Because of dynastic disputes, broken promises and outright greed, the Norman Duke William The Bastard (afterwards known as The Conqueror-it was a VERY BAD idea to refer to his illegitimate status or his relatively poor and non-noble mother as he tended to break things and hurt people) claimed the English throne and successfully invaded in 1066, putting an end to Anglo-Saxon hegemony at the Battle of Hastings. A new number of French and Latin words and phrases were introduced into the English language and it was slowly transformed to what we know today. Old English aka Anglo-Saxon fell out of favor. What is less well known is that William's victory at Hastings was a close thing. His knights faced the ancient Anglo-Saxon infantry shield wall battle line which they found themselves quite unable to break. Victory only came when the Normans feigned a total retreat. Thinking that they had won, the Anglo-Saxons broke formation to chase after the fleeing Normans only to get the surprise of the millennium when the knights reversed course. The Normans rode down and slaughtered the dispersed and disordered infantry. The Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson had sussed out the trick and was apparently furiously trying to get his men re-organized when he was killed by an arrow to the eye. The rout began in earnest though true to their oaths Harold's house guard stayed to fight over his body and died to the last man.
Bad luck for the Anglo-Saxons. I took a few college classes on Northern European literature where they did indeed have us read Beowulf. One of my professors got a kick out of declaiming in Old English. Listen to the Lord's Prayer in Old English below. If King Harold had won and everything else in history had pretty much stayed the same, perhaps everyone in today's English speaking world would sound like this. To me it has the sing-song qualities of Swedish with the guttural tones of German. It is funny to occasionally hear words that sound English.
I never had an official version of "the talk" which some black parents allegedly give to their children, especially their boys, somewhere around puberty about how white racist expectations can place them in danger and how they have to be careful. In part this was because (1) I think my parents believed such warnings to be self-defeating and self-limiting, (2) I grew up in an environment which was predominantly black, and (3) as both my parents and other relatives were active in social movements I picked up a lot by osmosis through the years, making a formal "talk" entirely unnecessary in any event. All the same I did get the idea, whether through comments by relatives or other people, that a black person needed to be especially aware of his surroundings and his companions. You have the right to travel anywhere in this country and with anyone whom you like. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is always a smart thing to do. Because sometimes people can misinterpret such actions. And when such misinterpretations are based on race and people with the legal authority to detain, arrest or kill you get involved things can get dicey indeed. We talked before about how a white parent or other adult with a black child can raise some concern among some people. I don't ever remember having any problems growing up traveling with white aunts, uncles or teachers but then again I didn't do that too often. Well just as a white adult with a black child in tow can make people question you the opposite is also true. A black adult travelling with a white child needs to be prepared for the occasional odd look, challenge or question. That's just the way it is. They probably aren't prepared to be arrested and accused of crimes but as no doubt some of my more cynical elders would say what did they expect.
A teenage Oklahoma hip hop dancer is still shaken after her dream trip to a Texas dance studio ended up with her in handcuffs and taken to Child Protective Services and her guardians in police custody.
"They had nothing on us," dance instructor Emmanuel Hurd told ABCNews.com. "Instead of going the route they should have went, they took her to CPS. The only reason someone gave me was we were black and Landry was white."Landry Thompson, 13, has been dancing since she was 7. For the past few years, she has dreamed of traveling to Houston to dance with well-known hip hop dancer Chachi Gonzales at Planet Funk Academy.
Over the weekend, Thompson's parents, instructor and dance partner made her dream come true. Landry flew to Houston from her Tulsa, Okla., home on Saturday and met up with Hurd, 29, and her dance partner Josiah Kelly, 22.
The three spent the day at the dance academy and taking part in a video shoot. After wrapping and dinner, the exhausted trio stopped at a gas station around 3 a.m. to program their GPS to find their hotel, according to Hurd. He dozed off and awoke to find their car surrounded by police.A police officer eventually took Landry's phone and spoke to her mother. "He got on the phone and he said, 'Are you aware your daughter is in Houston, Texas, with two black men?' And I said, 'Yes, I am aware of that,'" Destiny Thompson told ABCNews.com. "Then he started mumbling stuff about my parenting, why I would let her do that and then he proceeded to tell me the people she was with were intoxicated or on something."
