Cardinals: Jets Drama or the Steelers Stability?

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Jets Drama

I’ve been watching the New York Jets drama with interest for a few weeks now. Maybe I, like everyone else, just likes a trainwreck. It’s a mess. The team is a gigantic failure and hasn’t made the playoffs in fourteen years. It’s actually thirteen but I’m going out on a limb and saying the current 3-8 team ain’t gonna get it done this season.

In the midst of watching the Jets drama I came across a comment that really struck me. A fellow mentioned it was nice to have the stability of the Pittsburgh Steelers organization under the guidance of the Rooney family.

It took me a day or so to realize why I was so struck by the comment but now I shall explain.

I’m a St. Louis Cardinals Fan

Born and bred right here in St. Louis and still living here. Yes, embarrassing but I don’t mind. I love my town and I love my team. The Cardinals have long been associated with stability, much like the Steelers. Our ownership went from August Busch to Bill Dewitt but both men clearly love the team and they love stability.

In 1980 the team hired Whitey Herzog to be the manager and we’ve largely kept managers for lengthy periods since then. Eleven years for Herzog, six years for Joe Torre, a single season for Mike Jorgensen, sixteen years for Tony LaRussa, seven years for Mike Matheny. Then we hired Mike Schildt and he lasted only four years.

Now there is intense pressure to fire Oliver Marmol. We are drifting away from the Steelers model and toward the Jets drama.

Stability is a Good Thing

To paraphrase the famous military quote. Stability has a quality all its own. If the players coming up in an organization know from day one the organizational goals, it helps them maximize their potential as players.

While the Cardinals certainly didn’t win the World Series every year, they did make it to the playoffs more often than not, and generally were an above average team. They gave an effort that fans were glad to see and filled the stadium year after year to do so. A bad season here or there didn’t change the organization philosophy.

The Cardinal Way

The organizational philosophy can be summed up with the annoying The Cardinals Way phrase. Annoying because it worked and other teams and fans hated us for consistent winning. Mike Schildt was a big believer in the Cardinal Way and it is largely what got him fired. Upper management wanted analytics-based teams and that is not the Cardinal Way.

The Cardinal Way is based on pitching to contact with a strong defensive team in the field and manufacturing runs with walks, base hits, and minimizing strikeouts. Modern analytics want strike outs and home runs. We got a team of fence swingers and fireballers. We started losing and now Marmol is in danger of being fired.

Jets Drama or Steelers Stability?

Sure, the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t won a Super Bowl since 2008. That being said they make the playoffs far more often than they don’t. They put out a competitive team for the fans to watch week after week. They don’t stink and they don’t have a lot of drama.

The Jets? Well, the less said the better. They are terrible and, to my way of thinking, that has a lot to do with instability. An instability inspired by their owner, Woody Johnson, that trickles down to all aspects of the team.

Which do we want? I suspect I’ve made my preference clear.

Tom Liberman

Local Law Enforcement and The Marlow Murder Club

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The Marlow Murder Club

I just finished watching the Marlow Murder Club and took away something from it that I did not expect. I’m not going to get into a detailed review of why the show is good or bad but instead talk about the real-world ramifications that I’m not sure were even intended. Law enforcement isn’t engaged with the citizens they are supposed to protect and serve.

The Marlow Murder Club tells the story of Judith Potts, a retired woman living in a large estate she inherited from an aunt, and her involvement and investigation of a local murder.

The Basic Plot of The Marlow Murder Club

It’s important to understand the plot of the Marlow Murder Club in order to understand the topic of today’s post. Judith Potts is swimming along in the river when she overhears an argument followed by a gunshot. She immediately begins to investigate.

Eventually there are more murders and Potts involves Suzie Harris, a local dogwalker, and Becks Starling, the wife of the town’s church leader.

Local Law Enforcement

The constabulary is led by DS Tanika Malik who is new to the job and eager to prove her worth although suffering somewhat from imposter syndrome. Malik’s team of investigators is able enough but the leads they follow don’t get them any closer to solving the crime. Meanwhile, Potts finds useful clue after useful clue.

Eventually Malik recognizes Potts is helpful and hires on the trio to aid in the investigation. That’s the point I’d like to discuss today.

It neatly coincides with the brilliant but hard to watch miniseries We Own this City. In that show Treat Williams plays Brian Grabler, a retired Baltimore detective now teaching at the police academy. At one-point Grabler gives a monolog where it lambastes the Baltimore police department’s personnel as unable to investigate crime. They do not have the skills nor the contacts. They never get out of their cars, he says.

This is, in my opinion, an enormous disconnect which impacts both citizens and law enforcement in a negative fashion. The officers just are not in the communities they protect serve. The people in those communities don’t know the officers and the officers don’t know the people.

Officers spend their off hours drinking at the union lodge, not in the community at the local pub. They don’t go have breakfast at the diner where everyone who is anyone in town meets. They don’t get their hair cut at the barbershop. Thus, they are unable to solve crimes with the help of the locals. The focus isn’t even really on solving crimes, it’s on generating revenue but that’s another topic.

The Rural and Urban Divide

All the problems I just listed here are exacerbated by a large population. In rural areas with small populations, it’s easier for law enforcement to be a part of the fabric of the community. In urban areas the opposite is true and I think, sadly, a lot of law enforcement departments have just given up trying to be part of the community. They don’t live there, they don’t socialize there, they avoid the places they patrol.

In rural areas people find it difficult to understand why urban dwellers don’t trust the police. While in urban areas people don’t understand unconditional support for law enforcement. What’s wrong with those idiots? Don’t they see how it is?

They do see, they just see it from their own lens.

Solutions

Solutions are not easy in a densely populated urban region. Police have outreach programs where they visit schools and what not but that really doesn’t solve the disconnect problem. Law enforcement officers must be part of the community they serve. There must be trust.

I think the slow way back involves local police offices scattered liberally throughout an urban center. A small number of officers who remain in that area patrol on foot, have breakfast, grab a brew, and create relationships with the people. It will take time, it will take money, and it will take the desire to change.

Is all that possible in today’s climate of distrust, even hate? I’m not sure. Still, I advocate the effort.

Tom Liberman

A Nation’s Right to Defend Itself with U.S. Supplied Weapons

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Nation’s Right to Defend Itself

The ongoing wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and its various Arabic enemies brings forward the question of a nation’s right to defend itself. At least it does so for me and that’s why I’m writing this post. It’s an important question for people of the United States for a couple of reasons.

We provide weapons to Ukraine and Israel and restrict how they can be used. President Biden recently announced that the Ukraine can use missiles to strike deep into Russia after having long banned the practice. Meanwhile there are few restrictions on how Israel uses its U.S. made weapons.

What is the role of the United States in all of this? A fair and complicated question.

Absolutist Position One

It seems almost self-evident that a nation’s right to defend itself is without limits. When involved in war, there are few, if any limits. A nation must be able to defend itself using all available means.

Absolute Position Two

Our weapons are being used and the United States has every right to restrict how those weapons are used in a nation’s right to defend itself. If we tell a country not to use weapons in a specific way, then they must abide by those rules. After all, without our weapons they would largely be unable to defend themselves at all.

