Movie Reviews: Run All Night

Run All Night

directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

The director who helmed this film also directed Orphan and Non-Stop as well as the film Unknown. The latter two films also featured Liam Neeson, as does Run All Night. So I was interested in seeing this film not just because of Neeson but also because of the director. I wasn't too disappointed. Neeson brings his usual gravelly authority to his role as a wastrel. Collet-Serra uses a tremendous number of closeups and other intimate filmic and camera techniques to make you emotionally bond with and believe in this story even though it is a tale which you have seen and read a million times before. In some many most respects this is just a remake or update of Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition. So though it's a cliche to say so, if you liked that movie you may well like this one. The only real difference is that in this film the protective father is not seen through the guileless and loving eyes of his underage son but rather is viewed through the judgmental and even hateful eyes of an adult son who does not consider his father to be part of his family. And the son has very good reasons for feeling that way. I know some people who have or too often had (time moves on) great relations with their father. I know others who have or had somewhat conflicted relations with their father. And I know a small handful of people who hate or hated their father with the white hot burning intensity of a thousand supernova. I can't really understand the last group of people but then again my experiences were very different. Run All Night, to its credit, doesn't immediately try to force you into wanting a reconciliation between father and son, even though it's something which the father needs very much. There are only a few initial sentimental tugs at the heartstrings. I suppose they are very well done if you are partial to that sort of thing. I thought some of this was a little bit unrealistic but that's just me.

Jimmy Conlan (Neeson) is an aging and nearly broken down executioner for the Irish mob in New York. If it is a sign of our humanity that most of us are bothered by killing, then Jimmy is all too human. He's killed more people than cancer. He's tortured by his past actions. He suffers nightmares. Jimmy drinks to dull the pain. And then he drinks just to drink. For whatever reason Jimmy doesn't have very much wealth to show for his long life of criminality and murder. He barely has two dimes to rub together. The same can't be said of Jimmy's best and oldest friend, Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris in a typically intense performance), the organization's boss and a very wealthy man. Although Shawn's the boss and also a murderer, it was Jimmy's moves that put him in the big seat and kept him there. Shawn remembers this, which is why he's always looking out for Jimmy and forgiving him trespasses which would have seen other people left floating in the river. Shawn is a loyal man who believes in doing things by the code. Each man has a son who vexes him. For Jimmy, it's Mike (Joel Kinnaman), a boxing trainer and limo driver who likes to pretend that his father doesn't exist. For Shawn it's Danny (Boyd Holbrook), a member of his father's organization who is obviously not there on merit. Danny is too ambitious to realize when he makes bad decisions. When he does something stupid and disobeys his father's orders he crosses one of Jimmy's redlines. Well. Blood is thicker than water for most people. Usually anyway. If someone I'm related to gets into it with someone else I'm going to take my relative's side even if he's wrong. We can work out those details later. I'm not going to be neutral about someone laying hands on my kin, even if it's deserved. And wouldn't you know it, Shawn feels the same way. A lifetime of friendship is destroyed in one night. And in one night a father and son must find a way to trust each other if they want to see morning. Common and Vincent D'Onofrio give yeoman work as a freelance hitman and a cynical but uncorrupted detective, respectively.

This was not a great movie but I enjoyed it. Both Neeson and Harris are getting a little long in the tooth for these roles. But each actor exudes authority when they walk into the room. The film is much the better for their presence. Nick Nolte has a blink and you'll miss it cameo. There is the normal amount of mayhem, rough language and mano-a-mano showdowns.

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The Real Housewives of Westeros

Because, why not? I liked the little details in this video, such as Sansa's constant snacking on lemon cakes, Ellaria's accent, Stannis' obsession with grammar and Cersei's snarky guarantee that her wine is "poison free". There is a soap opera quality to some of Martin's written work so a Real Housewives of Westeros makes sense.