LINK w/VIDEO I certainly don't fault the police for inquiring as to why a underage girl is in a car with two men at 3 AM in the morning. What I do question is seemingly ignoring the notarized letter, detaining the men and putting the girl into Child Protective Services until everything was worked out to their satisfaction. I also question if race alone should have been enough to indicate arrest/detention. But to be fair I'm sure that police who do run across trafficking rings hear similar "explanations" all the time. Still if there has been no crime committed, and I don't think that falling asleep at a gas station is a crime is it, it's hard to see why they didn't let the trio continue on their way. All the same I would, for this reason and many others, avoid situations where I would be traveling with a child who's not mine, especially if the child is of a different race. As has been remarked elsewhere the men are lucky they weren't tased, beaten or shot. So all's well that ends well I guess.
What do you think? Good necessary police work or something else?
What's the difference between arrest and detention?
There's a lot happening in Michigan. Recently a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that yes indeed Detroit was bankrupt.This shouldn't have surprised anyone. However the judge didn't stop there. Among other things he found that Detroit municipal pensions were not entitled to special protection despite what the Michigan constitution states. In the judge's view the pensions were contracts just like any other. The judge also implicitly agreed that the state and city did not negotiate in good faith but basically shrugged his shoulders and said that there was no alternative. If you're not familiar with the writer David Cay Johnston, well you ought to be. He has a knack for explaining what's going on in the worlds of finance and economics in an easily understandable manner. You should read this article.
The result will mean even worse poverty in the sputtering Motown, where a once robust industrial tax base has withered away, the starkest example of the economic devastation wrought by government policies that for decades have encouraged companies to move manufacturing offshore.
Financial mismanagement in Detroit under every mayor in the past six decades also contributed to the disaster, except for the honorable exception of Coleman Young in the mid-1970s. The result: Public worker pensions averaging $19,000 a year will be cut to the bone. That is sure to increase demands for federally funded food stamps, a program which Congress has just cut, and other welfare to make up for some of pensions workers earned but will not collect.
Norman Stein, a Drexel University law professor who is an expert on pensions, said that if the Detroit order stands it will become standard practice to slash benefits. “It would be a human catastrophe of the first order if pensions of vulnerable older workers can be cut whenever a local government goes to bankruptcy court,” Stein said. “We will be consigning firemen and policemen, who did nothing wrong other than protecting the city and depending on the city's promise, into old-age poverty.”
I thought that Johnston's article distilled everything down to its essence. I seem to remember international banks causing the near destruction of the modern semi-capitalist world as we knew it back in 2008-2009. Although the spokesmen and servitors of these financial institutions are extremely fond of quoting neo-liberal free-market bromides to other people, especially those who lack capital, when it was their own behind in a sling they ran to the US government for a bailout. That same US government also bailed out most of the US auto industry. These actions were obviously massive violations of free-market principles and the sorts of things the US screams about when China or other nation states engage in them. However, generally speaking most people won't permit their ideology to interfere with their survival if it comes down to it. A Muslim shipwreck survivor with nothing to drink but wine and nothing to eat besides pork sausages will likely choose survival over religious dictates. A feminist egalitarian trapped in a burning house will not complain when a strong fireman saves her by lifting debris from her which she was unable to lift. And a bigot experiencing a heart attack probably won't make too much of a fuss when the doctor performing the angioplasty is of a different race than he is. There are exceptions but most people would agree that such folk are well, stupid.
And yet some people seem to think that a society which committed trillions to a bank bailout which did little to help working people and fretted over the rights of speculative bondholders in an auto bailout should stand and do nothing as the rights of retired pensioners are thrown into the trashbin. It's a mean old world indeed. No one wins in bankruptcy other than the lawyers and business entities who suck up public dollars and goods. That said though I do think that state and federal law should recognize a difference between money being paid to a retired fireman who does not receive Social Security and money being paid to an institutional investor who made a bet. Unfortunately Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr seems to want to ensure that the banks get paid first.
Moving along. You may remember a recent post in which we discussed whether corporations have religious rights and whether the federal government can make corporations pay for birth control abortifacients which violate the owner's conscience. I wrote then that supporters of such rules tend to overlook the fact that just because you have a right to do something does not imply that you have a right to make someone else pay for it. Something that was on my mind then which I didn't mention was this next story. The Michigan State Board of Canvassers confirmed a petition drive which will make anyone who wants abortion insurance coverage purchase a separate rider. This initiative can be made into law by the legislature within 40 days and can't be vetoed by the governor. That is how we do things in Michigan. Direct democracy still has a place in our process. No one challenged the signatures. They were certified. I sometimes think that pro-choice people can get outworked on the ground game.