The Nuanced Position

The pragmatic position is far more difficult. Yes, we provide many of the weapons. Yes, a country is fighting for its existence. But there are global ramifications to both wars. The conflicts have the potential to spiral into larger wars. Could the entire Middle East become embroiled in war? All of Europe? Even the entire world? Are nuclear attacks completely off the table?

What are the long-term ramifications if Ukraine is destroyed, Isreal?

When a country uses weapons made in the United States there is always the potential for errors. A bomb meant for a military target might hit a school or a hospital. These are almost inevitable outcomes in the horrors of war. Children are dying in both conflicts.

It is only fair and reasonable that U.S. taxpayers who, after all, paid for all these weapons, have some say in how they are used. There are many in the United States who sympathize with both Israel and Ukraine. There are others less sympathetic and politicians are wise to consider these sentiments when restricting the use of such weapons.

My Opinion on a Nation’s Right to Defend Itself

I suppose that’s enough waffling about on the issue. I think a nation’s right to defend itself is unlimited. If they choose methods that turn their allies away from their cause, so be it. Yes, there are enormous global consequences to both conflicts but I don’t think the United States should be telling other nations how to defend themselves anymore than I think other nations should be telling the United States how to do so.

This, of course, leads me to my idealistic position.

We Shouldn’t have to ask this Question

We produce far too many weapons in this country. Far more than are needed for our defense and at an enormous price tag to the U.S. taxpayer. We sell huge numbers of our weapons to warring nations and blood is all over our hands. We are steeped in the blood of other nations and it is distressing to this Libertarian.

George Washington said it best in his Farewell Address where he advises against foreign entanglements. His reasoning is superb, and I recommend everyone read the Wikipedia summation of his thoughts.

Tom Liberman

DUI Arrests with No Impairment

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DUI Arrests

There’s a lot of news lately about a story in Tennessee where many people with no alcohol or drugs in their system are getting DUI arrests on their record. A part of the problem here is many people take a field sobriety test where an officer determines that person is under the influence.

It’s an interesting problem because it’s quite clear the total number of people arrested with no impairment is a very low percentage, less than one percent, of all such arrests. It’s also clear we have a vested interest in keeping impaired drivers off the road.

Field Sobriety Tests are Hard

Do not take the field sobriety test. It’s hard. You will likely fail. Even the best-intentioned officer can mistake nervousness or being uncoordinated for being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. DUI arrests often follow such failed tests.

Officers typically perform field sobriety tests after accidents. The driver might be disoriented, even injured from the accident.

Frankly, I think the field sobriety test should just be shelved altogether. There’s just too much pressure on law enforcement officers to make an arrest. Imagine being the officer who pulled over a driver, decided they were sober, the driver went on cause an accident where people die, and the subsequent blood tests show the driver was under the influence.

Imperfect Detection

The tools officers use are imperfect. Drug test kits give false positives, the breathalyzer give false positives, drug-sniffing dogs take cues from officers and give false positives. The end result is too many DUI arrests where the driver was not impaired in any way.

The Negative Ramification of DUI Arrests

The people who are arrested in these circumstances face enormous difficulties. In the story we read about people who lost out on career opportunities while the case was pending, people who paid thousands of dollars to clear their name, and people who were ostracized within their peer group when they did nothing wrong at all.

It’s not fair to We The People.

Impaired Driving and Distracted Driving

Personally, I think distracted driving is a far greater problem than impaired driving but that’s not really the subject of today’s post. That being said, it is an enormous problem. Talk a walk around your town for a few miles and watch every driver who passes you by. The number of people not paying attention is frightening.

Solutions

As I wrote earlier; solutions are not particularly easy in this case. We do want to keep people off the road who are impaired. I think the best solution is to simply stop field DUI arrests. If an officer suspects a driver, pull them over, take them to the hospital for a blood test, and drive them to their destination afterwards. Don’t publicize it, don’t put a name in a report, don’t arrest them.

When the blood test comes back, take the appropriate action. Saving a few people from injustice is worth the price. Just ask anyone wrongly arrested.

Tom Liberman

The Fake Fight Hype Tyson versus Paul

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Tyson versus Paul

I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve got scam fatigue and the fake fight of Tyson versus Paul is just another yawn for me. Tyson versus Paul is a nonsense event dreamed up by people who want your money and will provide some sort of product.

If you want to pour your hard-earned dollars into this silliness, that’s your business. If you want to enrich Tyson, Paul, and their various backers, have at it. I don’t like it, I’m not watching it, and I’m going to explain why.

The Endless Scam

Crypto, NFT, boxing matches, romance, pig butchering, whatever. Mr. Beast, Logan Paul, Liz Friesen, just from today’s headlines. It’s endless. It goes on and on. Caveat Emptor. My old-man memory told me the first celebrity boxing matches was Danny Bonaduce versus Barry Williams, but Wikipedia reminded me way back in 1979 we had Muhammad Ali versus Lyle Alzado.

Why You Shouldn’t Pay to Watch Tyson versus Paul

If people want to watch Tyson versus Paul, they can do so. I’m not saying you can’t watch. That the government should sanction this event, but I am saying by paying money for this you are enriching people who are borderline evil. They don’t care about anything other than taking your money and providing as little product as possible.

Sure, there will be a boxing match. They will fight. There is no doubt in my mind they’ve already spoken to the lawyers and they’ll stay behind the legal line of a scam.

This doesn’t make it ethically right and I think it would be awesome of everyone who promoted this sort of nonsense went bankrupt instead of making tens of millions of dollars. Windmill Tilting Tom, they call me. It’s not the first time I’ve taken on such a hopeless cause, and I suspect it won’t be the last.

This idiocrasy we’re living in is perhaps the ultimate and inevitable result of intelligence in evolution. We love the spectacle. We allow the worst people who laugh all the way to the bank after taking our money to lead us.

It’s your money, do with it as you please. Don’t come bitching to me after the fight.

Tom Liberman

Dark Chocolate with Cadmium and Lead is not Premium

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Dark Chocolate with Cadmium and Lead

I just read about an interesting false advertising legal case making its way through the U.S. Court system involving dark chocolate with cadmium and lead. In this particular case it’s Lindt Chocolate made in Switzerland.

I’ve written about false advertising in the past and I do think manufactures should give a fairly reasonable description of the product. In this case, Lindt advertises its chocolates as expertly crafted with the finest ingredients. They do not write dark chocolate laden with cadmium and lead on the label, for obvious reasons.

Study Reveals Dark Chocolate with Heavy Metals

The reality is that dark chocolate is usually laden with at least some heavy metals. The Cadmium generally arrives from the cocoa plant itself while lead gets there during the processing phase. The study that led to the lawsuit examined a number of dark chocolate brands including Lindt.

The result from Consumer Reports showed Lindt dark chocolate contained high-levels of Cadmium. Cadmium is generally considered a dangerous heavy metal that can lead to a variety of negative healthy effects.

Of the dark chocolate tested, Lindt wasn’t the highest for cadmium and lead nor was it the lowest.

