Please watch this video of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school student talking about stopping mass shootings at schools. It's powerful.
I predict the survivors of this shooting will be cited in years to come as the turning point, where the NRA's stranglehold on Congress began to fade. If #Metoo is galvanizing women, this shooting - if this video is an indication - is going to galvanize students and their parents. Any time the pendulum goes too far in one direction, it can start swinging back very quickly.
- to your US Senators and Congress Member. Just google the name + contact info. If you don't know the name, google [Your State} US Senators Contact Info and [Your Zip Code] US Congress Member Contact Info. Or go to
The forms are quick and easy. If each Senator and Rep get 100 people sending in this video, it will make a difference. 1000 people would be even better.
I'd like to think that the young woman in this video got some of her passion and courage to act from having a school named after such a powerful and determined role model. (I would just note that I'm sure that during much, if not most, of her life, Marjory Stoneman Douglas didn't think of herself as powerful.)
Here's my take on the President's speech this morning on the Parkland school shooting. I've done a reasonably close transcript (since I couldn't find any yet)[I did find one before I was done here- it's officially a 'statement'' not a speech] and I'll comment between the lines of his speech. Let me say, that much of the rhetoric and tone were appropriate for this sort of situation. But given the President's own words and behaviors, much of it seems ironic. And if we look carefully at the text, we'll see it's full of clichés but lacking any real substance. This would be an appropriate speech, perhaps after the first school shooting this year, but ABC News reports there have already been 18 school shootings in the first 45 days of 2018. (Not all were intentional, some were suicides.)
Our president and legislators can't keep using the same condolence platitudes.
But before I look at the speech in detail, I want to point out this was very much "a speech." He's using his speech voice as he reads. He is not speaking 'from the heart' or in his natural voice. That's fairly easy to test. Just listen to the last line of the speech:
"Thank you and God bless you all."
If he were actually feeling the words he was speaking, his 'thank you' would have been real. But it wasn't. He didn't even know that he'd just said 'thank you'. How do I know that? Because immediately after finishing the speech, he says in a much more natural tone of voice:
"Thank you very much."
You can hear the switch from speech voice to real voice clearly. Here's the end tape of the tape. [I have it set to begin at 6:22. It seems to do that the first time you play it, then it goes back to the beginning. Which allows you to hear the whole speech if you have nothing better to do.]
The Speech [Trump's words are in italics and indented. Mine are not.]
My fellow Americans, today I speak to a nation in grief. Yesterday, a school filled with innocent children and caring teachers became the scene of terrible violence. hatred, and evil.
Cliché alert. What does 'innocent children' actually mean? These are high school students, not elementary school kids. They may be relatively young, but I'm guessing innocent is not the best word to describe most of them. The shooter, after all, was one of the students last year.
Cliché alert: 'Evil.' While evil is used to mean unspeakably bad, Collins also defines it this way:
"Evil is a powerful force that some people believe to exist, and that causes wicked and bad things to happen."
Evil, in this religious sense, is an underlying natural force in the world. It's often used to deflect blame or suggest there are no solutions. Later in the speech Trump talks about tackling the issue of mental health. Is he demonizing mental illness? Or is evil just one of the words speechwriters always choose for this topic?
"Around 2:30 yesterday afternoon, police responded to reports of gunfire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a great and safe community."
I guess it isn't all that safe. Or if people thought it was, it means there are no safe communities.
"There, a shooter who is now in custody opened fire on defenseless students and teachers. He murdered 17 people and badly wounded at least 14 others. Our entire nation with a one heavy heart is praying for the victims and their families. To every parent, teacher, and child who is hurting so badly, we are here for you whatever we can do, whatever you need, to ease your pain."
Does that include this student from the high school who tweeted in response to Trump's condolence tweet ?
I can't confirm this really is a student at that school, though Newsweek quoted the tweet. But I'm sure there are some students at the school who feel this way. Will gun control be off the agenda when Trump visits the school, like it was in this speech?
"We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also. No child, no teacher should ever be in danger in an American school. No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning."
True, though I wonder how many parents actually kiss their high school students before they head off in the morning? And we've been having school and other mass shootings regularly going back before Sandy Hook. Things haven't gotten safer. What concrete action do you plan to take?
"Each person who was stolen from us yesterday, had a full life ahead of them, a life filled with wondrous beauty and unlimited potential and promise. Each one had dreams to pursue and love to give, and talents to share with the world. And each one had a family to whom they meant everything in the world."
This is really quite beautiful and insightful. And he read it well, but I have some questions. Does he feel this about the kids in ghetto Baltimore? The women who are accusing him of sexual abuse? What about the Dreamers he wants to send back to dangerous, if not life threatening, situations? These are, I'm afraid, just words that the President read, that someone else wrote for him.
"Today we mourn for all of those who lost their lives. We comfort the grieving and wounded. And we hurt for the entire community of Parkland, Florida that is now in shock and pain and searching for answers. To law enforcement, first responders and teachers who responded so bravely in the face of danger: We thank you for your courage."
Appropriate sentiments, not much substantive content.
"Soon after the shooting I spoke to Gov Scott to convey our deepest sympathies to the people of Florida and our determination to assist in any way we can. I also spoke with Florida attorney general Pam Bondi and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel. I’m making plans to visit Parkland to meet with families and local officials and continue coordinating the Federal response."