Lawmakers took preliminary procedural action on a voter-petitioned proposal to ban group health coverage for abortions as its supporters and opponents sparred in press conferences Tuesday at the state Capitol.
The exchange occurred a day after the Board of State Canvassers confirmed a Right to Life-backed drive had secured enough petition signatures to put the initiative before lawmakers.
On Tuesday, the Senate sent the petitions to its Government Operations committee as an initial step in the legislative process. The House took the default step of putting it on the floor calendar for a second bill reading.
Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville said he has discussed the proposal with the Senate’s GOP majority but doesn’t know whether the group is ready to vote yet. Richardville, R-Monroe, would say only he expects action “within the next 40 days.” Lawmakers have 40 legislative session days from Monday to enact this type of voter-initiated legislation. Inaction would send it to the statewide ballot in the November 2014 election.
Admittedly this will be the state interfering with private contracts to enforce its idea of the good. Unfortunately for those opposed to this particular instance I think it's difficult to honestly have too much outrage as the state does this in various other ways all the time. PPACA supporters explicitly cheered the state's power to do this in other cases. We must be careful giving the state powers like this because people with differing ideas about what's good than us eventually obtain power. An argument in support of the PPACA was that insurance costs would drop for everyone if we forced those dastardly "free riders" to pay their fair share. Well that argument swings the other way too. Those who want an abortion should not make everyone else share the cost. I am pro-life so I'm not too bothered by this. Because I'm leery of the state sticking its nose into employment contracts willy-nilly I'd be willing to oppose this action provided that there was some realization on the other side that making people pay for certain things which violate their conscience is often a bad idea. But there is rarely that concession. Lacking compromise things devolve to power politics. So it goes. As abortion is uncommon, if this initiative should become law I don't expect a lot of cost changes to policies. This is about principle. There are already 23 other states which have similar rules around abortion and insurance. It's not as if Michigan is breaking any new ground here. Both the Michigan Senate and House are Republican dominated. There are also some pro-life Democrats. Nevertheless this is not a slam dunk. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is not a social issues hard right governor. Although under our constitution he can't veto this measure he may attempt to twist arms to convince legislators to let the people vote on it. We shall see in 40 days.
This is not just another mob story though the mob's dominance and loss of Cuba is the book's primary subject matter. Havana Nocturne tells the amazing story of how lowlife hoodlums attained virtual partnership with a foreign nation's corrupt leadership. It also summarizes how Cuban repression brought on the revolution. With an irony that was lost on the gangsters, the American political establishment and its gambling savvy organized crime counterparts made the wrong bet by presuming that revolution would not come. When revolution arrived the American mobsters were thoroughly unprepared for it. Attempts to buy off or assassinate Fidel Castro started almost immediately and continued for the next five decades. It truly galled some mobsters that having routinely dealt with corrupt and venal Cuban politicians for years they ran across a man that was initially anyway, filled with the fervor of the believer and thus immune to the normal blandishments of money and power. Havana's primary Mob leader during the pre-Revolution days was Meyer Lansky. Lanksy had a curious place in Mobdom. Because Lanksy was effectively the Mob's treasurer and one of the sharper gangsters around both intellectually and financially he maintained a first among equal status in the mob. His role as closest contact to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and good friend to Lucky Luciano cemented this standing. In later days though, Lanksy wasn't able to call upon the large numbers of musclemen that the Italian Families could summon.