Bobby Jindal: Mr. Rogers runs for President

You may have heard that Louisiana Governor Piyush "Bobby"Jindal recently declared that he was running for President. I suppose that's just wonderful. Go big or go home I always say. At only 44 years old and a two term governor, former Congressman, former head of the Louisiana University system, and Rhodes Scholar, Jindal is an intelligent ambitious man. He's also a less than impressive public speaker. Remember this?  But more importantly he's a man who panders to the constant conservative feelings of being under siege and needing to strike out at the "other". In Jindal's worldview this other includes everyone from non-Christians and liberals, which to him appear to be the same, to especially Muslims.  His stupid repeating of a myth about London "no go zones" and his stubborn refusal to correct his statement when called out on it show that he's eager to appeal to bigotry against Muslims. His announcement speech was full of aggrieved rants about liberals who are supposedly at war with Christians and God. Why is it important if someone believes in a supernatural being or not? That's not the source of morality or political legitimacy.  Additionally, although it may be difficult for Governor Jindal to process this, there are millions of people who believe in the same faith as he does but see things very different politically. There are folks who read through the New Testament and didn't really pick up the ideas that Jesus said to hell with poor people, that it should be every man for himself, that the free market was the best way to organize everything in life, or that the road to prosperity is paved with corporate tax breaks. It's hard to believe I know but there you are. Governor Jindal may be the only Presidential candidate who ever conducted an exorcism, but I'm not sure that level of religious devotion is really what the American electorate is looking for in a President. The sort of Manichean worldview does fit in much more with the conservative mindset than it does with the liberal one. But the tide is turning (has turned?) on some of the issues of gender and sexuality which are near and dear to the social conservative heart. I think Jindal and company are going to find that out to their dismay. Well they would if they ever reached the general election. Jindal won't win the nomination because besides being somewhat goofy looking with an odd voice, he's trying to appeal to a base which is not necessarily inclined to nominate someone who's not a white male. As discussed previously, speaking of Hillary Clinton, NRA leader Wayne LaPierre sneered that eight years of one demographically symbolic President is enough, while recently Ann Coulter (wrongly) accused South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley of being an immigrant (based apparently on her South Asian heritage) who thus didn't understand American history.

So those are the sorts of people to whom Jindal will have to appeal. It's possible he could do just that. He was elected to Governor twice in Louisiana, after all. But I'm not seeing it on a larger stage. Not now. It would be a win for Jindal just to make it into the first debate. Fortunately for Jindal though, people from his parents' country can't vote in Republican primaries, because many seem less than impressed with Jindal and his perceived rejection of his ethnicity. Go figure.

Charleston, Roof and the Confederacy

Lilly Belle, your hair is golden brown / I've seen your black man coming 'round 
Swear by God, I'm gonna cut him down
Southern Man-Neil Young

I was reminded of the above quote from the classic rock song "Southern Man" when it was alleged that an event which evidently pushed killer Dylan Roof into his downwards spiral from garden variety racist to murderous savage was the fact that he lost out romantically to a black man. This sort of hatred based in real or more often perceived sexual rivalry or sexual assault has been the basis for many racist actions, from slavery to Jim Crow to lynchings to police shootings on down through the years. Just as a totem of racial hatred and treason like the Confederate Battle Flag has survived, so have the emotions which the flag embodies. So no one should be surprised that a man who says that he hates and wants to kill black people was drawn to Confederate imagery. Many modern day Confederate Flag supporters either do not want to think about or admit the nature of the state which they are defending. They will blather on at length about their Confederate veteran great-great-great-grandfather veteran and how brave and honorable he was ad nauseaum. Well to paraphrase George Carlin, my great-great-great-grandfather said F*** your great-great-great-grandfather. The Confederacy was created to protect and extend slavery and white supremacy. This is emphatically not a modern day interpretation of historical events and motives. The Confederate military, political, journalistic and philosophical leaders were crystal clear about why they were fighting, what they thought the proper relationship of black and white was, and how long slavery would continue if they won (indefinitely). We've been over this before but it is evidently worth pointing out again. The Confederate states seceded because they believed that President Lincoln in particular and the North in general were both at the very least insufficiently dedicated to and at the worst openly hostile to the twin causes of slavery and white supremacy. Check it out for yourself. The secession declarations put in plain English for posterity's sake just what the drafters thought of black people. Southern politicians appealed directly to racism to motivate their base. Federalism, tariffs and industrialization mattered to them only to the extent that that slavery was threatened.


Mississippi
In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course. Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin.

Texas
We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.

Alexander Stephens 
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition....
Our system commits no such violation of nature’s laws. With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. Link

And so on. Slavery was the animating cause of the Civil War. Of course many whites who fought for the south did not own slaves but they, with some notable exceptions previously discussed here, generally did believe wholeheartedly in white supremacy. The idea of black people having citizenship or voting was anathema to the Confederacy, thus the post war ratification of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Post war, did white southerners graciously and quickly move to extend citizenship rights to the newly freed Africans? No. No they didn't. Rather, white southerners practiced sullen and violent resistance to any attempt to recognize, much less enforce, basic human rights for Black Americans. After reconciliation with the white North, the gloves came off completely. The South became a terror state for black people. The white southern population zealously enforced Jim Crow laws and customs in which a black person could be murdered for something as innocuous as looking a white person in the eye, refusing to move aside when a white person was walking on the sidewalk, or not letting themselves be cheated in a business transaction. Does any of this sound like the actions of people who went to war for any reason other than white supremacy? Except for the more honest present day racists such as Michael Hill, who wants a white state in the South, most Confederate flag supporters will not look too deeply into the history of the Confederacy and why the Confederacy attempted to secede. There's a denial that has grown up around the Confederacy and the very nature of slavery. Even conservatives who would wax indignant about dead enders in other situations still can't bring themselves to admit that slavery was wrong, a crime against humanity and that resistance to it was morally praiseworthy. Bill Kristol, who has the dubious distinction of being generally wrong about just about everything, thinks that it's problematic for the "left" to be insufficiently respectful of the Confederacy. It's hard for me to wrap my head about how backwards this viewpoint is, even coming from someone like Kristol, who makes a good living being wrong. There were SS men who fought tooth and nail against the Soviet invasion of Germany. Some were even heroic. But if a German today wrapped herself in Nazi regalia claiming she was only honoring the ultimate sacrifice of her brave ancestors, I doubt Kristol would see that as something worthy of respect or recognition. Hmm.

