't popular among women voters, he is, not because he would say anything bad about women, he didn't, it was because the mob were (as the speaker describes them) butthurt that he ran against Hillary in 2016. Despite the fact that there were 2 of 42 speakers with penii at this rally, Bernie was viewed by some as the lead speaker, presumably because he was the most famous. Hardly grounds for apology. The announcer actually comes harrowingly close to saying what we all know he means when he says that objections to Bernie speaking were based entirely on... (genitalia?) false pretenses.

The one possibly valid reason for feminists being upset or requiring an apology for Bernie Sanders speaking at a feminist rally would be the idea that his popularity and inexplicable failure to win the fixed Democratic candidacy race for the 2016 election, indirectly (and understandably) led to disenfranchised voters, which partially, along with cheating, stupidity and Russian shenanigans, eventually led to the worst president in history. The ralliers then being referred to as "Clintonistas" might make more sense. What doesn't make sense, to me, is how anyone can view it in this popular way with absolutely nobody being offended. Hell they can have rallies! "Bernie cost us our female president!" That's fine for them to say. But if I were to write here about the possibility of extreme feminism having prevented Bernie Sanders from becoming the Democratic nominee for the 2016 election and eventually the president, people would eat me alive, wouldn't they? I'd be called a woman-hater, misogynist, conspiracy theorist and such. But with Bernie and, (who knows?), maybe Hillary running again for Dem leadership for the 2020 election, I am seeing and reading more people who are tip-toeing about the edges, but never quite saying exactly that.

Analogously, it's fine to say, "It's about time for a woman to be president," while it'd be political suicide to say that you'd prefer a man. How to end a political career 101. But saying you want a new kind of bush in the Whitehouse (hardy har har) would GET you votes! Unless you were a man, then it'd be sexual misconduct.

I think with the way the whole country was feeling the Bern in 2016, he would have steamrolled Trump and become one of the best presidents ever. And I don't even think it was the majority of feminists who fixed the Democratic leadership vote, they supported him. Even at Hillary's alma mater. If you get a chance, watch Michael Moore's newest, "Fahrenheit 11/9" and go to about the 45 minute mark and you will see Democrat reps at the DNC in 2016 lying about the results of their leadership election. LYING! But even Moore doesn't quite say the female alliance went over the line! In the fucked up system that we all mistake as democracy nowadays when elections can be decided beforehand with whatever the hell "SUPERcandidates" are, lying wins. Sanders destroyed Hillary and he would have slam-dunked Trump. And now America'd be talking about building infrastructure, not border walls; healthcare for all not some; tax breaks for tax payers not rich tax dodgers; but instead they have this bozo screwing 99.9% of the country to build his corporate profile. But a few people (not all women but mostly) being emotional and not cerebral, singing Helen Reddy in their heads and doing their part for the sistahs, tears in their eyes or rolling down their cheeks, said, "Vagina power!"

I'm the asshole for wondering about that? But it's fine and dandy for people to get butthurt about Bernie speaking at a feminist rally because either he cost them their first first man or just because he is a man? Well that's just about as unfair as the male-dominated society feminists are meant to be fighting against!

The whole thing was a travesty! Even Elizabeth Warren said the DNC was fixed! Of course she semi, but never fully, retracted the statement. Of course she did! She's running for president in 2020 so will need to win her party's nomination in the same way Hillary did. (meaning by becoming the Dem's rep, not by just being a chick) She can't very well be on record as saying it's rigged. By the time the damn thing happened Bernie was so far ahead of Hillary in every poll and in the minds of the American people that it HAD to be rigged. He was going to revolutionize the system. Hillary was a moderate. Not an inspiring word. Even SNL knew what should have happened! Bernie was the golden goose, Hillary was some chicken that'll do. Although they DID say that if Bernie won, he wouldn't have beaten Trump. I think he would have done much better than Hillary although, silly me, there I go again thinking elections aren't rigged. Then there's talk of Hillary's super PAC and maybe the rich donors her and Bill had so many of tilted the DNC in her favour.... Maybe it was money, but I think it's more likely that it was a little bit Too Me Too.

Yeah, I know, I hate women. I should be sent to sensitivity training. I'm a terrible human being. Sue me, but I just think in any election people should be voted on for what they will do to help their countries, not their sex. I differ from Madeleine Albright who said there's a special place in hell for women who don't support women in elections. Or Gloria Steinem who said, about the 2016 election, that the boys were all with Bernie inferring that the girls should all be with Hillary. They were both backin' their bitch in 2016. But do you know who was against this kind of voting? Hillary Clinton. Or at least she said that.