By the late forties and early fifties there weren't as many Jewish youngsters entering organized crime as before. So Lansky relied less on underworld muscle (which brought heat and attention anyway) and more on political, legal and financial connections, upperworld muscle and the age old method of setting enemies against each other. The best example of this last method occurred in 1956-57 when Albert Anastasia, boss of an Italian-American Brooklyn Crime Family (and someone who had personally murdered or ordered more murders than any other boss) started making ominous noises about being shut out of the Havana casino/hotel racket. To keep the peace Lansky and his partners arranged for Anastasia to get a small piece of the pie. When that wasn't enough and Anastasia, nicknamed "The Lord High Executioner", continued to squawk, Lanksy gave a nod to a plot by Anastasia rival Vito Genovese to have Anastasia murdered for entirely different reasons. That Lanksy and the openly anti-Semitic Genovese hated each other did not prevent the pragmatic Lansky from doing what was necessary to protect his Cuban business. After Anastasia's death, Lanksy endorsed a successful plan to set up Genovese for drug dealing. Lanksy got away with this flip-flopping because for years he was the guarantor of Cuban profits. With the possible exception of sometime partner, sometime rival Santo Trafficante, no other organized crime boss was as deeply connected to Cuba as Lansky.
The book gives a broad overview of what Cuba meant to American tourists and gamblers, whether it was the relative innocent wishes to gamble or see a nightclub show or the sordid desires for prostitution of all kinds (interracial, underage, homosexual), narcotics, or other more outre wants. People like Senator JFK and Frank Sinatra allegedly had orgies with Cuban strippers and prostitutes. In something that became a pattern, Sinatra hung out and partied with various gangsters from across the US. Cuban music, dance and style became an integral part of American culture in several different ways. Famous actresses and strippers rubbed shoulders in Havana. Havana was a paradise for Americans with money. Havana Nocture is based in part on interviews with former drivers, lovers or bodyguards for some of the big names mentioned as well as some other primary sources. Batista's increasing repression of his own people meant nothing to Lansky or his brethren. Batista was well paid by them and had a small slice of their profits. By the late fifties Lanksy and company were convinced that (a) no revolution would be successful, (b) that they could buy off the leaders if it did succeed or (c) that failing that the US would invade and put the "right" people back in charge. It was a great shock to them all and especially Lansky when none of this happened. Lansky had gone all in on Cuba and never quite recovered financially from the loss. If you like a ground's up view of history combined with a droll analysis of some larger scale events you may enjoy this book. Although Cuba did not inspire the first partnership of organized crime interests and elements of the United States government, the attempt to retake Cuba solidified that alliance and may have led to other dirty deeds across the world. Lansky alone offered one million dollars for Castro's murder and he was hardly the only mob figure so inclined. Locke and Key (Volumes 1-3) Written by Joe Hill Art by Gabriel Rodriguez
There are some writers or other creative or successful people, who, being related to other famous people in the same field, decide to use a different name for their own work, not because they dislike their relatives, but because they want the world to accept or reject their work on its own merits. Joe Hill is such a man, being the son of two writers. He's dedicated this work to his mother. His mother is Tabitha King, a Maine novelist, and you certainly know his father. FWIW, Joe Hill is his actual name. It's just that he's not using his surname professionally. Having read this work, I'm really looking forward to reading his new novel NOS4A2, sometime in the near future, hopefully in the next few months.
Locke and Key is a graphic novel so obviously it's pretty quick reading. But if you think that means it's simple reading, guess again. Like the best work in this genre the art and the story feed off each other and intertwine to the point that you can't imagine one without the other. My brother is the comic book/graphic novel enthusiast, not me, so it's not surprising that I'm just now discovering this. Still, better late than never I guess.
Locke and Key mixes together everyday horror with a supernatural threat that becomes immediately evident to the reader though obviously not to the characters. Is there a loved one in your life who's now deceased? And before that person left let's say that you and them weren't on the best of terms for reasons that now seem silly. So there's nothing left but regret for the rest of your life whenever you think of them. That's a quiet horror right there. This graphic novel examines that. Locke and Key also shows that kids can still see things that adults have forgotten or become willingly blind to seeing.
In California, a mostly happy family is torn apart when tragedy strikes. A sociopathic high school student named Sam Lessner and his friend Al Grubb perform a home invasion on the vacation cottage of Rendell Locke and his wife Nina. The Lockes' children Tyler, Kinsey and Bode are away from the home but on the property when this happens. Sam murders Rendell Locke while Al rapes Nina Locke. When the children hear the shot they run to the home but then have to hide from Sam who intends to kill them all. As Bode and his older sister Kinsey hide, the husky Tyler is able to disarm and beat down Sam while Nina brains Al with an axe, killing him. After the funeral Nina moves the family cross-country to the Lovecraft Massachusetts Locke ancestral home, really more mansion, known as the Keyhouse. Unfortunately their trials have just begun. Tyler blames himself for his father's murder. Kinsey and Bode have trouble adapting to their new surroundings. Nina's previously quiescent drinking problem has returned in spades. And Sam is not dead, only in juvie. He intends to get out. And he may have help. There's something locked in the Keyhouse, something which has plans that don't mean well for any of the Lockes. There are also keys of great power in the home which Tyler, Kinsey and Bode will be able to use to defend themselves. This was as I mentioned, very quick reading but fun. You won't be able to put the books down because you want to see what happens next.