The Left's 21st century agenda: expunging every trace of respect, recognition or acknowledgment of Americans who fought for the Confederacy.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) June 23, 2015

The fundamental issue is that the South never really went under anything approaching de-Nazification. Although they lost the war, for decades afterwards white southern political leaders and citizens adamantly refused to concede that slavery was wrong or that black people had human rights. It's only in the past 50 years that the South was forced,kicking and screaming, grudgingly and slowly, to give up legal segregation and white domination. It's ridiculous that 150 years after the South waved the white flag and ended the bloodiest war this nation ever endured, we as a country might finally be realizing that the regalia of traitor and racists isn't deserving of respect. But unfortunately that's what happens when you don't deal with problems when they first arise. Things fester and get worse. So it's a good thing that in places like Alabama, Mississippi and yes South Carolina, legislators and other political leaders are beginning to question the prevalence of the Confederate Flag on state grounds and insignia. Of course it's fair and accurate to point out that the US flag flew over slavery and other horrific acts. We shouldn't forget that. But unlike the Confederate Flag the US flag now at least theoretically contains the possibility of equal treatment under the law. The Confederate Flag is fixed forever in the belief of slavery and white supremacy. Roof chose exactly the correct flag for his actions. It's silly to pretend otherwise

Movie Reviews: Focus

Focus
directed by Glenne Ficarra and John Requa

As I get older I wonder if the saying that there aren't many new stories, just recycled ones actually has some truth to it. Certainly the film Focus hit on a great many themes which are common to stories you've heard before (fractured parent and child relationships, the inability to tell if something is truly love or just lust, and the dedicated player/con man/gambler, who like the people in the Bob Seger song Still the Same ,may never truly be made to go straight or change) So this movie will probably feel very familiar to you, albeit in a good way. I'd compare it to a favorite pair of slippers.  Nothing special, just nice and comfortable. Unfortunately unlike the similar films Now You See Me or Contraband Focus slightly misses its mark by not having a particularly strong, intelligent or dangerous adversary with whom the lead character can interact. Without this conflict you're not always able to admire the lead character's resourcefulness or shake your head in wonder as to how he got out of that jam. Focus does have one or two good set scenes where the viewer can really enjoy the intelligence and swagger of the lead character but overall this would have been a much better and more enjoyable film with a nastier or more intelligent bad guy to push the lead. On the other hand whereas many of these heist/con type films are concerned with the battle of wits between and among men, Focus features that only as a secondary issue. The film is far more interested with the professional and personal relationship between a man and woman grifter. So in some respects this is as much of a romance film mixed with heists as it is a drama film about the underworld of con men. There's some violence in Focus but not all that much. Con men almost by definition like to avoid violence. If they do their job correctly they're able to have their victims willingly give them money. A good mark never knows he's been conned. You can wonder a little bit about the sort of people who do this for a living but the film doesn't allow you to see the world any other way except through the con artist's eyes. As a result you end up identifying with the protagonists who, truth be told are exactly the sort of lowlifes who will steal your credit card number and ruin your credit, sell you ocean front property in Kansas, and get you to give them two tens for a five. You may end up admiring their panache even though, unlike the con artists in the underrated British series Hustle, these scoundrels have no interest in righting wrongs or only ripping off the greedy.

The male slickster is Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith), a debonair fellow who's equally adept with long complicated deception schemes and short cons. He'll spend 3 months hacking into your payroll system or 3 seconds palming your Bulgari watch. It's all the same to Nicky. He runs a large loyal diverse crew of con artists, hackers, gamblers, fences and all around thieves. In a nightclub/hotel Nicky runs into Jess (Margot Robbie), who attempts to con him via the old "we were just about to roll and tumble but my husband caught us so pay him and he won't kill you" trick. Nicky's not bothered. He's seen through the con already. He knows that Jess and her partner are inexperienced and more importantly, not dangerous. He walks away. A few days later Jess tracks down Nicky. She's dropped the loser she was with formerly. She's found out some of Nicky's backstory and learned that he's a legend among con men. She wants to become his apprentice and ultimately much more. Nicky's intrigued though he's not fond of mixing business and pleasure. Usually that just ends up with people getting hurt. Well you can imagine just how long Nicky holds on to that rule. Men generally don't turn down such requests from Jess. Despite his profession Nicky seems to be an otherwise moral person. He must decide whether Jess is ready for a big job in Argentina with Rafael (Rodrigo Santoro) and/or if he is ready to settle down and go straight with Jess. And Jess must find out if she can trust Nicky to keep his word. Is he truly the one? And both must discover if the other person is just running the long con on him or her. After all if you love a professional liar how do you really know when he or she is telling the truth. A con artist's truth can vary. A good con artist always has plenty of options available as the situation changes. Watching this movie you'll know from the very first setpiece that a big con is coming but some of them will probably come as surprises. This is the case even though the film, via Nicky, tells the viewer almost everything that is going to happen in the story in the first 10 minutes. It's just that you don't realize that until after the fact because of the misdirection employed.