Pam Bondi, if you recall, was deciding on whether to prosecute Trump University when her campaign got a $25,000 check from aTrump foundation. She made her decision shortly after to drop the case.
"In these moments of heartache and darkness, we hold on to God’s word in scripture, “I have heard your prayer, and seen your tears, I will heal you.” We trust in that promise and we hold fast to our fellow Americans in their time of sorrow."
I'm not a biblical scholar. But I'd note this quote comes from a story in II Kings 20:5 and also in Isaiah, Chapter 38. Hezekiah is ill. Isaiah hears from a prophet that Hezekiah will die. Isaiah tells Hezekiah, who then prays to the Lord to remember he's lived a good life. It is then, that Isaiah hears the words Trump quotes.
"Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’"
This is not a prayer for grieving parents, but for a dying King who is given reprieve.
But Trump is talking to the grieving relatives of dead children and teachers, and unlike Hezekiah, they won't be healed.
"I want to speak now directly to America’s children."
This is perhaps the scariest part of the speech for me. How many people would want Trump to give advice to their children? Especially their high school age daughters? Gives me the creeps.
"Especially to those who feel lost, alone, confused, or even scared. I want you to know that you are never alone and never will be. You have people who care about you and love you and will do anything to protect you.at all. If you need help turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer, or a faith leader.
In general, this is something a loving and caring president might tell children. Yet, for the most vulnerable of children, this isn't necessarily true. Think of the children of religious families who were kicked out when they said they were gay. The kids of drug addicts may not have anyone. And I know that a lot of African-American parents would not tell their kids to report things to local police officers. Kids with mental health problems feel isolated. Like the shooter. Who was helping him? Apparently there were lots of signs he needed help desperately. Are people like him included here? Or are they the evil Trump warns about?
Answer hate with love and cruelty with kindness. We must also work together to create a culture in our country that embraces the dignity of life that creates deep and meaningful human connections and that turns classmates and colleagues into friends and neighbors."
Really? Trump is telling people to answer hate with love, cruelty with kindness? Create deep and meaningful human connections? Were the speechwriters giggling at the irony as they wrote this?
"Our administration is working closely with local authorities to investigate the shooting and learn everything we can. "
"We have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico."
...people are now starting to recognize the amazing work that has been done by FEMA and our great Military. All buildings now inspected....."
Can we believe him?
"We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools tackle the the difficult issue of mental health."
"Later this month I will be meeting with the nation’s governors and attorney generals [sic] where making our schools and children safer will be our top priority."
I can't find anything about a meeting between the president and the governors and AG's. The only official looking schedule for the president I can find is at Fact Based, but it only goes backward in time from today. Not into the future.
There is a National Governor's Association Winter meeting scheduled for February 24- in DC. Maybe that's what he's referring to. Its agenda doesn't include school shootings or mental health. How exactly does the president meet with the 50 governors and attorneys general? Almost half the state AG's have already sued the President over various issues in his first year in office. So they don't seem to have "created deep and meaningful human connections" with the president yet.
They're only meeting for two days and they already have a full agenda. I just don't see this as more than a way to look like he's going to do something. The kind of thing the next sentence of his speech warns against.
"It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference. In times of tragedy, the bonds that sustain us are those of family, faith, community, and country. These bonds are stronger than the forces of hate and evil. And these bonds grow even stronger in the hours of our greatest need."
So we're supposed to rely on our bonds of family, faith, community, and country to end school shootings? More on the forces of hate and evil.
"And so always, but especially today, let us hold our loved ones close, let us pray for healing and for peace, and let us come together as one nation and wipe away the tears and strive for a much better tomorrow. Thank you and God bless you all."
That ends the official speech, but then, finally, Trump talks in his real voice. Which, as I pointed out above, shows that he wasn't even comprehending what he was reading. Since the end of the official speech already ended with a thank you.
Thank you very much.
I'd also point out that simply talking about mentally ill people being the problem is also problem. TheNational Alliance on Mental Illness claims that18% of US adults experience mental health problems in any year. That's almost 20% of our population. The vast majority are NOT high risk to be shooters. Linking mental illness so broadly to mass shootings is likely to continue the stigma of mental health, and mean fewer people seek treatment for their mental health problems.
Words play a huge role in what we know. Even our own observations are affected by the language we speak and think in. We wrap our experiences in the words we have available. Very few of us break those constraints and create new words if the ones we have are inadequate.
Here are some examples word issues in today's newspaper:
Marijuana industry gets blunt: Stop using the word ‘pot’
". . .But marijuana still carries a stigma that surfaces with the use of old slang like pot and weed. For many, the words evoke an image of lazy, not-so-bright people who puff their lives away.
The image deeply bothers the marijuana industry, which is telling the public — sometimes gently, sometimes curtly — that they should use the word cannabis. That's the scientific name for the plant from which marijuana is derived."
Here, it appears the cannabis industry is trying to change its (in business jargon) 'brand.' 'Brand' is a word I dislike. "Branding" epitomizes the idea of substituting the image of something for the actual essence of it. Branders want people to think about their product a certain way so it sells better. It's the image, not the product itself, that they are selling. 'Brand' is a way of 'branding' the word 'deception' and making it into something that's seen as good.