Apropos of nothing it's good to be alive and sometimes the best way to express that joy is to have a dance-off. 11 year old Pistons fan Antwain Alexander and Palace usher Shannon Sailes certainly haven't forgotten that little piece of wisdom.
Antwain Alexander, an 11-year-old Pistons fan, had one goal when he attended last week's Detroit game against the New York Knicks. "He had been trying to get that dance cam to be on him throughout the whole entire game," his father, Pastor Alexander, told ABC News. The cameraman finally gave Antwain his moment and then, unaware that he was making history, cut from Antwain to Shannon Sailes, 46, an arena usher famous for dancing in the aisles during games. "He was, like, doing his moves and everything, and then they went back to me and I stood up and I said, 'Come on!'" Antwain told ABC News.
"It was time for me to step up," Sailes told ABC News. And step up, he did. The pair's dance-off has gone viral, and while no one has officially declared a winner, both competitors remained magnanimous towards their rival. Fox 2 News Headlines
First off just to state the obvious. No one can see the future. One can make informed guesses about it and presume that most states will act in what they perceive to be in their best interest but that's about it. So whether the new proposed deal concerning Iran's nuclear energy program is good in the long term or not I can't say. I believe that both Iran and the US worked out a win-win situation in which both sides talked tough for domestic constituencies but really didn't offer a whole lot that was new. To the extent that Iran "won", it maintained its right as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to continue uranium enrichment. This was a red line for the Iranians.They weren't going to formally give up rights to which they were entitled by international law. And for a lot of rather obvious reasons the US didn't want to talk too much about fidelity to international law. Some of the agreement highlights include
Iran will continue to enrich uranium, but at less than 5%.
Higher enriched uranium will be eliminated and/or converted to non-weapons grade uses.
The agreement is an interim one which lasts for six months.
The Iranian heavy water research facility at Arak will not be activated. This wasn't supposed to happen until 2016 anyway and was behind schedule.
Iran will receive sanctions relief of roughly $7 billion, about half or more of which is frozen Iranian assets.
The US congress can still torpedo this deal, at least as far as the United States is concerned while Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu has been scathing in his denunciation of the deal. In a rather obvious temper tantrum and diplomatic slap in the face to the United States, Israel announced yet more settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel would like the sanctions on Iran to remain in place and be increased. It also demands removal of Iranian nuclear technology, infrastructure and know-how in toto. This last is implausible of course unless you intend to kill or lobotomize a number of Iranian scientists/physicists and engineers. The Israeli Prime Minister may be more popular in the US Congress than President Obama is right now. He has shown a previous willingness or even eagerness to leverage bi-partisan support for Israel's interests, or rather what the right-wing Netanyahu perceives as Israel's interests. It is here rather important to point out that Israel, which does have nuclear weapons and thus a nuclear weapon program is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Iran which according to the US intelligence released, does not have a nuclear weapons program, is a signatory. What happens next depends on the Congress as well as diplomats in the US and in Israel.
“I spoke last night with President [Barack] Obama. We agreed that in the coming days an Israeli team led by the national security adviser, Yossi Cohen, will go out to discuss with the United States the permanent accord with Iran,” Netanyahu told members of his Likud party.
I think it would be counterproductive for people concerned about Israel's security or Sunni vs. Shia rivalry to go to the mat over this deal. This deal doesn't change very much, doesn't last very long and certainly is not something which should lead to anyone attacking anyone else. It's not 1939 and this is not "peace in our time". It's critical to remember that Iran engaged in a long fruitless war with Iraq that more or less ended in stalemate. That would be the same Iraq that the US wiped the floor with. Israel and the US will continue to maintain conventional and nuclear weapons supremacy over Iran. This agreement is not major. It is just the equivalent of picking up the phone and talking to someone you don't like. Netanyahu has stated that Israel is not bound by any agreement. True. Israel is free to attack Iran any time it likes and place its soldiers in harm's way. Saudi Arabia or any of the other Gulf States voicing concern can also spend their own blood and treasure if they want to.