Cue the mealy mouthing. I like the Me Too movement and I believe in equality between the sexes. But like unions, politics and super powers, with great power comes great responsibility. Nobody's super because of their power. They're superheroes or supervillains based on how they wield it. It has to be tempered with wise regulation. And with the ferociousness of the women's movement, it is often apparent (at least to me) that they have very few regulators. Most people are too scared of them! So in a little way (like my usual "AT LEAST" type of thinking) I can view this whole situation as a bit poetic. The absolute reality that if you have more votes than your opponent and lose is the opposite of democracy and it might be how Hillary won the Dem leadership in 2016. But it makes it possible to say, "Well at least she lost the presidency the same way."

I guess the question is, will powerful feminists learn from this monumental mistake if it really was just a big girls' club that shot itself in the foot? Bernie's running again. Will girls vote for girls because they're girls? Will a better girl come along? I like Liz Warren. But I don't think she'd be half the president Bernie would. Will the U.S. suffer another winner who doesn't get into office? Will they finally realize that their system is why they suffer these tragedies?

It might be another interesting election next year... The fireworks are already beginning. Get ready for some "organic virality," or in the jargon of old farts like me, "mud slinging."

No Country Has a Monopoly on Corruption

The location of the Kim/Trump summit has been announced! But I don't think the building of lasting peace will be all they talk about building when they meet at the end of this month in Hanoi. A whirlwind of thoughts come up in my noggin when I think of this dog and pony show. And you can choose which is which for yourself. I guess they begin, oddly enough, with Iran and China and Canada and... well let me splain...

I was worried that maybe the Iran sanctions that were violated by the Huawei Princess, Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, were the new ones imposed unilaterally by Heir Shtroomphmeister after he heroically (in his mind) withdrew from the international Iran sanctions, but, nope, she violated the international ones. The ones that are working. Not the ones Trump fabricated to actually punish the other countries (the allies of the U.S.) who have imposed sanctions to discourage nuclearization in Iran. Trump says he's all about denuclearization in North Korea, but as I have written of here before, I think Dumby's just jonesin' to build golf courses, condos and hotels he can use with his pony pal Putin for some future top secret North Korean bro-downs. And when he proudly stated that he withdrew from the international sanctions on Iran, which are working to curb Iran's nuclear aspirations, during the state of the union address, (and received ignorant and dutiful applause), he neglected to mention the new sanctions he imposed on his allies to punish their punishment of Iran. And when he went on to take some credit for getting North Korea to the brink of denuclearization with ostensibly the same efforts he is penalizing in his allies, he was again applauded, but we know he doesn't give a shit about that sort of thing. Don't we?

But to get off Trump, (that's what she was paid not to say), who always finds his way into my posts these days, Skycom and Huawei are linked. Meng Wanzhou used to actually be on the board of directors at Skycom. So vacating the seat may have some mitigating effect on the up to 30 year sentence she could face for fraudulently helping Skycom deal with Iran, it does not indicate full separation between Huawei and Skycom. Indeed, it may just have been part of a plan to create an appearance of separation. So the proper thing for Canada to do in this situation would be to extradite her to the U.S. and allow her to face trial. I think she'll get a slap on the wrist and a fine that won't hurt her at all. She won't get 30 years in prison. I'd be surprised to see her get any prison time. What is more likely is that she'll be used by the U.S. as a pawn in the trade war with China. Something like, if you allow North Korea to continue building the hotel/casino across the Yalu River from Dandung (with some Trumped up financing of course) we will go easy on Sabrina Meng Wanzhou. By the way, notice in that article China's oh-so-ingenious (and pretty much their only) political tactic of saying, "Do what we want, or else." The U.S. might be powerful enough to get away with giving them a big (or in Trump's case maybe not so big) middle finger, but all North Korea and Canada seem to get is the "or else."

The Canadian quandary is that doing what they HAVE to do might just result in the execution of one of its citizens. That's something Canada does not believe in. China knows we have an extradition treaty with the U.S. that we can't break, and we know how China behaves in cases such as these. They don't give a crap. It gives me shivers when I think of stories like this one. Kevin and Julia Garratt, two Canadians who had spent 30 years in China teaching ESL and eventually opening up a coffee shop, were suddenly (and completely without grounds (pun apology)) arrested as spies in retaliation for Canada's arrest and extradition of an ACTUAL Chinese spy who had stolen American military fighter jet plans. These unsuspecting, innocent Canadians were the victims of a Chinese "or else." Can you imagine going through what they did? And at the end of it all they still maintained a love for their adopted country of China. Because, although you should know by now, I hate China, when I say "China," I am talking about the few people who run that shit show over there. Most of the regular people are not so detestable. Some are actually nice.