I don't think that the name for cannabis matters all that much - it's the intrinsic product that people are interested in, no matter what you call it. I suspect those holding negative images of 'pot' are dying out. That view was part of the political ideology that didn't like rock music, hippies, and Vietnam war protestors
2. Bubble Deflates - Another ADN headline that comes originally from the New York Times:
BITCOIN FALLS BELOW $10,000 AS VIRTUAL CURRENCY BUBBLE DEFLATES
Did you ever see a bubble deflate? Balloons and tires can lose their air slowly (deflate), but bubbles burst. Except, it seems, in economics. But then economists often deductive, starting with theory they tell us how the world works. It's the theory, not the real world that matters. In economics, for example, people only make 'rational' decisions. And, bubbles deflate. It took people like Vernon Smith to actually do experiments to burst some of this economic bubble nonsense.
This is just lazy thinking. Mixed metaphors are a kind of lazy thinking. "A carpenter was the low rung on a totem pole." comes from a long list of mixed metaphors. But if you google 'deflated bubble' you'll find lots of serious economics examples of this term.
3. Other Word Battles George Lakoff tells us that framing the debate is the most critical thing in political discourse. We've fought over words like "illegal alien" versus "undocumented worker"; 'baby killing' versus 'pro-choice.' The list goes on and on.
The conservatives have made a science of this and do it masterfully. The never say 'the Democratic Party." They say 'the Democrat Party." It's like taking someone's name and changing it just a little bit to irritate them and control what they are called. It's a form of bullying. And their most successful reframing was the term 'political correctness.' Even liberal have bought into this perversion.
Liberals try to ban words that insult or demean or even terrorize other human beings, generally people who are NOT white heterosexual males. There are plenty of other terms to use that are more respectful and so these bans don't hinder political discussion.
Last night we saw a play called "Church and State" put on by a group of folks called RKP Productions.*
SPOILER ALERT: I don't think I can make my point here about being compelled to tell the truth without revealing a bit too much of this play. And I'd encourage people to see the play and stay for the discussion. It plays two more times: tonight (Saturday) and Sunday afternoon at the Alaska Experience Theater. You can get ticket info here and then jump down to "Spoiler Over" in this post.
In the play, Southern Republican US Senator Charlie Whitmore is three days from the election, when his New York campaign manager and his wife are asking him what's wrong? Why is he so jumpy? They're back stage at some venue where he's due to talk to a large crowd shortly.
He's trying to tell them, but it's hard. It comes out in dribbles. He's told a blogger that he doesn't believe in God. His wife freaks out - how can you not believe in God? The campaign manager wants to know specifically what he said so she can prepare some damage control announcements, give him a statement for the speech that's minutes away.
Slowly the whole context comes out. They'd just been, earlier that day, to a funeral for the child (children?) of family friends, kids who were killed in a school massacre. The blogger had asked him if he had prayed for the kids and the Senator said 'No' and went on to question the existence of a god who would permit such things to happen.
The debate then ensues among the firmly Christian wife, the Jewish campaign manager, and the Senator about what he's going to say when he gets on the stage. He tells them he can't lie. They tell him that questioning the existence of God and mentioning tightening gun laws will cost him the election. He insists he can't lie. He'll let God inspire him in his talk.
Will he tell his 'truth' or will he read the prepared speech?
Spoiler Over
People will debate whether dropping out of the election was the right move for Flake. Clearly Republican primaries are toxic these days plus lots of dark money would be poured into the race to defeat Flake. Was dropping out now the dignified thing to do? Is dignity more important than fighting for what is right, even if that doesn't win the election?
Democrats may laud Flake for standing up against Trump's boorishness, but they must keep in mind:
"If anything, [Flake] held on because he is a strong supporter of most of Trump’s policies and personnel decisions. He voted for his judicial nominees, his regulatory rollbacks and the GOP health-care plan."
Church and State, written by Jason Odell Williams, ran off-Broadway until June of this year and so Alaskans are getting a relatively early look at this play.
Retired Judge Karen Hunt interviewed a representative from Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America (MDA) and then moderated a discussion (she emphasized it was not a debate) among audience members. They've had such discussions after every performance and included NRA reps.
I think it's telling that when someone asked about where the MDA meetings were held, the speaker said that for security reasons, that info is only given out after people sign in to their Facebook page.
*I'd also note that RKP productions was put together by longtime Anchorage theater folks: Bob Pond, who recently passed away, Richard Reichman, and Audrey and Bruce Kelly. The program says that RKP
"has achieved what we consider to be meaningful theatre programs by 'partnering' with other fine organizations: Anchorage Community Theater, Cyrano's Theatre Company and Out North Contemporary Art House . . "
Last night's performance was at the Alaska Experience Theater, the new home of Out North, and the large (only in comparison to the small) theater makes a much better space for live theater than it does for movies. The closeness that makes the screen overwhelming, is great when there are live actors.
While the power of the NRA over gun issues seems insurmountable, it's helpful to remember that no great power exists forever. As more and more Americans are personally affected by gun violence, extreme Second Amendment rights will be whittled down to a more sensible balance between the right to life and the right to own guns.