It's something of a conceit to talk about themes for an entire season of a show but for Season Four of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, trust seemed to come up over and over again. No one could trust anyone. And unlike Season Three when many of the series most prominent characters, especially those that are based on actual historical people, escaped consequence for some of their dastardly deeds, this season saw both the good and bad suffer. Misplaced trust cost some characters quite dearly, including but not limited to fan favorite and black gangster/businessman Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams), the stone cold war veteran killer with a heart of gold Richard Harrow (Jack Huston), Chicago syndicate Boss Johnny Torrio (Greg Antonacci) and incestuous murderous prostitute drug addict Gillian Darmody (Gretchen Mol). It was a sign of the show's insights into human nature that in Season Four it managed to make Gillian Darmody a somewhat sympathetic character. This is after all someone who seduced her own son, manipulated him into a criminal war he could not win, murdered someone else in order to collect on her son's pensions and insurance, was needlessly cruel and humiliating to Richard, pimped young girls, and despite being wholly unfit and whacked out on smack was trying to maintain custody of her grandson, who she no doubt would have "initiated" into manhood once she thought him old enough. That is all part of who Gillian is. She is not a morally clean person. But in case we forgot the show reminded us subtly and directly that Gillian Darmody is a sum of her mostly bad past experiences. Years ago the show's lead protagonist Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), a then sheriff, acting on orders from a since deceased political patron and boss, picked the barely post pubescent Gillian out of a crowd and delivered her to that man who shortly after raped her, producing a son. This is not something which Nucky has ever seemed to feel any noticeable regret for having done. Perhaps distaste, but certainly not guilt. It's not discussed as much because Nucky is the protagonist but he's not a good guy in any real way.
So in a very real way Gillian never had a family or protector. This explains why she held so tightly, too tightly on to her son Jimmy, who was of course later murdered by Nucky. It also explains, why having been too early introduced to the idea that men and authority figures could not be trusted and that her only value lay between her legs Gillian was extremely vulnerable to the idea that a man of power could be trusted and valued her for more than the obvious. She hid this well but ultimately it was her downfall. You could if you chose almost feel sorry for her. She fell in love with a businessman (Ron Livingston) who she thought would be her salvation. He helped her kick heroin and seemed to be in love with her for more than her sexual skills. However in a moment when she thought she was supporting him emotionally, she confessed to her murder of a young man. And that's when he revealed he was a Pinkerton detective. This was a pretty powerful scene.
At the conclusion of Season 3, through a series of sharp moves, including some assistance from his allies Chalky White and Eli Thompson (Shea Wigham), his brother, and a fortuitous alliance with the Italian dominated element of Chicago organized crime, Nucky was able to defeat New York backed incursions into his Atlantic City domains. This cost him his marriage to Margaret Thompson (Kelly MacDonald) but Nucky wasn't too worried about it. Since I find Margaret neither attractive nor interesting I was very happy that this season saw her role quite limited. Nucky reduced his open political role and decided to move more in the shadows, relying on Chalky and Eli to handle things more.
For want of a horse a kingdom was lost. This season, many of the problems that plague Nucky and cost Chalky and Eli dearly are brought about through two seemingly innocuous events. Chalky's right hand man Dunn Purnsley (Erik Harvey) is seduced by a married white woman. Dunn is game for what was referred to as "jelly" (you'll see that reference in a lot of blues or jazz songs from the twenties and the thirties) but is somewhat taken aback to find that he is just a cog in a racist sex game being played between the woman and her husband, who intends to watch while pleasuring himself (and hurling racial insults) as his wife and Dunn copulate. Dunn can't abide by this and murders the man. The woman flees but is picked up by black NY gangster Dr. Narcisse (Jeffery Wright), an interpretation of real life hoodlum Casper Holstein. Dr. Narcisse was also in business with the murdered man. He threatened both Chalky and Nucky with exposure unless he's given a piece of Chalky's club. Another aside, it's often been the case that real life nationalist, revolutionary or reform organizations across the world are infiltrated or captured by gangsters, who mouth support for the "cause" even as they rip off and kill their own people. Narcisse is no different. A Marcus Garvey acolyte, he speaks of uplifting black people throughout the diaspora. He has disdain for black people he sees as uncultured, particularly if they are darker skinned. That doesn't stop him from selling alcohol or drugs to them though, via appropriate cut-outs. He and Chalky hate each other almost immediately. The series finale was suitably tragic in that regard.