Both Smith and Robbie are in excellent physical shape and enliven the film's visuals. This film looks great! The film was shot in New Orleans and Buenos Aires. All in all this movie was passably good, but generic. It was worth seeing on DVD or VOD. I would have thought it a bit of a waste to see it in the theater. Farhad (Adrian Martinez) brings deadpan humor as one of Nicky's worldweary employees/partners.
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Handicapping Major Party Declared Presidential Candidates (Part Two)

Donald Trump

Why he can win
Say his name! You know who he is. Everyone knows who he is. He's richer than Romney. He's tall. He's been a public figure for most of his adult life. He's usually surrounded by attractive women. His name is synonymous with an over the top wealth, pugnaciousness and clueless bigotry. He never stops talking about how great he is. If he says that often enough some voters might believe it. If nothing else he's not a politician. He could combine his salesmanship with a new found economic nationalism to convince people that they really ought to drop the middleman, and just vote for a dues paying member of the top 0.0001%. People of Trump's class are making many decisions behind the scenes anyway. Why not go full plutocracy? Part of Trump's brand is that he's a fighter who doesn't take any guff from anyone, especially those Chinese or Mexicans who are, in Trump's telling, responsible for everything that's wrong in your life.

Why he can't win
Trump has a very pronounced tendency to take every disagreement or criticism personally. Trump doesn't turn the other cheek or let any attack pass unchallenged. Revenge and payback are virtual Trump sacraments. For a man worth unbelievable amounts of money, Trump is quite thin-skinned. He will inevitably respond to any disapproval or disagreement by deriding his critic as a loser, stupid, fat, ugly, or poor. Obviously Trump considers wealth, success, and good looks to be of the highest importance. Trump's the king of ad hominem attacks. If he's in the televised Republican debates, his aggression and nastiness will entertain. But he won't go much further. Many Republicans simply don't like the man. If your base doesn't like you what do you do? Some of Trump's statements reveal an incredible ignorance of our political system. As both supporters and detractors of President Obama point out, the President can't just rule by fiat. A domineering personality will only get you so far. Once this reality starts to penetrate Trump's delusions about his popularity and applicable skill sets, the results won't be pretty. As mentioned, he doesn't handle rejection well. Rejection is for losers. If Trump is rejected then he will be a loser. But Trump can't be a loser. There could be a mental breakdown looming here folks.

George Pataki

Why he can win
Actually he really can't. Seriously are there Republican voters in the South, in the Midwest, in the West who are fiending for their Pataki fix? If there are, so far the polls haven't shown it. But you know people initially laughed at Clinton and Reagan. So you never know. Pataki is a polished but not exciting public speaker. He could inject some gravitas into the race. If he can win in the early Northeast primaries simply by not being a gaffe machine and showing contrast to the more exciting but unelectable hard right candidates, Pataki might hang around longer than some rivals would like. If that happens well I guess anything is theoretically possible. A flipped coin can land on its edge after all.

Why he can't win
Who is he? Has anyone outside of New York heard of this fellow? When I think of New York politicians I think of Rudy Giuliani, Anthony Weiner, Andrew Cuomo, Bill DeBlasio, Michael Bloomberg and Elliot Spitzer (who's in real estate now). I knew Pataki was a former governor but I was unfamiliar with his record. However one thing I did know is that Pataki is pro-choice. He's also not looking to fight to the last conservative in order to stop gay marriage. He says leave it to the states. Let that marinate for a second. That means that the Southern and Midwestern social conservatives would just not vote for him once they know his stance. They think they've compromised enough already by voting for McCain and Romney, whom they saw as wobbly on those issues. There are simply not enough pro-choice primary voting Republicans in existence to give Pataki the nomination. 