The Lawsuit over Dark Chocolate with Cadmium and Lead

At issue is the advertising statement of expertly crafted with the finest ingredients. The argument goes that this statement might lead a consumer to pay for Lindt with the expectation that it did not have some of the problems associated with dark chocolate of a lower quality.

Lindt lawyers call the advertising statement puffery. Puffery is a legal term indicating that a reasonable consumer knows it’s merely exaggeration, boasting, and blustering. That it isn’t a real indication of the product quality. Anyone who has ever seen any advertisement knows all about puffery.

Lindt Dark Chocolate Conforms with Regulations

There are regulations about how much cadmium and lead is allowed to be in various food products and there is no question that Lindt chocolate comes in under this level. The Food and Drug Administration considers it safe for consumers in the United States.

The Fate of the Lawsuit

I strongly suspect the suit will result in no damages for the plaintiffs but that, perhaps, is not the point. The lawsuit, in my opinion, aims to educate the average buyer as to what they are consuming when they eat dark chocolate. Which is often advertised as healthier than milk or white chocolate.

We’ve seen quite a few lawsuits of this nature. Tuna in Subway sandwiches. Strawberries in Pop-Tarts. Various ingredients in supplements. It’s an interesting way to illustrate, Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware.

While I suspect the lawsuit is going nowhere, I do applaud the effort. In this modern age it pays to be aware of what you are consuming. The origin of the product, the quality of the product, the way labor is treated by the manufacturer, the environmental impacts of production.

Whether it be dark chocolate with cadmium and lead or any other product, I think most people want to make the world a better place. The government can’t save us and neither can the courts. Your purchasing power is the last line of defense. Use it wisely.

Tom Liberman

Should Pete Rose be in the MLB Hall of Fame

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Pete Rose

There’s a fairly interesting debate going on in the world of major league baseball regarding Pete Rose and his potential induction into the Hall of Fame. Rose recently died and a remembrance at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati brought the attention back to the public eye.

Where do I stand on this issue? Does Pete Rose deserve to be honored in the Baseball Hall of Fame or were his misdeed egregious enough to exclude him from entry?

The Obvious about Pete Rose

My first step is to dispense with any nonsense arguments. Pete Rose was more than a good enough player and manager to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He is the all-time Hits leader in the league and his nickname, Charlie Hustle, is deserved for his all-out play. He is a first-ballot Hall of Famer for his performance. No questions asked. Done.

The second issue is that he agreed to a lifetime ban in exchange for MLB not filing a formal report about his gambling habits. He gambled on games, he gambled on games the team he was managing competed in, and the man who wrote the report is on record as saying he thinks Pete Rose bet against his own team. This fully disqualifies Pete Rose from being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Rose agreed to the ban.

The more Complex Issues

The lifetime ban Pete Rose agreed to serve is over. He is no longer alive. MLB now accepts considerable money from gambling services in advertisement revenue. Some players who cheated in the Houston Astros sign stealing scheme are still eligible despite unfairly altering outcomes. The same for some players who took performance enhancing drugs.

His betting on games his team played in is an enormous problem. Even if he never bet against the Cincinnati Red, his job as manager allowed him to influence games. Did he save the ace pitcher for a game Pete Rose gambled on? Did he rest players to get them in the best position for the days he gambled? His roll as manager is in direct conflict with his wagers; whether to win, lose, over/under, or any other proposition bet.

His personal life and the fact he lied and lied and lied about his gambling is another issue in the perception of his entry in the Hall of Fame.

Enough Dodging About

All right, enough of me dodging sharing my opinion. What do I think? I think the Veterans Committee should submit his name for consideration. The agreed upon lifetime ban is over.

Would I vote for Pete Rose? No. I think his gambling, lies, and off-field behavior is enough for me to say he doesn’t belong. But it’s not my decision. Others disagree with me and they should be allowed to speak with their vote.

What do you think?

Should the Veterans Committee Consider Pete Rose for the MLB Hall of Fame?

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Tom Liberman

Censorship and Freedom of Speech

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Censorship and Freedom of Speech

The other day at a Halloween party I got into a discussion with a fellow who seemed to have a confused idea of the relationship between Censorship and Freedom of Speech. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this misunderstanding both in person and more commonly in the comments section on news articles.

Today I spotted a story that I think highlights people’s confusion and I hope might illustrate the difference for you.

What is the Confusion in Censorship and Freedom of Speech?

The confusion I see fairly frequently is any type of censorship is a violation of freedom of speech. People who make this mistake generally do so because it leads them to believe their political favorites are being denied their freedom of speech through censorship.

In reality, censorship is, in most cases, actually an example of freedom of speech.

The Situation that illustrates the Proper Relationship

How are censorship and freedom of speech connected? I think sports organizations illustrate the real relationship between the two fairly well. The Big 12 athletic conferenced fined Utah Athletic Director Mark Harlan for his pointed criticism of referees after BYU defeated Utah in a football game.

My party friend would certainly argue Harlan is suffering from censorship and a denial of his freedom of speech but this is false.

The freedom of speech issue at stake here is the conference’s ability to apply censorship to members of their organization. If the government came in and fined or imprisoned the conference officials for their punishment of Harlan, that would be a violation of their freedom of speech.

The act of censorship is not a violation of freedom of speech but is actually, in this case, an expression of it. Freedom of Speech is a concept that applies to the government preventing people from speaking out, generally in a negative way about the government, but also more broadly as well.

When the Big 12 censors Harlan, which they are most certainly doing, they are not violating his freedom of speech, they are actually exercising their own.

Any organization, other than the government, can censor people as part of their rules and regulations. Even the government can do so under various circumstances. The Hatch Act prevents government officials from expressing partisanship. This is, obviously, censorship, but it is not violation of freedom of speech.

Are Athletic Organizations right to Censor Criticism of Officials?

This is another question entirely and one I thought I’d touch on briefly. I think everyone should be able to criticize anyone else, slander and defamation excluded, without fear of penalty. But that being said, the people who make the rules for the Big 12 conference are entitled to do so at their whim. As are the other athletic organizations that largely have the same rule in regards to criticism of officials.

Conclusion

None of us like it when someone speaking on a subject with which we agree is censored by an organization, but it is not a violation of freedom of speech. Understanding the relationship between censorship and freedom of speech is part of being free, although so is misunderstanding it.

Tom Liberman

Does Exercising your Rights Piss off Law Enforcement?

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Law Enforcement

At the old man’s retired club breakfast the other day an interesting topic of conversation came up in regards to law enforcement officers. Well, it’s always an interesting conversation with the old man’s retired club but this one struck my Libertarian fancies.

We were speaking about getting pulled over by law enforcement officers and sobriety tests. We were all in agreement that passing a sobriety test while completely sober was something beyond our old man capabilities and I suggested that if such a situation were to arise, refuse to take the test.

One of my fellow old men suggested this would piss off the law enforcement officer and I found myself in agreement. That’s what I’d like to examine today.

Law Enforcement doesn’t like it when you Exercise your Constitutional Rights

At the time I didn’t think much about my friend’s comment. I basically agreed with it. A law enforcement officer who runs into someone who refuses to comply, citing the Constitution as the reason, is going to get angry.