When Democrats ask people not to use certain terms and phrases, it tends to be words that are demeaning or hurtful to categories of people.
When Republicans ask people not to use certain terms and phrases, it tends to be words that reflect truths they want to deny.
Is it true or not? I'm guessing it might be, but I'm starting with way too little real evidence. But here's just one example: Expunging 'climate change' in government agencies.
"Staff at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been told to avoid using the term climate change in their work, with the officials instructed to reference “weather extremes” instead."
"A supervisor at the Energy Department's international climate office told staff this week not to use the phrases "climate change," "emissions reduction" or "Paris Agreement" in written memos, briefings or other written communication, sources have told POLITICO.
Employees of DOE’s Office of International Climate and Clean Energy learned of the ban at a meeting Tuesday, the same day President Donald Trump signed an executive order at EPA headquarters to reverse most of former President Barack Obama's climate regulatory initiatives. Officials at the State Department and in other DOE offices said they had not been given a banned words list, but they had started avoiding climate-related terms in their memos and briefings given the new administration's direction on climate change. . .
A DOE spokeswoman denied there had been a new directive. "No words or phrases have been banned for this office or anyone in the department,” said DOE spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler."
"The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in this country, according to scientists. Sea-level rise alone threatens 30 percent of the state’s beaches over the next 85 years.
But you would not know that by talking to officials at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the state agency on the front lines of studying and planning for these changes.
DEP officials have been ordered not to use the term “climate change” or “global warming” in any official communications, emails, or reports, according to former DEP employees, consultants, volunteers and records obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
The policy goes beyond semantics and has affected reports, educational efforts and public policy in a department that has about 3,200 employees and $1.4 billion budget."
Fortunately, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) is a Congressional, not Executive, agency, so it, apparently can still write about climate change. Their report, dated Sept. 28, 2017 doesn't mince words:
"Why GAO Did This Study
Over the last decade, extreme weather and fire events have cost the federal government over $350 billion, according to the Office of Management and Budget. These costs will likely rise as the climate changes, according to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. In February 2013, GAO included Limiting the Federal Government's Fiscal Exposure by Better Managing Climate Change Risks on its High-Risk List.
GAO was asked to review the potential economic effects of climate change and risks to the federal government. This report examines (1) methods used to estimate the potential economic effects of climate change in the United States, (2) what is known about these effects, and (3) the extent to which information about these effects could inform efforts to manage climate risks across the federal government. GAO reviewed 2 national-scale studies available and 28 other studies; interviewed 26 experts knowledgeable about the strengths and limitations of the studies; compared federal efforts to manage climate risks with leading practices for risk management and economic analysis; and obtained expert views. What GAO Recommends
GAO recommends that the appropriate entities within the Executive Office of the President (EOP), including the Office of Science and Technology Policy, use information on potential economic effects to help identify significant climate risks and craft appropriate federal responses. EOP entities and the Environmental Protection Agency did not provide official comments on the report."
Actually, they do mince words. The opening of this overview talks about the research in a way that gives deniers lots of cover:
"The methods and the studies that use them produce imprecise results because of modeling and other limitations but can convey insight into potential climate damages across sectors in the United States."
Maybe that's there for those folks who only read the first paragraph of so. The rest is pretty alarming, though from what I can tell, they are very conservative in their estimates of the costs of not dealing with climate change - both through lowering carbon emissions and mitigation efforts to deal with the impacts of climate change.
But I need to keep collecting more examples of what Republicans complain about as 'political correctness' and the words and phrases (and in the case of 'taking a knee' actions) they don't want others to use. Will my hypothesis hold up.
I'd note that I've discussed political correctness before and basically it refers to someone or organization using their power to keep people from using certain words or espousing certain ideas.
I would note that this climate change example is basically a form of censorship in an attempt to stifle discussion of what I think is the greatest threat to humanity. And it's similar to the NRA's successful campaign to prevent the Center For Disease Control from doing research on gun violence. Without data, scientists can't 'prove' anything. Now that is real political correctness. "You can't study what we don't want you to study."
Sometimes I think that many, if not most, Americans think of people living outside of the US as not as smart, not living as good a life, just somehow less than Americans. But I suspect that non-American see us much more clearly and objectively than we see them or ourselves.
Most educated folks outside the US tend to speak and read and understand English at a level that few Americans (other than immigrants) can match with other languages. They can read understand our newspapers and listen to and understand our television news. How is it that someone who only speaks American English thinks he's smarter and knows better than people in other countries who speak their own language plus ours, and sometimes a few more?
They know way more about us than most of us know about them.
For example, this Dutch TV host seems to see our gun problem much more clearly than many Americans. How many Americans even know who heads the government of Holland, or even what his or her title is?
OK, to be fair to Americans, because we have been the West's most powerful nation and have great influence on the rest of the world, we are the country that others are most interested in knowing about. Or at least have had the most reason to keep track of what we do. And because English is the lingua franca of most of the world, it's much easier for English speakers to travel the world using English. The people of Holland cannot expect too many people, when they travel outside of Holland, to speak or understand Dutch. So they have a greater incentive to learn at least enough English to get by with.
While that explains why it's easier for us to just get by with English, it doesn't change the fact that that means the rest of the world knows a lot more about us than we know about them. And that gives them a leg up on us that we should be more humble about than we are.