Lindsey Graham

Why he can win
From the amount of media coverage that Senator Graham obtains with his constant and genially deranged neo-colonial pronouncements on foreign policy you would think that he's the majority leader of the Senate or some sort of special envoy. He's neither. But he can point to a number of foreign policy reversals, setbacks and a few mistakes which the Obama Administration has made or experienced. Graham will claim that he predicted them (even if he didn't) and try to brand himself as a military man who has the foresight and toughness to stand by America's friends and against America's enemies. It's a longshot because Presidents don't often win or lose the job based on foreign policy concerns. But if you don't have the guts to take a chance, don't run for President. If you're concerned about ISIS, if you think Russia and China have been getting too big for their britches, if you think that the US needs to increase military spending, then Graham's your man. Graham will look to take on and take down Senator Rand Paul.

Why he can't win
Graham is unmarried and childless without many (any?) publicly known former girlfriends. He's been derided as pro-amnesty. Either stance alone is politically challenging for someone trying to woo an aggressively pro-natal and occasionally xenophobic Republican base. Together, they make it almost impossible for him to win. The idea of immigration reform that gives legal status or citizenship to illegal immigrants is a non-starter to many Republican primary voters. The perception held by some people across the political spectrum is that Graham is closeted. It's difficult for a single man to become President. Fellow Republicans are already making fun of Graham for his lack of female companionship. Graham himself is evidently worried about these rumors. He's giving interviews talking about his past girlfriends and being pictured doing "manly" things like shooting pool. It's not fair. Graham's personal life is no one's business but public figures must accept a certain intrusiveness. Ask Gary Hart. Joking that white men in male only clubs would do great in his presidency was not a good move. Graham should win or lose on the issues but often elections are just like high school  redux. The other reason Graham can't win is that judging by some past statements he would take the United States to war against, well just about everyone. The goofy grin and genteel accent won't help him sell more foreign interventions to voters.

Jeb Bush

Why he can win
The man dropped a significant amount of weight in a short period of time. He doesn't look portly any more. So there's that. Also although he is by any reasonable standard a man of the right, he's not (at least publicly) talking about the Obama Administration's secret plans to decrease the percentage of white voters or invade Texas or turn everyone Muslim. So Jeb Bush is electable. At least he would be if he can make it past the primary gauntlet. All he has to do is be just right enough to steal away enough primary voters to win and then remain slightly to the right of Hillary Clinton in the general election.


Why he can't win
Plenty of Republican voters and political handlers have not really forgiven Jeb's brother for making the Republican brand so toxic that Barack Obama won election twice. That still hurts. Another Bush on the ticket will bring back all of the previous bad feelings (and jokes) about George Bush's incompetence and cluelessness. Also like Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush will struggle a bit to let voters know exactly why he should be President. Why does he want to be President? Does he really want to be President or does he just think it's expected of him. How does he differentiate himself from his brother and father without seeming to be disloyal or slick? How do you criticize family publicly or respond to other people making such criticism. His campaign's recent invocation of Pickett's Charge as a model for his political struggle going forward was telling. Leaving aside the distastefulness of giving a shoutout to a Confederate general, Pickett's Charge was a poorly conceived, poorly planned and ultimately disastrous maneuver that destroyed Pickett's division and was later studied as a model of what not to do. Is that how Bush or his allies see his campaign? Interesting. Bush is also considered a moderate within Republican circles. He's not a guy who's screaming invective at illegal immigrants. He's establishment. I don't think this will help in the Republican primary field where there is a seething hatred towards establishment Republicans who have after all, lost twice to the black guy.


Martin O'Malley
Lincoln Chaffee
Why they can win
They can't.
Why they can't win
These two guys are the mini-me's of the Democratic primary season. I'm not yet convinced that Clinton didn't entice them into the race just to give the whiff of actual competition. They're the sparring partners. All they are supposed to do is give the fighter a work out, make sure she's sharp and task her a little bit but that's it. Doing serious damage or God forbid, winning, is not on the agenda. Much like Chuck Wepner did against Ali, they might go the distance or even knock Hillary down but at the end of the day neither one of them will win. Although each man will run to the left of Hillary, their records show a similar dedication to the same sort of bland corporatism which Hillary represents.


Rick Perry

Why he can win
There are three reasons that Rick Perry can win in 2016. (1) He's healthy and prepared this time. (2) He looks Presidential, and that's half the battle. (3) I forgot. Seriously though Perry could be the breakthrough candidate who can, a la Saint Ronald Reagan, bring together most of the Republican feuding tribes. He can make a good play for the evangelical voters. He can speak to the pro-military/neo-conservative folk. He's got his share of the big business crowd. As former governor of Texas almost by definition Perry can be competitive with the law-and-order caucus. He could even appeal to some libertarians by dint of Texas' relatively light regulatory touch. As a son of the South with the accent to prove it he will have appeal to that region's social conservatives. He was one of the few Republican candidates in the 2012 primary season who wasn't calling for immediate public executions of illegal immigrants. So if he can get through the primaries he could be that rare hard right candidate who has just enough of the human touch to win over a few swing states. Difficult but not impossible.