But why? Aren’t law enforcement officers sworn to uphold the law? Isn’t the Constitution of the United States the highest law in the land? Shouldn’t officers not only respect your declaration of rights but actually applaud it. You’re right, old man. That is your right and I’m not only proud of you for knowing it, but I’ll fight for you against anyone who tries to take it away.

That should be the response but it’s not. I find that troubling. I find it troubling that officers are encouraged to lie to you, deceive you into giving away your rights, taking advantage of this surrender, and attempting to penalize you as much as possible.

Doesn’t Exercising my Constitutional Right make Law Enforcement’s job Harder?

At first glance, it sure does. But maybe not. When people give up their rights, they make it significantly easier to be convicted of a crime, sometimes, certainly not always, but sometimes a crime they did not commit.

We end up prosecuting a lot of people who actually didn’t commit a crime at all. It’s not the job of a law enforcement to determine guilt or innocence. If such an officer has reasonable suspicion that a crime has taken place, they must simply arrest the person and turn the rest of the matter over to the justice system. That’s the way the Founding Fathers intended it to work.

You must remember, the men who wrote our constitution were subject to many summary violations of the rights we hold dear today. The English law enforcement officers could simply come into a home at any time, search for whatever evidence they hoped to find, take it, and use it against you. They could arrest you for no reason at all and interrogate you for an extended period in a condition that amounted to torture.

They could actually live in your house, eat your food, sleep in your bed. This was the environment in which the Constitution was written. This is why we have such protections and why you should always assert them. And, of course, why law enforcement should fully support you doing so.

Conclusion

If a law enforcement officer doesn’t like you asserting your legal rights, perhaps that is not such a good job for that person. I find it disturbing that, by and large, law enforcement officers are enraged when a suspect asserts her or his legal rights. I think that’s an issue with the way we perceive the job.

It’s a situation that came about for a number of reasons. Focus on revenue instead of enforcement, the war on drugs, and others. This is not the fault of the law enforcement officer; she or he is simply responding in the way he or she was trained. It is a problem for the United States.

I say to citizens. Assert your rights boldly and proudly. I say to officers, do the same and support and applaud those who do so.

Tom Liberman

Senator Bernie Moreno and Auto Manufacturing

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Senator Bernie Moreno

I just read an interesting article in which Senator Bernie Morena from Ohio is interviewed on the subject of auto manufacturing and the role politics has to play in it. I was particularly struck by how right Senator Moreno is in regard to part of his argument and how absolutely wrong he is in the other. Even more interesting is that his two main points are basically doing the same thing, but he hates one and loves the other.

Senator Bernie Moreno and the Electric Car Mandate

Senator Bernie Moreno makes some fantastic points about the federal government involvement in encouraging car manufacturers to make electric cars. His point of view in this regard aligns perfectly with my own Libertarian ideology.

He argues that the government shouldn’t give electric car manufacturers tax money to encourage them to make such cars. He argues that the government shouldn’t be dictating miles per gallon fleet averages. Yes, I call out. Yes, yes, yes! The government should not be involved in these things. Let the car manufactures determine how many electric, hybrid, and gas-powered cars they make. They know their markets better than any politician. Senator Bernie Moreno, count me as a fan.

Senator Bernie Moreno and Tax Breaks for Gas Powered-Cars

In the very next paragraph makes some absolutely terrible points. He wants to give tax breaks to any company that manufactures in the United States. He wants to incentivize energy prices. He wants to prevent foreign car companies from competing in the United States by instituting enormous tariffs on foreign made cars.

The tax breaks Senator Bernie Moreno wants to give car manufacturers is exactly the same thing as giving tax rebates for every electric car sold. It’s the same thing. In both cases the government is encouraging manufactures to behave in a way the politicians think is best.

The problem with tariffs is that it destroys competition. Probably not many of you are Boomers like me but U.S. cars in the 1970s were horrible. You hoped they started in the morning and spent a huge amount of time at the repair shop. Japanese car companies came into the picture with better cars. The result? U.S. car companies started making better cars.

I Trust the America Worker and Manufacturer

Here is my base position. I trust the hard workers right here in the United States. I trust the owners of the big car companies. I trust the relationship between Unions and Executives in that they have a balance of power. Between the workers, executives, and competition we have a fantastic system.

When politicians think they know better and try to bribe one side or the other it destroys the delicate balance that built this great country.

You’re half right Senator Bernie Morena. Now wake up, get the other half right, and stop giving our tax dollars to either side. Let them build cars, that’s their job and they are good at it.

Tom Liberman

I Found Joe Pickett Inauthentic

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Joe Picket Inauthentic

I just finished watching the penultimate episode of the first season of Joe Pickett and I’ve just about had enough. I found the show to be almost completely inauthentic. The premise is incredibly interesting, and it’s based on a popular book series by C. J. Box.

The titular character is a game warden in Wyoming fulfilling a childhood dream between he and his brother. Joe’s wife, Marybeth is pregnant with a son; and they already have two daughters. Joe seems resolved to be a good father, throwing off the genetic heritage of an alcoholic and abusive father. Sound interesting? I thought so also.

My Wyoming Bona Fides

Let me preface my thoughts with the fact I’m a City Slicker. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. What do I know about authentic Wyoming you can rightly ask. It’s a fair question.

I can only tell you I went to college in Idaho and I have a number of friends from rural Missourah. Does this make me an expert in what is authentic Wyoming? No, it does not. If you disagree with my assessment, go ahead and let me know.

What’s Inauthentic about Joe Pickett

My background now divulged, let me tell you I found almost every character in Joe Pickett to be completely inauthentic. I didn’t believe they lived in Wyoming, that they grew up in Wyoming, that they were in any way related to Wyoming.

The town of Saddlestring didn’t seem like a small, northwestern town. The people in town had lots of unusual names. The men I know from rural areas tend to be named Bob, Dick, Tom, Glen, Brian, and Mike.

I just didn’t believe any of it. The sheriff didn’t act like a rural sheriff, at least to my eyes. The wealthy family seemed egregiously not Montana. All the gun toting seemed like someone’s fantasy of what it’s like to live in the west.

Don’t even get me started on the southern accents.

Northern Exposure

I want to spend a moment making a comparison to another show, Northern Exposure. It’s not exact but I think it largely illustrates my problem with the authenticity of Joe Pickett. In Northern Exposure the characters are varied, interesting, multi-dimensional and all of them, with the exception of Joel of course, came across to me as Alaskan, authentic.

The interior and exterior of the town of Cicely seemed authentic. I really believed this was Alaska and the actors were Alaskan. When I believe the people and places, I’m much more likely to become immersed in the show, to forget I’m watching and just experience.

The Experience of Joe Pickett

I never felt that Wyoming experience in Joe Pickett. Some of the cinematography was really beautiful but whenever we weren’t looking at vistas, I just wasn’t buying it.

Other Stuff

The plot went completely off the rails and a lot of stuff happened that made no logical sense but I don’t want to get heavily into all of that, although it certainly effected my enjoyment, or lack thereof, of the show.