2. NRA Establish 24 Hour Massacre News Channel
As I listened to NPR (looks pretty close to NRA, doesn't it) switch to all day coverage of Las Vegas today, I realized it's only a matter of time before we need full time coverage of mass murders. They'll fill in with other more mundane murders on slower days. The more shootings, the more people will want more guns to compete for the Guinness records or to protect themselves.
The gun control people want to limit who gets guns and the kinds of guns they get.
The pro-gun people (chiefly sponsored by the gun and arms industry through the NRA) argue that people, not guns, kill people, so everyone (except Muslims probably) should have unlimited access (it seems since they seem to start lobbying if a member of Congress even thinks about gun control.)
It's clear that both people and guns together kill people. A person with a knife can kill a small crowd, but not fifty, and not from a distance. People can also use bombs and vehicles and other ways to kill more people at once. But automatic weapons seem to be the most efficient and effective way to kill many people in a short time.
Then there's the people. The president used the word 'evil' to describe the Las Vegas killer. That's a word that is bandied about whenever there is a mass killing. Evil is a word that makes the killer seem to be inherently bad through and through. An agent of Satan. (ISIS claimed credit for the Las Vegas killing, but I haven't heard about Satan's claim yet.) Not someone you might know and say hi to every day.
The stats on deaths by guns around the world, make it clear that the easy access to weapons in the United States plays a role in the carnage here. And as we learn about people involved in mass shootings, there's always some sort of long simmering resentment of people in general or some group of people. Mostly based on personal issues of some sort.
There is currently a high level of anger among people in the United States. Our current president claims that anger is what got him elected and he may be right. But my point here is that people who commit mass murders often are people with a great deal of anger about something - loss of a job, loss of a spouse. But underlying it all is loss of respect, probably most importantly self-respect.
We have a society that produces a lot of angry people with declining self-esteem. I would argue that a number of social, political, and economic factors play a part.
Capitalism, which reduces everything to money and making it as efficiently as possible, plays a role, by squeezing more work out of employees for less money and using much of the employee share to enrich officers and shareholders. That's the abstract part. More concretely technology is making workers redundant. Technology and foisting work onto the customer is now rampant. It started, in my experience, with self-service gas stations. Now travel agents are almost gone as people have to go online to book their own tickets. Receptionists are gone as we spend a minute or more listening to simulated voices giving us choices of buttons to push until we finally get to what we need - and the companies seem to hope we won't need a human. We have self service lines in the grocery. Each of these changes cuts out jobs. Businesses have been fighting unions forever. With fewer employees represented by unions, workers rights and wages and benefits erode and erode. Lots of people work long hours for less money. A smaller number of workers get good wages and benefits.
Pluralism is a political theory of governance that stems from the idea of separation of powers and the competition of interest groups to influence policy decisions. The money spent by corporations to support candidates and ideas, to lobby legislators, and to spin truth to the public has gone up significantly. So we have a majority party that wants to cut millions out of the health care programs and wants to cut taxes to the wealthy at the expense of the middle and lower economic classes.
Both capitalism and pluralism share the idea that the best outcome comes from the competition of self-interested players. And while surely different interests keeping watch on each other is helpful, the theory doesn't account for things like altruism and community spirit. Self-interest was the only thing most economists counted as 'rational' thinking for years. It's all about competition. And the balance falls apart when some groups gain much greater power to compete than others. And that's what has happened over the last 60 years as we've moved from a country where the gaps between the richest and poorest in society, and the lowest and highest paid employee in a company, were much lower, to our current (and worsening) situation where the gaps are growing greater and greater. And if the Republicans manage to pass the kind of tax reform our president is extolling, it will get worse.
I'd argue that it is this spreading sense of loss of economic and political power that plays a huge role in the anger Americans feel these days. If we don't address that, we won't affect the people who not only are angry, but are also unhinged enough to commit suicide through spectacular mass murders which give them so sort of attention. And as I mentioned in the previous post (not at all thinking about writing this post since Las Vegas hadn't yet happened), bad attention is better than no attention.
These shooter know that their lives will be the center of national, if not world, attention for at least several days if not more. They will get their 'glory' for the way society has treated them. I'm not saying their thinking is right, but I'm just trying to offer a possible explanation for behavior that seems unexplainable. Because if we don't understand why people commit such acts, we have no hope for finding ways to prevent them. Calling them 'evil' essentially puts all the blame on the shooter and doesn't allow for reflecting on how our society helps to create so many angry, bitter people with access to weapons that can kill fifty people in a few minutes.
As I listened to NPR this morning, I kept hearing the same stories over and over. They simply do not have enough information to fill the time with meaningful new news. It's as though they feel that to compete with social media, they have to report each tidbit of new information - whether confirmed or not - because otherwise people won't listen. I'd argue that people would like to hear more reasoned thoughtful stories and can wait a few hours for serious updates on the current crisis. Only people who might have a direct connection to the story - people whose friends and family might be involved - have a compelling reason to stay closely tuned in. And they'd probably do better with social media outlets where they can set up two way communication.
But we all have a responsibility to let the media know we want more thoughtful coverage. Instant news is less important than well-done news. And it may well be that people like me are in the minority. That we have become, as a nation, sensation junkies. That news, for most people, serves the functions of entertainment and confirmation of our own biases. If that's the case, democracy won't survive.