If you recall, I was threatened with publication of fake charges against me when I chose not to allow my employers to cheat me while I was in Taiyuan. Their offer had a familiar ring to it: "Give us what we want, or else." This Garratt story from (Hey what do you know, Dandung! See how this all ties together nicely?) could have been mine! It could happen to ANY foreigner living in any city in China. The Great Wall is not a national symbol that has diminished in its message over the years. Rather, it has become like the wall along the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms that keeps the Wildlings out. I wonder if Trump is a UGE fan of Game of Thrones because of that beautiful wall... China hasn't "opened up" economically to mix with the other countries of the world, it has done so to screw us all. Yet we continue to do business and stick our national economic digits deeper into the Chinese finger cuffs...

Now I don't believe Bob Schellenberg to be innocent like the Garratts, or me, so maybe China is improving a little???, but, he's gonna get punished when Canada does the right thing. China likes punishing people for doing the right thing. It's a pattern. They also like encouraging people to do the wrong thing at their own peril. Ask former ambassador to China, John McCallum. He'd been over in China for a year, long enough to learn how "corruption" isn't a strong enough word for what goes on there. You don't last even that long without learning how to play the game. And you don't get fired for just saying, "It would be great if the extradition request was dropped." He was probably wheeling and dealing with Huawei to bring their baby home and it bit him in the arse. I wouldn't be surprised if he was offered money to take her side in the media and put pressure on his own country to have her released, but I WOULD be surprised to find out about it. We'll probably just have to speculate.

Having said all of this, the U.S. anti-corruption laws, well, they're sorta corrupt. It seems to many like they are selectively enforced against company officials who may be beating Americans to the corruption punch. The story of Fredirick Pierucci of Alstom is a good example. To sum it up, the French company Alsom was doing a deal in Indonesia and their rep there, Pierucci, took advantage of the "well-oiled" system of corruption in the country which greases local officials to promote your company. It was a 118 million dollar deal. But before Alsom could perpetrate its corruption, G.E. wanted to buy the company and profit from the same corruption. So the ANTI-corruption America-Fuck-Yeah task force sprung into action. They arrested Pierucci and tsk-tsked Alsom for its abominable business practices and got the CEO, Patrick Kron, to talk up the G.E. deal, which was eventually accepted juuuuuust before Perucci was released from American prison and Kron received a 7.5 million dollar bonus for the G.E. deal. There's, of course, no proof that that's exactly what happened, but that's exactly what happened.

So the question needs to be asked (and this may have been where John McCallum was going) what U.S. rivals of Huawei are at this very moment scrambling to buy Skycom Tech (a Hong Kong company) or merge with them and take advantage of the very same "illegal" dealings with Iran? Are there any? We know that the Senate Intelligence Committee has been advised against using Huawei products. Whether they just want to ensure U.S. data collection takes priority over Chinese data collection in the world's smartphones is unknown but it wouldn't surprise me. What WOULD surprise me is finding out about it.

Remember ZTE? The Chinese telecom company that was accused of violating N. Korean and Iranian sanctions? Three months of U.S. sanctions against that company weakened it so much that it was on the verge of collapse. But wait a sec, Trump is good buddies with Kim Jong Un now and he has punished the people who are punishing Iran. What happened to ZTE again? Oh yeah, I remember now. Ivanka Trump got some business from China and ba-da-bing, ZTE sanctions were lifted. The corruption was magically forgiven, or unmagically just replaced with other corruption.

In the end, I would not be surprised if Meng Wanzhou is returned to China after some U.S. company can broker a similar deal in Iran that she was arrested for making. Canada, as always, will get little or nothing from the U.S. for their part in the corruption and will be punished by China for it. And China will have to look for some more illegal deals that they can make without the U.S. finding out about them and stealing them. But I will be surprised if I hear about all of this in the news.

Just a bunch of rich, guilty, (and oh they are guilty!), criminal scumbags playing real life Monopoly with the lives and resources that belong to the rest of the world. Meng Wanzhou had to go to jail, go indirectly to jail. She did not pass Go and did not pick up her 200 billion dollars. But with a lucky roll of the dice, perhaps in Hanoi, or if China can produce another get outta jail free card like the Ivanka Trump deal, she'll be back in the game.