Conclusion

Sadly, by the end of Joe Pickett I found myself shaking my head and almost every scene, completely out of immersion and into finding everything wrong. There were a lot of problems with the first season of the show but I thought its inauthenticity was an underlying issue that hurt everything else.

I won’t be watching season two.

Tom Liberman

Who is the Protagonist of Pretty Woman?

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Pretty Woman

Whilst clicking my way through channels the other day I flicked past Pretty Woman and it got me thinking about the movie. Who is the protagonist is the question I ask myself as a Boomer. I am no longer the thirty-something year old infatuated with Laura San Giacomo.

I think it’s an interesting question because the obvious answer is Vivian, played by Julia Roberts. It is, after all, her story. She has the arc. Doesn’t she?

Edward has the Character Arc

The thing is, Vivian doesn’t really change much or at all. She’s the hooker with a heart of gold. She’s a little rough around the edges perhaps but she is clearly educated, intelligent, and capable. She starts that way and she finishes that way.

Edward, on the other hand, changes dramatically. He starts the movie as a corporate raider with no qualms about staging a leveraged buyout of Morse Industries, a shipbuilding company run by Jim Morse along with his grandson, David.

Early Edward is the villain of the movie. The corporate raider. The dismantler of capitalism. His interactions with Jim, David, and Vivian change him. That’s his arc. By the end of the movie, he is joining Morse Industries as a partner. He will build ships with the company rather than dismantling it and selling it off for profit.

We like the finished Edward. He’s the hero. He’s changed. He has an arc.

Edward, Jim, and Capitalism

In thinking about Edward and his arc in Pretty Woman, my thoughts turned to leveraged buyouts, private equity, and capitalism.

It seems to me that, generally, we now admire beginning Edward far more than finished Edward. Make as much money as possible for yourself and your shareholders.

Edward contrasts dramatically with old-school Jim Morse. Jim owns a company but isn’t interested in squeezing the maximum profit from it. He wants to build big, beautiful ships. Ships that serve our country, yards that employ people. His goal is to create, employ, and, of course make money. He’s a wealthy industrialist. His company is successful but not as profitable as it could be and thus a target for Edward and his leveraged buyout.

A Moment about Private Equity

I’m no naïve do-gooder who thinks Private Equity firms and leveraged buyouts have no place in capitalism. They are valuable tools to keep companies in line. They play a useful role in ending bloated companies with dozens of board members and executives earning enormous salaries, siphoning off all the profits. Such companies deserve their fate.

The problem is when the Edwards of the world can leverage a buyout of a largely successful company that isn’t squeezing maximum profits. We instinctively admire Jim Morse and his grandson. They are embodiment of the best parts of capitalism.

Build a great product, provide a useful service, employ hard-working people at a fair wage. That’s the end-result of healthy capitalism. We hate early Edward in Pretty Woman.

Conclusion

It’s a complicated problem and not easily solved. I do think the ability to borrow enormous sums and immediately declare bankruptcy and not pay them back if things go wrong is a big part of the problem. These days, the darling of the capitalistic world is early Edward. We should know better.

Tom Liberman

The Porter is Ultimately Disappointing

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The Porter

I recently finished watching the BET+ series The Porter and came away fairly disappointed. The show tells the story of a group of porters working the railroad lines between Canada and the United States in the 1920s.

The porters face various obstacles in their quest to live their lives. These obstacles include racism and general unbridled capitalistic abuses. Why was I disappointed? Let me tell you.

Lost Story

The central story of the porter revolves around their desire to join the railroad union and improve their working conditions. The show itself highlights the problem in almost the opening scene when a young porter falls to his death off the top of a train car doing a job requiring more people than were allocated.

In addition, we see racism between the other employees of the railroad and the black porters. These are the two main stories, and they are both compelling, interesting, and historically accurate. There are also hints of the main character’s service in combat during World War I.

Sadly, these stories take a backseat for most of the show. Instead, we focus mainly on a porter working a gambling ring with a powerful black mobster in Chicago. A young woman trying to advance her career as an entertainer and examining her interracial relationship with the dissolute son of the railroad owner. And a nurse working in the black community to bring healthcare to the minority working class who are denied such at the white hospitals.

All three of these stories are moderately interesting at best and take a huge amount of time away from the more compelling stories.

I want to know about the union. I want to see the porters performing their jobs. There are a number of scenes with this focus but they are largely relegated to the back carriage of the show. This was the big problem for me. The compelling story, the reason for the show, the title of the show even, is just not developed well enough.

Acting in the Porter

The acting is fairly good with some standout performances from Mouna Traoré as Nurse Marlene Massey and Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Zeke Garrett the union agitator. The rest of the cast is fairly good to mediocre.

Sets and Cinematography

The sets are largely great with the interior carriage scenes meticulous and beautiful. The homes the porters live in are believable and well-done. The scenes themselves are largely framed nicely with a variety of angles.

The show does heavily rely on CGI for the exterior train shots and it’s not so great.

Music

The music is largely good and maintains a background presence rather than dominating the scenes although it does get obtrusive now and again.

Conclusion

I think the show had a great deal of potential and thus my disappointed. If it didn’t have such a high bar then its ultimate disappointment wouldn’t bother me as much. It could have great but they really just lost track of the compelling stories and focused on things that held little interest for me. Others may think differently.

Tom Liberman

All Four Seasons of True Detective (to date)

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True detective

I finally finished watching Season Three of True Detective, the last one I watched, and now it’s time for the big recap. What I hope to do with this review is compare and contrast the seasons to one another, pointing out the good and the bad. What went right and what went wrong.

I already compared Season One to Season Four of True Detective if you want to read about that. I’ll be making some of the same points here though. On with it.

Believable Detectives

In a detective show it is clear to me the detectives themselves must be believable. I’m not saying they have to be great detectives. If they are terrible at their job, that can be believable under certain circumstances. It’s vitally important the audience believes.

Season One

Utterly believable. I believe Kohl and Marty are seasoned, capable detectives. They go about their business with professionalism. We see them doing their work on many occasions and not just getting key information fed to them.

Season Two

Largely unbelievable. It’s a given in this season that Ray, Ani, and Paul are not the cream of the crop. Ray is chosen for the case because he’s compromised. That being said, none of them manage to do any sort of real detective work. Everything either falls into their laps or happens to be the first thing they investigate. I did not believe.

Season Three

Pretty much a mirror image of Season One. I absolutely believe Wayne and Roland are detectives, good ones.

Season Four

Utterly unbelievable. I just cannot believe that either Liz or Evangeline holds the position and rank they do. Both do little to no detective work in the series. Both rely on third parties to get all the pertinent information.

Likeable Protagonists

It’s useful if the audience likes the protagonists. I’m certainly not saying they have to be kind, nice, generous, thoughtful, and everything else that gets wrapped up into likeable; but I shouldn’t despise them. I shouldn’t find them repugnant and hate every moment they are on the screen.

Season One

Marty and Kohl are complicated characters and in many ways, not particularly likeable. They have big old flaws. But, in the end, I like both of them greatly while recognizing their flaws.

Season Two

I hate Ray and Ani. Hate. Paul is more a figure of pity than anything else but he’s certainly not likeable. Ray is an awful, despicable person and Ani isn’t any better.