There was a book I couldn't get in LA, San Francisco, or Anchorage. But Elliott Bay Book Company said they had a copy when I called. It's a surprise for a relative, so nothing here yet.
But here are some other books I saw on the shelves. Remember books?
HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CAT ABOUT GUN SAFETY - Zachary Auburn
From the Preface:
"My fellow purrtiots, You hold in your hands the only book in print today with the courage to tell it like it is. To stand up to the idolaters, the liberals, the international bankers, and the secret kings of Europe who want to destroy America and replace it with their one-world government. To bring about our downfall, these villains have targeted what is surely our greatest national resource: our cats. They know that no other cats in the world are as cute as ours. American cats have the softest bellies, the fluffiest tails, and the loudest purrs. We are the greatest country in the history of the world, and we have the cats to match. Our enemies know they have no chance of defeating us while we stand tall with our cats by our sides, and so for years these scoundrels have worked in the shadows, trying to weaken us and our cats. Stripping from ur cats their Second Amendment right to bear arms! Undermining the faith of our kittens by teaching them the lie of evolution! Addicting out feline friends to the scourge of catnip! The cats of America are under siege . . ."
BLANKETS, Craig Thomson
From DrawnandQuarterly:
"This groundbreaking graphic novel, winner of two Eisner and three Harvey Awards, is an eloquent portrait of adolescent yearning; first love (and first heartache); faith in crisis; and the process of moving beyond all of that. Beautifully rendered in pen and ink, Thompson has created a love story that lasts."
Rad Women Worldwide tells fresh, engaging, and inspiring tales of perseverance and radical success by pairing well researched and riveting biographies with powerful and expressive cut-paper portraits. Covering the time from 430 B.C.E. to 2016, spanning 31 countries around the world, the book features an array of diverse figures, including Hatshepsut (the great female king who ruled Egypt peacefully for two decades), Malala Yousafzi (the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize), Poly Styrene (legendary teenage punk and lead singer of X-Ray Spex), and Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft (polar explorers and the first women to cross Antarctica). This progressive and visually arresting book is a compelling addition to works on women’s history.
"Known for her trademark folkloric spreads, Caldecott Honoree Ringgold showcases the arrival of people immigrating to America. By way of luscious colors and powerful illustrations, readers embark upon a journey toward togetherness, though it’s not without its hardships: “Some of us were already here / Before the others came,” reads an image with Native Americans clad in ornate jewelry and patterned robes. The following spread continues, “And some of us were brought in chains, / Losing our freedom and our names.” Depicted on juxtaposing pages are three bound, enslaved Africans and an African family unchained, free. The naïve-style acrylic paintings feature bold colors and ethnic diversity—Jewish families, Europeans, Asian, and South Asian groups all come to their new home. Muslims and Latinos clearly recognizable as such are absent, and Ringgold’s decision to portray smiling, chained slaves is sure to raise questions (indeed, all figures throughout display small smiles). Despite these stumbling blocks, the book’s primary, communal message, affirmed in its oft-repeated refrain, is a welcome one: “We came to America, / Every color, race, and religion, / From every country in the world.” Preceding the story, Ringgold dedicates the book 'to all the children who come to America….May we welcome them….'”
THE BATTLE FOR HOME - Marwa Al-Sabouoni
From The Guardian.
". . . With so much of the country destroyed, what will the future look like? People close their eyes, and they wonder: is it even possible to imagine such a thing? Marwa al-Sabouni believes it is – and her eyes are wide open. A 34-year-old architect and mother of two, Sabouni was born and grew up in Homs, scene of some of the most vicious fighting. Unlike many, however, she did not leave Syria – or even Homs itself – during the war. The practice she and her husband still (in theory) run together on the old town’s main square was shut up almost immediately: this part of the city quickly became a no-go area. But her home nearby somehow survived intact, and her family safe inside it. “I’m lucky,” she says. “I didn’t have to leave my home. We were stuck there, as if we were in prison; we didn’t see the moon for two years. But apart from broken windows there was no other damage.” She laughs, relishing my astonishment at this (we’re talking on Skype, which feels so strange, the cars in her street honking normality – or a version of it – with their horns). . . "
ATLAS OBSCURA: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders - Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, Ella Morton
This book is divided by continents and then countries. I randomly opened to a page to a 'hidden wonder' I'd actually been to. On India's northwest border with Pakistan, outside Amritsar, there's a bizarre, but uplifting ceremony held each sundown when the flag is powered at the border called the
Wagah border ceremony. A couple pages later was another choice Indian attraction we had visited - Jantar Mantar, an observatory built in 1728, in Jaipur. The Alaska entries are less compelling. The Eklutha cemetery and the Adak National Forest sign are definitely unique, but not quite of the same magnitude as those Indian entries.