Why he can't win
Just kidding. Been there, done that. There's a saying that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. It will be difficult for Perry to reverse the belief that he's just another bellicose Texas lightweight who's eager to shoot from the hip but has no idea what he's talking about. His current poll numbers seem to suggest that Republican voters have kicked the tires, looked inside the hood and moved on.


Rick Santorum

Why he can win
2016 could see a massive change in the electorate. Out of nowhere voters will suddenly demand that their President be anti-evolution, anti-gay marriage, anti-contraception and pro-life with few if any exceptions. They will want a President who criticizes the Pope. It's time for Santorum! He's also no "free-trade" fundamentalist . If he can tone down his emphasis on social issues, he could have some appeal to working class voters who are not scared s***less about gays. 

Why he can't win
The field is not big enough to hold multiple people who want to tout their fidelity to a particular interpretation of a faith tradition as primary proof of their fitness to be President. Huckabee, Cruz, Perry and Carson as well as a few undeclared candidates will all be appealing to the same subset of voters as Santorum. When there is that much competition you need to stand out and shine. You also need to have some pretty sharp elbows. Santorum has the second trait but I'm not so sure about the first. His sharp emphasis on social issues means that he can't help but take positions on gender and sexual questions that are easily caricatured by the media and a future Democratic opponent. Ultimately people don't want to elect a President who is a moral scold.

HBO Game of Thrones Recap: Season Five Finale: Mother's Mercy

"For the Watch."
Well another year has come and gone. And I can stop with these recaps. Thank you for reading and commenting though. I may write one or two more posts on Game of Thrones. Or I may not. I really wish that Martin was a faster writer because this season saw the greatest number of and most significant kind of divergences between book and show. Sometimes these differences worked. Sometimes they didn't. Although there is a great deal of book material which was left out or severely altered, more and more characters have reached the end of their storyline in the published books. So this season also enabled book readers to be just as surprised as show-only viewers. Benioff and Weiss either made changes to what we read in the books or possibly depicted events that Martin created but had not published yet. Anyway we open up in the aftermath of the horrible sacrifice of Shireen to the Lord of Light. Initially it looks like the magic delivered. There is a thaw. Melisandre looks approvingly at melting icicles. The way to Winterfell is open. Melisandre goes to crow about this to Stannis; she also wants to get a little cuddling in. Well it doesn't really matter that she's showing off the goodies, Stannis is in no mood to hear about the Lord of Light or canoodle with Melisandre. Murdering your own daughter tends to kill the mood. There will be no sexual healing for Stannis. But any grim satisfaction Stannis may have with the improving weather quickly dissipates when he gets bad and worse news. Apparently roughly half his already small army has deserted, presumably because they aren't too happy about fighting for someone who murdered his daughter. Even for money or loyalty there are just some things mercenaries or other soldiers won't do. The deserting mercenaries and regular soldiers have also taken all the horses. But wait, that's not all. In addition to that Queen Selyse has hanged herself. Melisandre didn't foresee any of that. How embarrassing. Well she rides off when Stannis isn't looking. It's bad enough to lose your wife but when your girlfriend dumps you it's going to be a long day. So, to recap, Stannis has virtually no men left, no siege engines, no horses, low morale and no family left. But Stannis being Stannis cannot admit defeat even as it's clear that he's an utterly broken man. The deaths of his wife and daughter have left him with nothing to fight for. Still he orders the march on Winterfell. A man has got to have a code. And Stannis' only remaining element of his code is that he's supposed to be king. It's all he has left.

At Winterfell we see that Sansa has used the tool she stole to unlock her door and make for the highest point of the broken tower where she finally lights the candle to signal that yes she really does need immediate assistance. The Bolton legions are making ready for battle or are in the process of leaving. Luckily no one notices Sansa. Or more likely they do notice her but don't want to be the one to stop her as the capricious Ramsay is just as likely to blame them for letting Sansa out as he is to reward them for recapturing her. I mean really, no one notices an almost six foot redhead walking around freely? Yeah. Brienne is watching for the lit candle but leaves just before Sansa lights it because Podrick notices the approach of Stannis' (much reduced) army. Brienne has sworn to kill Stannis, as you may recall. Like many people in Westeros, Brienne takes oaths very seriously. Meanwhile, Stannis is true to his nature to the bitter end. He tries to take control of a bad situation. He's ordering foraging parties and watches to be set but it's too late. The Bolton army has arrived. Most of them are mounted. They outnumber Stannis' group by at least three to one. There's a brief window of opportunity where Stannis might have ordered a retreat and lived to fight another day but as you should know by now, that's just not how the man rolls. He orders his men into battle. His army is wiped out. In the aftermath the wounded and weary Stannis takes down two more Bolton men, being wounded again in the process before Brienne finds him and explains who she is. It's payback time. Close to death anyway, Stannis admits to killing Renly and tells Brienne to do her duty. And that's the apparent end to Stannis.