Season Three

Again, we have two flawed characters. Both with problems but both likeable in the end. Roland and Wayne want to solve the case, they care about the missing girl. They are decent human beings although hardly perfect.

Season Four

It’s hard to even describe how much I despised Liz and Evangeline. They are terrible people. Just awful. Horrible to everyone they meet. I can’t remember hating protagonists this much in any other show.

Sundried Film Making Features

I’m not going with a season breakdown here. The music, sets, camera work, and everything else is almost always fantastic. One exception is the mumbling of Wayne in Season Two. He’s not always understandable. Other than that, all four seasons are superb.

Comprehensible Story

Season One

I followed the plot all the way through with little or no confusion. It all made sense. Events happened in good sequence and I was rarely, if ever confused.

Season Two

A jumble. The case was far too convoluted and wasn’t even really about what it was apparently about. I was totally lost on several occasions and by the end just didn’t care anymore.

Season Three

It was largely understandable but the three separate timelines were one too many. The two timelines in Season One worked very nicely. Mainly because they were sequential. In Season Three we are constantly transported back and forth in time and it became too much. Particularly when it came to the final episode. More on that in a minute.

Season Four

This one wasn’t even really a detective story, it was a macabre horror story. It didn’t make any sense at all for the most part. The entire supernatural element was jammed at us the entire series run and yet turned out to be a giant red-herring. I understood events to some degree but it was generally a bit of a mess.

Stick the Landing

The ending must be right or everything before it loses its luster.

Season One

Perfection. Marty’s final gift to Kohl wrapped it up with a pretty bow and sent me away completely satisfied.

Season Two

The story itself ended incomprehensibly as mentioned earlier but if anyone didn’t see the final twist with Ray and his son coming, they must have fallen asleep and stopped paying attention. Dull, contrived, sappy.

Season Three

I’m not even sure they knew how to end this season and just threw everything at us in a mess of a final episode. I was quite satisfied with Julie’s final fate but everything else just seemed tacked on. All the relationship things just did not land.

Season Four

I actually really liked the resolution to the case here but it flew in the face of everything they gave us before. I imagine it angered many who were invested in the supernatural events preceding.

Conclusion

Season One is fantastic. Season Two is poor. Season Three was almost as good as Season One except the mumbling and failed finale. Season Four was fine if you like supernatural horror but was otherwise not even really a True Detective show.

Season Five? I’ll be waiting.

Tom Liberman

The Ballad of Dr Disrespect

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Dr Disrespect

The gaming world is buzzing over recent events surrounding Dr Disrespect. The details of the story allow me an opportunity to discuss the difficulties related to rational as opposed to emotional thinking.

First off, most of you probably don’t know anything about Dr Disrespect. He’s a streamer who became very popular on YouTube and Twitch playing battle royale games. At the height of his career, more than four million people followed him on Twitch and You Tube both.

On June 26, 2020, just months after signing a multi-year contract with Twitch, the platform banned him for violating their community standards. At the time he protested the ban and told his audience Twitch never informed him what standard he violated.

Cody Conners Tells us Why Dr Disrespect was Banned

Now we fast forward to June 21, 2024 when a former Twitch employee named Cody Conners released information that Twitch banned Dr Disrespect because he inappropriately messaged a minor. As you can imagine, the game world erupted.

Three schools of thought filled the charged comment sections.

  1. Dr Disrespect did it, he’s scum, his past behavior, namely cheating on his wife and general douche-bag behavior on his channel, is all the evidence necessary.
  2. He didn’t do it and Conners is a lying, wannabe scumbag who is just trying to drum up publicity for his own endeavors. Dr Disrespect would never do something like that and jeopardize his career, it makes no sense.
  3. I don’t know if Dr Disrespect did it or not. He certainly got fired for some reason back in 2020 and this could be it. On the other hand, it might have been something else. I just don’t know.

Emotional Thinking

What I want to discuss today is the first two opinions are emotional in nature. I get it. People are emotional. We sometimes think with our hearts not our heads. Ask me about a few of the women I’ve dated.

There are a lot of people who don’t like Dr Disrespect because the personality he displayed on his former channels was extremely abrasive. I’m a jerk and I don’t care. There are also a lot of people who love that attitude.

Those two groups came to opposite conclusions but used the same methodology. Both were wrong, despite the fact one turned out to be right.

Rational Thinking

It’s not easy to think rationally in emotional moments. To control yourself and make the best possible decision despite raging emotions. In this case, the third choice is clearly correct. The evidence is clear that he did something wrong back in 2020. Twitch is unlikely to have fired one of their primary revenue sources without good reason.

But we just don’t know. Conners allegations were just that, allegations.

Guilty

He did it. After more information came out, Dr Disrespect himself admitted he spoke inappropriately to a minor and it led to his firing from Twitch.

It’s important to understand just because those who convicted Dr Disrespect without evidence ended up being correct, doesn’t mean their thinking on the subject was rational.

Naturally, many of those who defended Dr Disrespect continue to do so. Making whatever apologist argument they can find. It’s highly likely those who attacked him to begin with would behave similiarly even if it was discovered he didn’t do it.

Conclusion

This is what emotional and irrational thinking does to you. You become chained to the truth of your ideology. Because you didn’t use logic to come to a conclusion, you aren’t bound by a logical refutation of it.

If you consider a problem logically and attempt to minimize your emotional attachment, you can change your opinion when new evidence arises. When you are emotionally attached to an argument, you find yourself stuck defending the indefensible. It’s a bad look.

Tom Liberman

Joey Chestnut Banned from Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Spectacle

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Joey Chestnut

** Update **

I’ve read several comments suggestion that Chestnut insisted on his new brand of hot dog being used for the contest. If this is the case; then he is to blame. It’s Nathan’s contest and they should use whatever dog they want. However, the updated articles I’m reading still state he was “banned” and therefore what I’ve written stands.

** End Update**

Well, color me jaded. Joey Chestnut banned from Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating spectacle not for performance enhancing drugs, not for cheating, not for criminal activity; but because he now sponsors a different company.

Crazy me, I thought it was a competition open to everyone. Apparently, you’re only allowed to compete if you shill for Nathan’s. Welcome to the sad state of America.

Not a Competition at All

I am triggered. You heard it here first; Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest is not a contest. It’s just an advertising campaign. Who knows how many competitors weren’t allowed to take part in the past because they chose not to hawk Nathan’s wares? The entire thing is a sham. A sham!

Every single “winner” is tainted. The entire spectacle is invalid. I refuse to call it a contest anymore. It’s not. For it to be a true competition you must allow everyone to play. When you ban your most famous competitor you void the entire thing.

Shame on Nathan’s! Shame! I point my finger at you! Shame! We want Joey Chestnut!

Competitions are Open

Do they ask the spicy competitors at the county fair if they sponsor one of the hot sauces? No, they do not. Do they ask the apple pie eating heroes if they sponsor one apple producer? No, they do not. Are professional athletes forbidden to have contracts with sports apparel companies that compete with league apparel sponsorships? No! No! No and no again!

What happened to the spirit of competition in this country? Are we so afraid of competition that we ban anyone who represents a rival brand? I guess so if you’re Nathan’s.