So, in the next summit between Trump and Kim, do you REALLY think they'll be talking about nuclear disarmament when they have SO much more on their agendas?

Livin' Life To Its Least

I watch a lot of movies. Recently I was watching a great one, "Absence of Malice," and there was a funeral. Paul Newman's character's best friend committed suicide because Sally Field's character printed a story about her that included the unnecessary detail that she (the best friend) had had an abortion. She worked for a Catholic School so she didn't want that information leaked. Anyhoo, watch the movie, it's a good one. At the funeral the preacher says, "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." It's John 12:25 and it is now my favourite verse. It's a dark verse but it kinda gives me hope in the way that so many people always try to do when they say to me, "Well, at least...blah blah blah."

I think that Bible verse is the ultimate "Well at least." Melinda Dillon didn't win the Oscar for her performance in the movie, but at least she got nominated. Teresa, in a memorable scene, sits on the doorstep early in the morning nervously smoking and waiting for the newspaper. When it comes, she reads it and starts collecting all the newspapers in her neighbourhood. The audience can pretty much guess what will happen next and sure enough she got into the tub and cut her wrist with a razor blade. Paul Newman's character, Michael, later comments while roughing up Sally Field's character, Meg, and tearing her blouse, something to the effect of at least she didn't make a mess.

That scene is tough to watch. I can only imagine how tough it is to watch for the Me Too generation of feminists. But hey, at least he didn't rape her.

Do you see? I was asked what I did on the weekend last Monday. I said that I had planned on going for a hike up our local Seolbong mountain but the air was so dirty that day I stayed home. The person I was smalltalking with knew I had lived in China and responded with, "At least the Korean air is better than the air in China." While, yes, that is the case, it somehow didn't make up for the fact that hiking here can now be, on the whole, BAD for a person. In every corner of Korea I have lived I've always found a nice place to hike. It hasn't been difficult because Koreans, at least MY generation of them, absolutely love putting on their long socks, grabbing their TWO shillelaghs and trekking out into the wilderness. Or at least up their local hills with exercise equipment along the trails. To be fair, sometimes the younger generation can be seen on the trails text-hiking. At least they're getting some fresh air. Well, sometimes. Maybe that's what they're all texting about instead of enjoying the natural beauty of Korea.

Speaking of natural beauty in Korea, remember back last summer when President Trump visited North Korea? It could have been the first legitimately good thing he had done as president, so, of course, his supporters were blowing it wildly out of proportion and calling for a Nobel Peace Prize before it even happened. Trump was spouting some political rhetoric too about how he would stop at nothing less than total nuclear disarmament. At least for the North Koreans...

Some of my students were asking if I thought he'd negotiate peace between the Koreas. I said I didn't think so. I said that maybe peace between North and South Korea would be better left to the leaders of North and South Korea. Then, as I recall, the first public statement Trump made during his visit included a comment about how beautiful a country it is. At least, what beauty means to Donald Trump. He said the beaches would be great for condos and hotels. And I think golf courses were mentioned. I've also read that Trump and Kim have talked about casinos. Trump Towers Pyeongyang?

In the end there was no nuclear disarmament at all, but at least the Rocket Man and the Dotard found a new love for each other and they probably did some business negotiation. I find myself saying this an awful lot but why would anyone expect anything else from Trump? There will be another summit next month. Possibly in Viet Nam? I wouldn't hold my breath for any denuclearization, but I hear golf is hot in Viet Nam right now, so at least maybe Trump can get in on some of that action.

How else does this...

turn so quickly into this?

I work here in Korea at SKhynix. Well, not FOR, but at least AT SKhynix. I am actually employed by a company called Carrot. This time of year is Lunar New Year and everybody here gets Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday off. Well, at least SKhynix workers do. Carrot workers only get three days off. I have one student who is actually getting me to teach him a make-up class, or at least a replacement class ("make-up class" makes me sound like I'll be teaching the fine art of cosmetic application) on the fourth day of the holidays. At least none of the others are.

The SKhynix company had another record year of profits last year and for a Lunar New Year bonus employees were offered 1700% of their monthly pay. That's one year and five months of pay as a bonus! AND THE UNION REJECTED THE OFFER!!! Well at least we don't have a union at Carrot rejecting our Lunar New Year's bonuses. We all got a coffee mug and some coffee.