A joyous Ramsay is sadistically putting an end to survivors who tried to surrender. Finally he gets bored and decides to head back to Winterfell. Seeing that the Boltons won and that the candle didn't work Sansa starts to sneak back to her room but is stopped by Myranda and Reek. Armed with a bow and arrow the gleeful Myranda explains that neither she nor Ramsay will kill Sansa until she delivers male heirs but that she probably doesn't need all of her body parts for that job. When Myranda is about to hurt Sansa Reek Theon pushes Myranda over the side of the wall. Splat. Exit Myranda. Well with Ramsay's return there's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Going to a high point on the Winterfell walls, Theon and Sansa lock hands and...jump. We knew from last week that Meryn Trant has a sick thing for very young girls. Part of that perversion involves beating them. He has three children in his room. He whips two of them. The third girl does not cry out no matter how hard he whips her. Angered, he orders the other two girls out and punches the remaining girl in the stomach. Brought to her knees the girl's face changes. It's Arya Stark. It's Kill Bill time. Yes it is. She stabs Trant twice in the eyes, blinding him, before she starts to really go to work on him. It's a bloody brutal scene. Trant comes to know what pain really feels like. Arya makes sure that Trant knows just who she is before she puts his lights out. Say my name pendejo! And that is what you get when you f*** with Arya of House Stark. But wait, Arya may not be as skilled at deception as she thinks she is. Just because you're able to put one over on Meryn Trant doesn't mean you're able to fool more perceptive people like Jaqen. Jaqen has been at this for a minute now.

When Arya returns to the sub-basement of the House of Black and White to return the stolen face she's met by Jaqen and the girl, who inform her that she's taken a life that was not hers to take. There must be a settling of accounts. Jaqen takes out a vial of apparent poison. It looks like he and his creepy aide are going to make Arya drink it but instead he drinks it himself and drops dead. Arya is horrified. She's crying about the loss of her friend. The girl says that Jaqen was not her friend but was no one. And no one is who Arya should have been. The girl turns into Jaqen while dead!Jaquen turns into many different people. Arya pulls face after face off of the person she thought was Jaqen until she sees her own. Wow. How does that work. That's a new level of creepiness. Once again Arya learns that she doesn't know as much as she thinks she does. As new Jaqen tells Arya , wearing that face without permission and the right was like drinking poison. The face masks are only for people who are no one. Arya goes blind. She screams.

Jaime, Bronn, Myrcella and Trystane are leaving Dorne. Tyene and Bronn flirt. Or rather they flirt as much as two people who tried to kill each other can flirt. Ellaria Sand is also there. She wishes Myrcella happiness and gives the younger girl a very long goodbye kiss on the mouth. Later on the ship Jaime tries to use the strangeness and different nature of Myrcella's experiences in Dorne to explain to her that he's her father. It's very awkward. It's like a birds and bees talk gone very very bad. Eew. However, like apparently everyone else in Westeros, Myrcella has figured out her true paternity already. She's happy Jaime is her Dad. Shocked but happy Jaime embraces his daughter. But since this is Westeros there can't possibly be a happy ending can there? Myrcella has a nosebleed. She collapses, dying. It's apparently the same delayed acting poison that Tyene used on Bronn. We know because we skip to Ellaria and the Sand Snakes. Ellaria has the same nosebleed. She wipes off her lips and takes the antidote. Tyrion, Daario and Jorah are all in the throne room trying to decide what to do next. After some banter about who really loves Daenerys and who Daenerys needs, they decide that Jorah and Daario will head out to look for Daenerys while Tyrion, Grey Worm and Missandei stay behind to try to keep a lid on things. Varys shows up later to share some sarcastic banter with Tyrion and obliquely offer his intelligence gathering services. Somewhere north of Meereen Daenerys tries to get Drogon to take her back to Meereen but Drogon is tired, wounded and hungry. He's just licking his wounds. He briefly tries to do as his mistress commands but he's not going anywhere at the moment. Daenerys heads out to forage for food and/or return to Meereen but from out of nowhere she's surrounded by a Dothraki horde.