Conclusion

Rise up! Take to the streets. Take to Social Media. Rouse your neighbors, set your dogs barking. Get it, dogs?

Get Joey Chestnut back in the contest and let him sponsor whomever he wants.

Tom Liberman

True Detective Season Two a Horrific Tragedy

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True Detective Season Two

I finally managed to choke down the last episode of True Detective Season Two and I’m glad. I’m glad it’s finally over. Have you ever repeatedly hit yourself in the face with a hammer? What a slog. Season One is some of the finest television I’ve ever seen. Season Four has moments but was ultimately a letdown, perhaps as I watched it directly after True Detective Season One that is to be expected.

Season Two. What to say? I’ll give it a firm do not recommend. It has a fine cast including Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch, and Vince Vaugn but they just can’t overcome the morose writing and directing.

What is True Detective Season Two About?

Darned good question. I’ve seen it and I’m pretty much in the dark. A financier guy who has a bunch of mob money meant to be invested in the high-speed rail project in California gets killed. From there, you’ll need a flow chart.

There are some blue diamonds from a robbery years ago with corrupt cops, vengeful orphans, Russian mobsters, Mexican Mobsters, Arabic Mobsters, corrupt politicians, a new age touchy feely dad, a homosexual war hero with a girlfriend, a corrupt cop, other corrupt cops, corrupt land evaluators, a singer in a nightclub who is a Venezuelan human trafficker, a psychiatrist is also a human trafficker but the bad kind, not the nice kind, sex workers, a black guy who is in charge but I don’t have any idea who he is, a white guy who is friends with the homosexual guy but isn’t. Hell, I have no idea. I lost track of it somewhere around episode three and never got it back.

Relief. Any Relief. Please.

About two thousand years ago some playwrights came up with the idea of comic relief. Shakespeare knew about it. It’s generally considered useful. The people who wrote this mess figured, nah, over-rated. What they figure we want to see are scenes where two people talk to each other in gravelly voices, enunciating each word slowly with the pretentious vocabulary of a dandy Harvard English Professor.

To spice things up between these interminable conversations they throw in an implausible shootout. I use the word implausible generously.

The show is absolutely relentless in its humorless, overly dramatic tone. It never stops. It’s like the Terminator. It will not stop until you are bored and looking at funny cat videos on TikTok, and even then, it will keep going.

Please, you’ll beg, just one joke. A funny line. A prat. I mishap. Anything. Please. For the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I just want to smile once, I don’t even need to laugh, something, anything. A dad joke. A knock-knock joke. Denied! Or, in the language of the show; A predilection for humorous anecdotes is not my natural inclination.

Acting

I can’t blame the actors, it’s clearly the directing. I’ve read the producer of True Detective Season One was given total control of Season Two. Absolute power doesn’t end well. Poor Vince Vaugn has to deliver those awful lines in one slowly spoken conversation after the next. He’s been labeled as miscast but I don’t think it’s his fault. He does the best he can with what he’s got.

Colin Farrell’s son is clearly cast for a single purpose and they think it’s subverting expectations when it turns out to be false in the end. I saw that one coming from episode one and anyone who didn’t just wasn’t watching closely.

Stylish

The show is stylish to a fault. Every camera shot is perfectly diagrammed. Every background meticulously crafted. We get wide-angle shots, close-ups, deserts, cityscapes, redwoods. It’s all beautiful and gritty but it doesn’t seem real. It seems like a student film made by someone who worshipped Alfred Hitchcock but skipped all the other classes.

The Music

Overbearing. Even if a scene doesn’t seem tense, the music tells us it will be soon. The music doesn’t enhance here, it leads the mood. You know exactly what is going to happen when the music starts playing in almost every scene.

Conclusion

I could go on. I won’t. Avoid this. A confusing, overbearing, mess.

Tom Liberman

The Regime is a Maddening Ride

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The Regime

The Regime on HBO. What to say? Indeed, what to say? It’s a show. It’s difficult to watch. It’s maddening to watch. It’s enraging to watch. Comedic, horrific, painful, touching even. Drama? Satire? Comedy? Historical Retelling? Dystopian? I’m not sure, all of them?

The Regime tells the story of Elena Vernham, the chancellor of a Central European autocratic state. She is insane, crafty schemer, delusional maniac, abused daughter, hapless pawn of the Super Powers? Pick your poison.

For Whom are we Rooting?

If you’re looking for something to cheer you up, I’d suggest looking elsewhere. If there is one decent person in this show it’s Agnes whose misguided loyalty to Elena is her ultimate demise.

Everyone else? No, thank you. Elena? Self-serving monster. Herbert? Abusive, violent psycho. The rational cabinet? Greedy pigs stealing from the workers at every opportunity. The husband? Simp. The opposition leader? Manipulative, arrogant prick.

A show has to have someone to like? Bah, we don’t play by those rules.

The Moral Lesson?

Good luck finding anything here. The show isn’t about lifting you up. It’s about despair. Elena, in one of her rare moments of lucidity, confesses she always ends up as back as a scared child. Well, that’s a happy thought.

The Regime Quality

Superb. The acting is top-notch from Kate Winslet’s Elena all the way down. Nobody fails here. I believe them, in all their wretchedness. The sets are superb. The music is a delight, enhancing and not leading. The cinematography is beautiful, well framed shots. The sound is clear and crisp. This is a quality show in every respect. It’s just not easy to watch.

Conclusion

I’m not sure I can come up with a clear conclusion here. The show is wonderful and horrible.

I’ll finish with one observation. Agnes’s son. All but stolen from her by Elena. The last we see; he is laying terrified on the floor as the revolutionaries storm the building. What happened to him? The only thing we know for sure is Elena isn’t wasting any time worrying about it. That’s Elena. That’s the show.

Tom Liberman

Shogun Leaves the Audience in the Dark

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Shogun

I just finished watching the critical acclaimed 2024 Shogun miniseries based on the James Clavell novel. It is an updated version of the 1980 miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain.

Shogun tells the story of John Blackthorn who arrives at the island of Japan as an English merchant hoping to break the Portuguese monopoly on trade. Well, at least that’s the supposed premise but more about that later.

Shogun largely received good reviews from the critics and acclaim from the viewers. There is a lot to like here but it falls tragically short in my opinion. The show goes out of its way to leave the audience in the dark and that ruined it.

Immersion

One of the things that makes a show good is immersion. When I’m watching a show, reading a book, or otherwise engaged in consuming entertainment, I want to feel like I’m part of it all. I want to feel fear for the protagonist, lust for the romantic interest, elation at the victories, sadness at the losses, and all the rest.

The way this is achieved is by including the audience. Let us in. Tell us what’s going on. Shogun spends almost the entire miniseries keeping things from us, I’m guessing so as to spring twists and surprises.

How does Shogun keep us in the dark. Below is a list of things that bothered me, it is not all encompassing but my general thoughts.

What is Kashigi Yabushige Doing? 

The first instance we get of being kept in the dark during Shogun involves the possibly loyal servant of Toranaga, Yabushige. He is a schemer. He understands his lord is possibly going to lose the struggle with the counsel and is playing both sides of the divide to assure his survival.