". . . Nein is not no. Nein is not yes. Nein is nein," he explains. The slim manifesto is divided into digestible, tweet-length aphorisms (each on its own page) with a hashtag for a title. "#TechRevolution/ Turn on./ Log in./ Unsubscribe./ Log out." Jarosinski also includes a hilarious glossary of Nein-ish words and phrases. Performance art, for instance, is defined as "six doppelgangers in search of a selfie." Technology particularly draws his ire. He calls Instagram a "marketplace in which pictures of your cat are exchanged for a thousand unspoken words of derision." There are gems on nearly every page. The book might seem tongue-in-cheek, but Jarosinski's cynical aphorisms about philosophy, art, language, and literature hold plenty of truth. . . "
"Quite the opposite. As has been widely observed,
Trump is beyond traditional parody. His demeanor, speech and behavior are so over the top, there's no point in trying to exaggerate it"
This post is a response to that challenge.]
The Trump Shooter Network
Confidential sources high in the Trump business empire have leaked to us news about a new cable channel that will begin airing in early October called "The Trump Shooter Network."
The network will feature the latest shootings from around the world, but with a focus on the USA. Aside from "Breaking Shooting News," the network will have daily programs on mass shootings, terrorist shootings, robbery shootings, gang shootings, accidental shootings (particularly those involving children), suicide shootings, and shooting games.
There will also be a program of best home video of shootings.
Mass shooting anniversaries will be celebrated.
There will also be features on the lives of shooters and their victims. And detailed reports on the specific types of guns used in shootings.
The network will have a mass shooting calendar so that mass shooters can plan their activities on days that don't have other mass shootings.
Subscribers to the Shooter Network will automatically be enrolled in the NRA and will be eligible for steep discounts at gun shops and gun shows.
They can also sign up for gun buyers' pre-check so they can always use the fast line when purchasing weapons.
When asked about whether the timing of the debut of this network was aimed at affecting the election, our source said, "Actually, Trump's presidential run was timed to support the rollout of the network."
A spokesperson for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said they were hopeful the channel would make it easier to track gun violence data. An NRA rep told us the channel would help Americans understand the danger all around them and the need to arm themselves. And a staffer at Negative Population Growth, lamented that this was the natural outgrowth of too many people fighting for finite resources.
Media reporter Brooke Gladstone didn't think the channel would be a big deal, "After all, the mainstream media are close to doing this already."
"That allowed conservative activists like Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, to exert greater influence. Mr. Perkins’s hand could be seen in dozens of amendments on issues like gun control, religious expression and bathroom use."
I'm beginning to think that Perkins' sharing the name of the actor who played Norman Bates is no coincidence. Can you say Psycho?
He's giving Clinton a great Republican platform to run against.
Watch the media patterns after mass shootings and other disasters. They start by broadcasting whatever tidbits they can find and filling in with lots of 'woe is us,' 'pray for the families,' and trying to figure which current narratives explain what happened. Was he homophobic? Was he Muslim? Was he a terrorist? An Immigrant? Oh, he pledged his allegiance to ISIS and he's Afghan (did I forget that he was born in the US?), presto, this is a radical Muslim terrorist attack.
And, did you notice that the only facts they were sure of at the beginning weren't always right. "50 killed" "That number will surely grow." Now we're being told it's 49 killed and so far the rest are still alive - six in critical condition.
We all have narratives in our heads - stories that help us organize 'facts' into a coherent explanation of the world. And it looks like politicians, and maybe eve the shooters themselves, these days might be manipulating our narratives to hide their personal conflicts and demons. Or to divert our attention from the weapons used.
We don't know anything for certain, but one thought I had from early on, is being supported by some evidence. NOTE:This is a thought experiment - exploration of possible explanations. It's NOT truth, it's thinking outlaid
ISIS as cover. Number 1.
A few LGBT folks in the area are saying that they've seen the shooter at the Pulse, frequently. That he's got a profile on a gay hookup app. Suggesting that perhaps this young man was a somewhat-closeted gay man. This narrative suggests he couldn't come out to his family and was terribly conflicted and frustrated. His internalized homophobia turned against himself and other gays who lived a life he couldn't.
What better proof of his straight masculinity than massacring gays and then using the banner of self-proclaimed Muslim saviors to cover your own personal problems?
[UPDATE June 17, 2016: Here's some support of this idea from a Slate article:
"Orlando may be another variant, then, of what the French scholar of Islam Olivier Roy has called the “Islamicization of radicalism.” Islam is used by an individual already on the edge of violence to justify his actions and give him status to at least one audience, as indeed has already happened to Mateen. Details on Mateen’s background are still trickling in, but his ex-wife claimed he was abusive in their marriage and not particularly zealous in his faith."]
"Instead of focusing on the weapon that was used, there should be a focus on radical Islam. The focus should not be on the weapon, it should be on the individual’s heart and the cowardly acts that he performed."
This narrative says it's all about the shooter; the guns he had are irrelevant.
Really?! For the survivors, in the long run, it really doesn't matter if he was a self hating gay, if he was treated badly because he looks suspicious in the dominant American world view. It doesn't matter what any of the shooter's issues were in terms of getting past the carnage. Yes, it would help if Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian pulpits spoke to their congregations about love instead of attacking women and the lgbt community.
But if disturbed people - whatever the cause of the issues, whether it's biological or sociological - didn't have such easy access to automatic weapons, there'd be people still alive in Sandy Hook, Columbine, Roseburg, and San Bernadino, and Orlando.