Security has been really beefed up around here! We used to have internet in the office and mandatory office hours, but now almost every site has been blocked. The teachers here were informed that we were contracted for 30 hours a week. I have 20 hours of teaching. We were told that during office hours when we're not teaching we still had to go to the office. I start every day but one at 7:30. The end of the office day is 4:30. So that was going to work out to over 40 hours of classroom and office hours for me. And that's before we start our NIGHT classes...

I was a bit worried that I'd have to argue with my supervisor over this. Even if Carrot agreed to only 10 hours of mandatory office hours a week I was going to ask what I was supposed to do in the office with no internet. I can't plan lessons. But they changed the policy! YAY! At least I don't have to waste time trying to look like I'm working in the office. It'll now just be a good old fashioned staff room where we drink coffee, socialize and complain about our students. I have always been more comfortable planning my lessons at home in my gotch drinkin' a beer and listening to a hockey game or some tunes anyway. Can't do any of that in the office. So at least there's that.

And speaking of movies... smooth segue... since I watch a lot of them and since the Academy Awards is coming up in February, I have watched almost all the movies that are up for awards this year. And I will give you my summation right now. I used to be good at predicting the Grammy Awards but have always been crap at predicting the Oscars. At least I'm gonna try.

Best Picture Nominees: “Black Panther” “BlacKkKlansman” “Bohemian Rhapsody” “The Favourite” “Green Book” “Roma” “A Star Is Born” “Vice"

Black Panther: I did not say this, Trevor Noah did, so don't blame me: The academy is so worried about voting for too many white pictures, they chose TWO with "BLACK" in their names! Black Panther won't win for best picture. I'm so tired of superhero movies I may be biased here. When I was young, my first favourite comic hero was Spiderman, but my last favourite was Black Panther. And much like the movie, I liked the comic for its aesthetics. It's not the best story and not the best superhero movie but it'll probably win for cinematography or some category like that.

BlackkKlansman: This had promise. Spike Lee is good at comedy. This had great comic potential! When a black man is calling David Duke and talking with a filthy, racist mouth in the precinct and every other cop goes silent and stares, you are hooked! Then they send a white guy to pose as the black guy, but he's a JEW! And this is all based on a true story? You got yourself academy potential. Then Spike Lee did what he's been doing too much in my opinion: he started preaching. It ruined the movie.

The Green Book: I jump straight to this movie because it sent the identical message of BlackkKlansman by showing, not preaching. A better movie. I can't decide if this is my second or third favourite of the season. Number one is a cinch.

Bohemian Rhapsody: Loved Queen's music growing up and loved this movie. It had inconsistencies and the teeth were distractingly overdone, but neither took away from the great story of Queen. It was not considered academy award material but the acting was. On the strength of that it may have been nominated but I think it's good enough to win. It's the kind of movie I traditionally vote for and some other movie wins.

The Favourite: This looks like the kind of movie that used to get all the Oscars while I was voting for another movie to win. British court scandalously portrayed in all its squalor. Including (gasp) homosexuality, excess, immorality, deceit, swearing, sex and gout. And not even in iambic pentameter. The villainy was good but not even close to the best. We'll get to that.

Roma: I liked this but I would understand anyone who didn't. It was boring for I think about an hour. I almost stopped watching and I like slow burning movies. It didn't help that there was a long scene with a dude's junk flopping around and not a single boob! But I think the boredom was the point of the first half. Then the life of the main character is filled with an onslaught of action that seems by contrast even more dramatic. I'm sure it will win best foreign pic, but not best pic. Now that I've said that....

A Star is Born: I was very impressed by this movie and I don't like romances. The forward nature of the "courting" is something I guess only a fella like Bradley Cooper could get away with. Cringeworthy and stalkerish to us mere mortals. But that was not what I liked about it. It says a lot about this movie that I hated the romance in a romance but still thought this movie was going to win a fistful of Oscars! Until I saw "Vice."

Vice: This movie has everything! Both Christian Bale and Sam Rockwell could win Oscars for this. Well, let me just say the absolute LOCK of this year is Christian Bale as best actor! If he doesn't win I quit watching movies. He became Dick Cheney and is lucky this wasn't live theater or he would have been hated as much as Cheney and maybe even assassinated. I always thought of Cheney as a worthless worm of a war profiteer but this movie actually made me hate him more! Just the idea that there is a man on this planet who said, "I apologize profusely to Dick Cheney for being carelessly shot in the face by him," tells you all you need to know. This movie tells you more! It's juicy! Vice Vice Baby! Best picture of the year almost certainly!