Eli's college student son Will, in order to forestall a romantic rival and bully, poisoned the other student's drink. Unfortunately the bully died and Will called his uncle Nucky to fix the situation which Nucky did by framing Will's roommate. This however got to the attention of the nascent FBI, which in the person of one agent Knox forced Eli to start informing on his brother's organization. Meanwhile in Chicago, Torrio is not super happy about his underling Al Capone's (Stephen Graham) rising popularity/infamy and increasing number of independent actions. We see this through the eyes of former Prohibition Agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) who strangely enough seems to work for both the Torrio-Capone group and the North Side O'Bannion group. When O'Bannion is murdered by Capone hired hitters, payback comes in an extended attack on the Torrio-Capone headquarters, right after Torrio has left the building. Then Torrio himself is shot multiple times outside of his home. He survives and turns everything over to Capone. IRL the murder attempt on Torrio was blamed on the North Siders but some people, Lucky Luciano among them, thought that Capone was behind it. The show broadly hints that Torrio orchestrated the attack on Capone and that Capone retaliated. We'll never know.
Chalky, who murdered his treacherous employee Dunn, when Dunn switched sides to Narcisse, made an attempt on Narcisse's life which failed. This was as much personal as business as Chalky was sleeping with Narcisse's girlfriend/protege. This led to Chalky's fleeing town with said girlfriend though he needed to be there for his daughter's (unknown to him cancelled) wedding. Narcisse took over Chalky's interests and even made inroads into Nucky's political power, convincing the Nucky backed mayor to order Chalky's murder by policemen, something which also failed. Obviously Chalky thought that Nucky okayed this. Fleeing to a mentor's (Louis Gossett Jr's.) home, Chalky was reminded to never ever trust any white person. As this chiding came from a man who was either a former slave or born immediately after slavery it had a very sobering impact on Chalky. Agent Knox has convinced Eli to get Nucky to implicate himself in a meeting with bosses from New York, Chicago and Florida. Unfortunately for Knox and Eli, Nucky has seen through the clumsy attempt at incrimination and refuses to show up. As this is the second time that Eli has betrayed him he briefly considers killing his brother or so we are led to believe, but declines. However the trust is broken for good. But Eli says he was forced to do what he did for his family. When Nucky says that Eli should have come to him, Eli points out that Will is not Nucky's son and that Eli has a family. Nucky doesn't. Eli deeply resents Nucky's interference, well meaning or not, in his family affairs. Returning home, Eli finds a fuming Agent Knox, who intends to arrest him and his son. A battle royale ensues in which Eli removes the federal agent from the planet.
Earlier in the season we saw Richard try to both return home and make a living as a hired assassin. He couldn't do either. The numerous murders he's done, the killing he's seen in the war, his horrific wound and general post traumatic stress made it difficult to relate to his sister. And believe it or not, Richard doesn't like killing. He's lost the stones for it, perhaps in part because he's regained his humanity via his fiancee and later wife Julia (Wrenn Schmidt) and their son, Gillian's grandson. Julia loves Richard, despite his fears, his verbal tics, and his ruined face. Nevertheless at presumably Nucky's and Chalky's urging Richard takes one last job...to shoot Narcisse in the head. They trust his deadly skills. As a sniper who has literally lost count of the men he's put down, this should be an easy job for Richard. Would that it were. Narcisse has kidnapped Chalky's daughter in order to demand the whereabouts of his girlfriend. A shaky hand on Richard's part and a last second movement by Chalky's daughter lead to tragedy. And Richard does not get back to see Julia. Quietly powerful stuff. I was REALLY impressed with both Williams and Huston this season. Buscemi had somewhat less to do as he's mostly reactive, not proactive this year. This finale is something you'll think about for a while. The decisions we make about what we do and who we trust have repercussions that can last for years. Chalky's wife never wanted her children to visit their father's club. Trust.