How do we learn about this? Basically, in a series of conversations between Yabushige and his son. We never actually see him carrying out any scheme. We see him all too obviously prevaricating in conversations with Toranaga which a method of exposing his schemes, none of which we actually see.

Near the end he betrays Mariko and Blackthorn by scheming with a rival lord. Do we see him agonizing about this decision, planning it? Basically he’s asked to do a favor for the rival lord, cut to black.

This is a potentially interesting storyline. If we actually got to be in on Yabushige and his plans, to fear for Toranago, Blackthorn, and Mariko. We don’t and I therefore I don’t really care.

Buntaro’s Survival

The finest warrior in the land stays behind to guard the fleeing Toranaga as he escapes Kyoto. We see Buntaro battling off hordes of warrior as he disappears around a corner.

The next time we see Buntaro is when he returns. We are told he joined a band of Ronin who fought there way across the countryside with only he and one other surviving. Wow! I mean, what a fantastic little story. Are there any scenes of it happening? What about the surviving Ronin, is he made a Samurai by Toranaga? He must be a bad ass!

Nope, nada, nothing. Just one line. Why? Probably because the burgeoning romance between Blackthorn and Mariko must come to a shock conclusion with the arrival of her presumed dead husband. What a shame.

The Gardener’s Death

This one was particularly upsetting to me. At Blackthorn’s home there is a gardener. Blackthorn hangs up a pheasant to rot and the smell is so horrible, the gardener takes it down and is executed for disobeying Blackthorn’s directives.

What really happened? We find it out all through exposition. Toranaga has a spy in the village. Yabushige, discussed earlier, is trying to find that spy. Toranaga and the gardener come up with the plan to frame the gardener as the spy and thus stop Yabushige’s investigation.

The gardener is ill and feels he is near the end of his life. He wants to do one last service for his lord and thus takes down the pheasant knowing he will be executive but only after the fake evidence is planted in his home.

Holy moly! What a fantastic little side-story. It tells us everything about loyalty, the culture of Japan, etc. Do we see any of it? Nope, nothing. We just hear about it after it all happened. What a waste. I want to see the planning, the agony of the gardener’s family, the theft, the execution, the reward for loyalty and honor.

Yoshii Nagakado’s Death 

The son of Toranaga, Yoshii Nagakado, decides to kill his uncle because the man betrayed Toranaga earlier in the episode. He plans a daring raid of the brothel where the uncle is staying. He enlists compatriots, he carries out his plan. Again, great stuff. I want the anticipation of the attack, knowing Taranaga is opposed, perhaps it is almost discovered at the last minutes.

Again, nope, nothing. We’re at the brothel, the attack happens, Nagakado slips, falls, dies. Sadness. I don’t care! I just don’t care! You didn’t involve me! I didn’t see it coming. I had no rising tension. No chance to care.

The Final Plan

Toranaga surrenders to his peers but in reality, he has a cunning plan. He schemes with his must trusted advisor who commits suicide to make the plan more convincing.

Do we know this plan? Are we let in on it? No, no, and no. It’s all sprung on us as a big surprise. It’s the final insult. Nothing could be clearer: audience, we don’t care about you. We don’t want you involved, just sit there, trust us, it’s going to be great.

Is Shogun Terrible?

No, it’s not terrible. The acting is hit and miss. Cosmo Jarvis as Blackthorn and Anna Sawai as Mariko are unconvincing, bland, boring. Their romance is milquetoast. Everyone else is pretty good with particular credit to Moeka Hoshi as Usami Fuji who absolutely steals every scene she’s in. She does more with a single expression than Sawai does with her endless philosophical blithering. I felt her pain at the death of her husband and child, her loathing to serve Blackthorn, and her eventual respect for the man. She I believed. This is a woman of her time, of Japan.

The sets are great when they are actually sets but the CGI, mainly cityscapes and ship scenes, is adequate at best.

The story is scattered. Is it about Blackthorn’s merchant mission? Blackthorn and Mariko? Toranaga’s schemes? It’s just all over the place. It meanders from one place to the next like a drunken sailor without stopping to focus anywhere.

Conclusion

I’ve gone on for quite a bit here so I’ll wrap up quickly. Include me, damn you, Shogun. Let me in!

Tom Liberman

Mr. Bates vs the Post Office Review

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Mr. Bates

This is a difficult one for me to review objectively because the subject matter triggers me greatly. It tells the story of Alan Bates and hundreds of British subpostmasters fighting a power with limitless resources, the government. The entire story in Mr. Bates is everything Libertarians worry about in a government agency.

Basically, the Post Office installed faulty software in all their branches. The faults resulted in many subpostmasters showing accounting shortfalls. The government, along with the software developer, hid the faults, blamed the subpostmasters and sent them to jail, took their money, and largely ruined their lives.

Eventually one subpostmaster, the titular Mr. Bates, managed to raise enough ruckus to bring the attention to the public. It only took twenty-five years. Yep, this whole mess started in 1999 and isn’t fully resolved to this day.

Sadly, my job today isn’t to lambaste the British Post Office and government, it’s to review a television series, and that is what I will do.

Lots of Characters

Mr. Bates starts at the beginning of the disaster when Alan Bates loses his post office because of accounting shortfalls for which he refuses to accept responsibility. He asks for audits, software checks, and what not but is denied.

We then start to meet some of the other subpostmasters encountering the same difficulties. This leads to the biggest problem with the series, there are a lot of characters. It’s not really anyone’s fault and I think they did an admirable job of consolidating people and keeping the total down to a reasonable number. That being said, there are a lot of stories going on at the same time and the complexity of weaving them together is no easy task.

Acting

I found the acting in Mr. Bates to be largely top-notch with Toby Jones in the lead role particularly strong. He shows his determination to see the truth prevail but also his fatigue over the course of the decades long fight. His wife, played by Julie Hesmondhalgh is also quite strong in her role.

Ian Hart as Bob Rutherford is a particular standout although, as I mentioned, the acting is excellent throughout.

Cinematography, Music, and the Rest

All of the supporting features of the show were well done and believable. I was particularly impressed with the music which didn’t try to overwhelm us with emotions but simply enhanced the sometimes-traumatic story. All good work in my opinion.

The Story is the Thing

Mr. Bates is not a big budget, high-production, action movie. The horribly miscarriage of justice that all those subpostmasters suffered is the main star. It’s such a vile story, such a little guy against the government story, that you don’t really need anything else. I commend them for keeping it fairly simple because it could have gotten overly complex and tried too hard to manipulate the viewers emotional. It just told the story and told it properly.

Aftermath

Since the broadcast of Mr. Bates vs the Post Office, public awareness of the situation rose dramatically and reignited the legal proceedings, which as mentioned, continue on today. In that regard I find it impossible not to consider the show to be a spectacular success regardless of anything else.

Conclusion

I found myself immersed and oft-times riveted to the drama of the story. I was never bored although I suspect an audience looking for high-octane drama might find it slow-moving and somewhat dull.

A fantastic series I think well worth watching and not only because I’m a Libertarian.

Tom Liberman