Best actor: Rami and Viggo are two names I enjoy and they were both awesome, but they should have made their movies another year. No question - Christian Bale

Best actress: If you get a chance, watch "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" I think Melissa McCarthy is absolutely hilarious but she played a crotchety old bitch spectacularly! She had a couple of funny lines in the movie but was outstandingly detestable otherwise. But I have to give the nod to a spellbinding performance in a sappy remake of a movie I thought I would hate. I am gaga for Lady Gaga in "A Star is Born!" I think she deserves the gold.

Best supporting actor: This is really a three-way tie with a dark horse candidate that could go any way. The closest call of the major categories. I thought Sam Rockwell was almost as believable as Bush as Bale was as Cheney. Sam Elliot was great as the disapproving but loyal brother of a fading hero in "A Star is Born." Because of his role as the Stranger in "Lebowski," I was uncomfortable with him cussin' so durn much, but he gets a pass. Richard E. Grant was a horribly good friend to his fraudulent but talented benefactress. I didn't know whether he was a roguish queen or a pathetic, thieving bum. But I liked him. He's the dark horse since his movie was not nominated for best pic. If Mahershala Ali really did play the piano in his role as Dr. Don Shirley, then I think this Oscar should go to him. Otherwise flip a coin.

Best supporting actress: This one is as much of a slam dunk as best actor, only it's not. It is because the winner will be from "The Favourite," but it's not because it could be either Emma Stone or Rachel Weisz. I dunno… was I happy or not at who Queen Anne eventually chose as her favourite? This one is like an election - who was worse? That'll be the one who wins.

Best Director: I don't know Adam McKay but the way "Vice" was made, the direction of the incredible actors, the style - supoib! I think "Vice" could dominate this year's Oscars. But then again I am usually wrong.

Watch these movies and see if you agree. If you can't watch them, at least you can read this.

Now, I should add that this could be taken as a very dark post. This is not a suicide letter. I'm not depressed. I don't hate my life and look forward to dying. I think the least is something I need to think about more. I think that is a sign of basic human kindness and humility. I said recently I wish just once I could say, "At MOST... blah blah blah." I was being a bit selfish. I am destined to live life to the least and I am just going to have to learn to find joy in it. It's a very Buddhist philosophy to take joy in one's suffering. It's also a Princess Bridist philosophy: "Life IS pain, Highness! Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something." And, of course, back to the Bible, "As you have done it unto one of the least of these brethren, ye have done it unto me." Those are the words of Jesus.

The same Jesus that Huckasand reckons wanted Trump to be president. Either she is, as always, lying for her boss, or Jesus (technically God) must be very disappointed in His choice! Trump has done two years of presidenting to help himself and the rich of his country who could be called the MOST of these. If Trump ever had his ass in a pew, as his former pastor says he hadn't, shows of godliness and religious fakery notwithstanding, he might have heard of this portion of the good book and what Jesus says to the people, like Trump, who have opportunity to help the "least" and don't. In case you're wondering where to find that Trump absolutely does NOT have the support of the Lord, it's in Matthew 25. At least that's my interpretation.

Money Doesn't Grow on Trees

I apologize to my avid reader (s) but I have been busy writing many thousands of dollars worth of lessons for my employer that probably netted me a grand after all was said and done. And it's kept me busy along with the holiday season from the middle of December till now. So I haven't been able to post.

But now, back to the regular grind and armed with a fresh freelancedness, I am going to blog. But what about? It occurs to me that I have not exhausted the supply of topics I was allotted for the year 2018! So it is with great rejoicing that I unpack the fresh list of stale topics that I will re-varnish for the new year! Today's topic will have a familiar ring of novelty to it, no doubt.

I've recently been reading Aristophanes. No kidding. I read in spurts. I go a few months hardly reading anything, then I suddenly read a book in a couple of days. I re-re-read Slaughterhouse Five, so I will most likely allude to that classic before this post is dead. So it goes...

But back to Aristophanes, this is something I plucked from the pages of a Penguin Classic reprint of stuff he was writing 400 years before Christ for crying out loud:

Oh bee that so often in search of more honey
Alights upon flowers all teeming with money,
I wish that as fast as you suck the cash up
You would puke it all out so the People could sup.