In King's Landing the prison experience has finally, if not completely broken Cersei, definitely taken the edge off. She decides to confess to the High Sparrow her sin of adultery with her cousin Lancel. She doesn't admit to incest with her brother because that would of course mean that Tommen is illegitimate. Say what you want about Cersei and her evil vindictive ways but it's unlikely in the extreme that she would sacrifice her children to save herself. Is that a saving grace? Perhaps. It's not clear that the High Sparrow really believes Cersei's denials. Revealing his own brand of sadism and bullying, the High Sparrow says that it's good that she confessed but that because there are other charges she's still going to trial. Being merciful though he agrees to let her return to the Red Keep, just as soon as she's atoned for her sins. Cersei doesn't like the sound of that. In a scene that is no less disturbing for its use of a body double, the Faith Militant chops off Cersei's long tresses and forces her to walk naked through the streets, while a septa chants "shame". The people of King's Landing come out to see the great Queen brought low. They're quiet at first but soon start hurling insults. They throw rocks, fruit and feces. They spit on her. A few of them flash her or try to physically assault her. Cersei, bloodied and shaken, does not give anyone the pleasure of seeing her fall apart emotionally until she reaches the safety of the Red Keep, where Uncle Kevan, Pycelle, Qyburn and the Lannister soldiers are there to greet her. Qyburn rushes to cover his Queen's nakedness. He's gentle and solicitous of her wounds. He also introduces the newest member of the Kingsguard, a giant of a man who has taken a vow of silence until all of his Queen's enemies are dead. Let's call this man FrankenGregor...

At the Wall Jon Snow tells Sam about his experience with the Army of the dead and of his inability to bring the dragonglass into use quickly enough. And there aren't enough Valyrian steel swords left in the Seven Kingdoms to make a difference. Jon is depressed about what he sees as his failure and about being hated by most men of the Night's Watch. Sam tells Jon been there done that buck up. Remember that no one liked Sam when he arrived. Speaking of the Night's Watch the death of Maester Aemon has left the Night's Watch without a maester. Sam wants to become a maester, something he should have done anyway. He also wants to get Gilly away from the Wall. He can't protect her from the more feral members of the Night's Watch or from the White Walkers should they come. He wants Jon's permission to take Gilly and her child to go to Oldtown, where he will study to become a maester. After a moment Jon agrees but reminds Sam that the maesters also have a vow of chastity. Sam accidentally reveals that he too knows how to make a woman smile, thanks to Gilly. Sam leaves. Davos arrives, arguing for assistance from the Night's Watch and wildlings. Jon responds that neither is his to give. This angry debate is stopped by the entrance of Melisandre, atypically no longer self-assured. Davos knows something is up and asks after Shireen. Melisandre says nothing. Davos knows. Later Jon is reading messages in his office. Is this news of the Bolton victory or of Sansa's marriage? We don't know. Olly comes into his office with good news! There's a wildling who saw Jon's uncle Benjen Stark at Hardhome and knows where to find him. Jon leaves his office, encouraged at last. He sees Alliser Thorne who points him to where the wildling is, surrounded by Night's Watch men. The men part for their Lord Commander. But there is no wilding there, no Uncle Benjen. There's only a sign nailed to a post that reads "traitor". The Night's Watch men have evidently been watching American Me on their DVD players because they proceed to enact that film's penultimate assassination scene. Alliser Thorne steps up and stabs Jon in the stomach, saying "For the Watch". And after he does this so does every other Night's Watch man in that group. Forced to his knees and with little time left Jon can only watch and silently ask "Et tu, Olly?" as the boy Olly steps up and repeats the mantra "For the Watch" and stabs Jon. The boy kills the man. Jon lies bleeding out in the snow, looking sightlessly up at the stars. And that's all folks!!!!

What I liked

• Arya's revenge on Trant.
• Dillane really brought Stannis' arc to life. He rejected what he loved in order for what he thought was right. He lost everything but was stubborn and unyielding to the end. His final line about duty perfectly encapsulated the character.
• I like that I don't know what will happen next.
• Lena Headey really brought a perfect mixture of pride, rage, sadness and fear to her big scene in the Walk of Shame.
• The High Sparrow is not as sadistic as say Ramsay Snow, but he definitely gets off on power trips. The scene with Cersei on her knees before him gives the lie to all his blathering about equality before the Seven.

What I didn't like

• Although I knew some of this was coming, the episode and this season was almost unrelentingly dark and depressing and made more so by the excision of a few plot elements from the books. 
• Dorne almost redeemed itself with Ellaria's revenge but it might have been more effective if we had gone down that misdirection path in the first place rather than waste time with action girls. Even so, Trystane is on that ship. The Dornish (including Ellaria) do not yet know of the Lannister reversal of fortunes in King's Landing. It would seem imprudent to start a war that will kill your ruler's (Doran's) heir when you and yours are still very much within Doran's reach.
• Again, the Boltons and Starks are not the only Houses in the North. The storylines suffered from too tight a focus on the Boltons. The North is a big place. I would have liked to see some focus on the other Houses and what their response to the Bolton power play is.

*This post is written for discussion of this episode and previous episodes.  If you have book based knowledge of future events or have seen future leaked episodes please be kind enough not to discuss that here.  NO SPOILERS. NO BOOK DERIVED HINTS ABOUT FUTURE EVENTS. Most of my blog partners have not read the books and would take spoilers most unkindly. Heads, spikes, well you get the idea....