This was taken from his play, "The Knights," which is a political satire, which most comedies of the era had to be. So he's not talking about bees. This COULD more accurately be applied to a PEE, (Pee OTIS (the nickname a favourite witticist of mine gave to Trump after the hookers and the peeing and the paying and the glavin...)). A description of the early Greek dribble, trickle, chuckle down effect I suppose. The political "trickle-down effect" was given 2500 years or so to marinate before the US republicans re-subjected the People to it and it shouldn't be long before it is rightfully abandoned, mocked and satirized all over again. Despite the support Trump still manages to get for his efforts to keep it on life support.

It puts me in mind of a book I recently read called Slaughterhouse Five. (ALREADY two references!) Failed sci-fi author of the book, Kilgore Trout, who I wish wasn't fictional, wrote about a money tree to which people flocked and fought to the death in order to harvest it's "leaves." The dead bodies of the unsuccessful proved to be excellent fertilizer for the money tree.

I'm not so sure my work here qualifies as a good example of the trickle-down effect since I write the lessons and I teach them as well. My employer doesn't do much I couldn't easily and in most cases more efficiently do myself but they get almost all the money for it. So maybe I AM the money tree or the money flower. I think I'd choose to be the tree. At least I'd get the nourishing entertainment of seeing the greedy murdered. A few would steal my leaves, but many MANY more would suffer ghastly deaths at my roots. So I'd have that goin' for me.

Not to Trumpishly flog a dying horse like he's been cropping the reverse Robin Hood political strategy, but there was an interesting theory put forward in a book I recently read in two days called Slaughterhouse Five. Let me give a direct quote:

"American inward blame for being poor is a treasure for their rich who do less for their poor than any other ruling class."

Since it was written before the explosion of Chinese capitalism, we can forgive its inaccuracy. The Chinese have left America in the dust in this regard. But could this be the mental anguish, the clinical pathology, the psychosis that leads to such abhorrent behaviour in our world? More to my point today, could social shame heaped so high on the poor (and accolades, respect and reverence so lavished upon the rich) be the impetus (impeti?) behind individual efforts to rise or stay out of poverty even if it requires outlandishly poor life decisions?

Why don't we examine some recent examples of such life decisions?

Maybe the best would be this joker:

Robert Lloyd Schellenberg thought, "I know how to make my fortune - drugs in China!" "Zero drug toleration policy China!"  Now he's getting the death penalty. The illegal drug trade hadn't been working for him in Canada. 11 times convicted and twice incarcerated for drug charges, the Canadian cops were onto him. "In China," he may have thought, "they probably aren't such buzz kills." He might have heard about making meth for thousands in China and selling it for millions in some nearby, first world country like, for instance, Australia. Or maybe he went for some other reason. He didn't seem to have put much thought into the actual transfer of the meth... two hundred and twenty fucking two kilos of it... out of the country and then into another. My understanding is he and some "translator" friends were trying to hide it in tires? Well one of them actually did some translating. He understood that narking on his cohorts translated into NOT getting the death penalty for himself. So they all got busted and Schellenberg was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $22,000 fine.

Now even if his lawyer was into the Baijiu the night before, he would have recognized that this is about the lightest sentence he could have possibly hoped for. Do the time and shut your mouth would be a wise counsel's advice. But maybe his lawyer was Rudi Giuliani because nobody advised him against appealing. So he did. This was not just a bad life decision, it could end up being a life-ending choice.

Because the daughter of King Huawei the Irritable of China is not subject to the same laws as regular old Bob Schellenberg, China will kill this guy rather than allow Princess Huawei's highly revered and respected (and filthy rich) ass to touch the defendant's chair of any American courtroom.

I am going to ask you something impossible, but do your best: Try to imagine this story from the point of view of the average Chinese person. A Canadian, and I mean ANY Canadian, is considered rich by a huge majority of Chinese people. To give you some idea, I'll share an absolutely hilarious stat that is probably roundly accepted in China: Xi Jin Ping's yearly salary is, coincidentally, $22,000. While that may truthfully be what he declares on his tax forms, ain't no way Emperor for Life Xi is slummin' outside the bills! By "bills" I mean billions. But I bet there are many Chinese who believe he makes 22 grand a year because that's WAY more than they pull down.

Schellenberg had worked in the Alberta oil patch so the 22 grand was probably paid immediately. Plus when you consider how much it would cost, even in China, to produce 222 kilos of meth... not to mention the tires... this dude is outlandishly wealthy to the dollar-a-day workers of China. 2420 yuan a month works out to $11.86 a day folks. That's minimum wage. And the Chinese don't work our luxurious 8-hour days. Like most stats from China, it's hugely exaggerated in favour of China. There are still a lot of people (in the country where you'd be a bad businessman to pay minimum wage) making a dollar a day, not a dollar an hour. China has tons of money, but it's nowhere near a rich country yet.

Their money is all concentrated in a few bank accounts, and the people who have Huawei-type money are god-like in the eyes of the average Chinese person. Even Schellenberg is rich! A billion people probably found out about this story and said, "If only I had the resources to cook up 222 kg. of meth, then I'd show society I'm not the mangy dog they think I am!" "Why, by selling 222 kg. of meth I'll kill people and destroy lives but I'll get mad respect like Sabrina Meng Wanzhou. I might even get married and have 20 kids."

Strangely enough, Schellenberg, who is super rich in China, was probably thinking, "By selling the 222 kg. of meth I cooked up I'll kill people and destroy lives, but I'll get mad respect like Sabrina Meng Wanzhou. I might even get laid." Yes, even in Canada there are still a lot of the if-yer-not-rich-yer-not-trying-hard-enough people loads of whom did NOT get rich by trying hard. And for some reason, I think because they're rich, people still give a rat's ass what these patrician shitheads think. So people like Schellenberg get down on themselves, even in Canada, and make insane mistakes because they are desperate to escape the ignominy of poverty or at least what they perceive as such. He should have had me for his lawyer! If there's any place they'd go for the "inward blame" defence, surely it'd be China!

Now just think of how much more intense the depression and desperation of poverty is in really poor countries! And now, imagine the exponentially worse situation in China.

In response to the mysterious arrests of a Canadian diplomat and businessman and this kangaroo court that swiftly (and without even viewing new evidence in the case I've heard) issued the death penalty to Schellenberg, Justin Trudeau issued a travel warning for Canadians in China to beware of their arbitrarily enforced (or not enforced) laws. I can tell you from personal experience that this warning is long overdue. But it appears the arbitrary nature of what laws some corrupt individuals choose to enforce or ignore at their pleasure extends into internationally agreed upon restrictions as well.

Meng Wanzhou was arrested for violating international sanctions against Iran. She lied to some banks. I'm sure she'll get a fine that amounts to chump change for her and be on her way back to China if she ever ends up being tried for her crime. But what about this guy:

Dr. He Jiankui decided that internationally imposed laws against genetic editing, the fact that the process he used, known as CRISPR, is nowhere even close to fully tested, and it's Franken-dangerous, were not reasons enough to stop him from doing what he knew to be unethical and wrong. Now, there may be some who believe his removal of the CCR5 gene, which is a doorway for the HIV virus to find its way into the human genome, could be considered a humanitarian or even moral crime. Considering the father of the twins, Lulu and Nana, had the virus, and the parents gave permission, was this some kind of a genetic mercy killing? ((and very parenthetically, since the killing of a human is homicide, and the killing of a baby is infanticide, then is the killing of the CCR5 gene to be considered genocide?))

I briefly gave that some thought, but then my cynical mind wandered into the astronomical. I calculated how much a parent with any disease, virus or negative trait that is transferable to their child, who wanted a healthy child like all parents do, would pay to the one known man in the WHOLE WORLD who has the ability to ensure their baby's health. CHA CHING! (that will be the name of the OTHER Frankenbaby Dr. He hath wrought)

Now Dr. He is not a poor Chinese, dollar-a-day guy. He's a doctor. And he said his secret work was all personally funded. But he's not super rich and he was, until now, totally unknown in his field. Whether legit or not, he can certainly make a piles of money now! And was his motivation to escape the mediocrity of the unexceptionally rich? He certainly wouldn't be considered poor in China, and surely as a doctor he got respect, but nowhere NEAR the idol worship an underground designer baby business could get you! Not to mention the Niagara Falls of cash that would wipe away any inward blame he might have felt for not measuring up on some scale of wealth.

Anyway, it's getting close to bed time for me so I have to wrap this up abruptly. My final word on the matter is simply, the rich are destroying the world for more and more of the earth's resources that they need the least of anyone. So before anyone dedicates (wastes) his/her life trying to join the ranks of the super rich, hear this: If  people look down on me or you for not being rich, they should know this: it is far better to feel an unwarranted guilt or shame of poverty than the justified guilt and shame of greed. And no amount of money can diminish it. Why do you think so many rich people are miserable and so many poor people aren't?