Instead we hear each time about mental health and terrorists, and strong denials by politicians supported by the gun industry controlled NRA. First it was Al Qaeda, now it's ISIS. ISIS is the distraction that keeps us from talking about the first steps that we can do to cut down on the slaughter taking place across the United States. And that's because of the Congress members who hear NRA money pouring into their campaigns.
This is not about logic, it's about power. It's about courage. Or rather lack of courage. It's about electing politicians who care more about the people they represent than about their own egos and power. Politicians who are willing to risk their jobs for what's right. And we're moving to a situation where anyone who opposes the gun lobby runs the risk, not only of losing their office, but even losing their lives. Ask Gaby Giffords what she's doing about this.
ISIS as cover. Number 3:
But bigger than the guns, is that we're living in a society that produces way too many alienated and angry men. Again, there are lots of narratives explaining this. Some argue we've turned our backs on God or there are too many immigrants.
The bigger, overarching context for the alienation, in my view, is our competitive society that is structured to enrich a relative few and impoverish many. Until the system is recalibrated that alienation will continue. We need recover some of the economic security that has been destroyed. People need to feel economically ready to have a family. Then they need the time to love their children and teach them to love themselves.
We also have to learn how to focus on what's important instead of the increasing number of distractions the internet offers us all. Including this blog. We need to take care of our selves, our families. The people around the world both envy our material wealth and personal freedom and they fear what it will do to their own societies as the world begins to look more and more the same. As we lose the rich diversity of cultures that offers us many possible ways of living. And that's why organizations - if we can even call it that - like ISIS become symbols of defiance. Why guns become symbols of manhood. Why Trumps become symbols of rebellion. People are desperate for meaning in their lives, for something to believe in, for hope.
I remember years ago when someone in China first gave me a copy of China's Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States. Of course, it's a response to American reports on human rights violations in China, but still it is sobering to review it. To see what we look like in others' eyes. We need to think carefully of the two gods that Americans rely on - the one in the bible and the invisible hand of the market. Because those are the solutions we're given when confronted by the ISIS cover - pray to God and let the market take care of things.
I woke up to NPR trying to talk about a story about which they had only about 20 seconds of facts, yet they kept on for minutes. And then a few minutes later they returned to repeat their long sparse story. There's got to be a better way for the media to say "This is important" without saying the same few things plus a lot of nothing over and over again.
And how do we respond? How do we keep on living our lives when we're assaulted by news like this over and over again? 50 people dead. 53 more in the hospital. People's different internal narratives will lead them to rant about guns, ISIS, the NRA, immigrants, God, gays. About terrorism. Hate. To pray for the victims? Does that include the shooter? To pray for the responders who have to identify bodies and clean up the horror. For the families, some of whom might only now be finding out their loved one was gay? Oh dear, the world is so heavy, even as far across the country as I am from Orlando. And people in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria deal with this sort of slaughter more regularly. How do they survive? My personal experience is that children help us survive. We must provide for them for the youngest of them are mostly unaware of what has happened and they force us to get back to normal to attend to their needs.
Only time lessens such pain. But the time between atrocities gets shorter and shorter. Distractions can make the time go faster. So let me try to distract. A little. The coverage I heard this morning repeated that the police were investigating whether this was terrorism or a hate crime.
I'd like to divert you to a long discussion on whether hate crimes are terrorism I put up September 14, 2012. It looks at the legal definitions of terrorism and hate crimes and points out inconsistency of some politicians who strongly oppose hate crime legislation (and as cautious as I am about jumping to conclusions, I can't imagine how shooting up a gay nightclub can't be a hate crime) also strongly support antiterrorism legislation. It's one of my better posts.
I'm already imagining reading a Bridge of San Luis Rey type book - though ten times longer - that tells the stories of all the people killed and wounded at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
We went to see Stalking The Bogey Man at UAA tonight. Get tickets and go. Not only is it a powerful play, but Anchorage is the locale for most of it, and the topic is one of the most important for our children. You won't be bored. You can get tickets here. There's no one who shouldn't see this play - unless you're a rape victim and can't deal with it yet. More on it later. I don't have time to do it justice tonight.
But as we were walking to the theater on campus I was struck by this big sign.
We have a smoke free campus here. You can't take a break any more and stand outside when it's 10˚F out and puff with your fellow smokers. You have to actually get off campus. I'm not sure if that isn't taking things a little too far, but I started pushing for no smoking in class back in the mid 1970s, so I definitely like the indoor ban.
But I was thinking about the headline in this morning's paper as I passed this sign.
There's no real middle ground here. There are national organizations, like ALEC and Americans for Prosperity that are anti-worker, anti-regulation, anti-public school, and other right wing legislation at the state level. It's far cheaper to influence state officials than national ones. I don't know that either of these organizations is helping with this drive. I don't know who's helping Pete Kelly with this bill. But I know the people of Fairbanks are responsible for electing Pete Kelly and the other Republican legislators who have supported this bill are all culpable in this.
My Senator - Berta Gardner - pointed out the other day that while the Senate is forcing the University to change it's concealed weapon policy, they aren't themselves allowing guns in the capital building. I guess that's next year. And I'd bet there are a few legislators who have guns in their offices.
The legislature has ignored the warnings about oil and the state budget for years. And now, instead of seriously working on raising revenue to keep the University strong as well as other important government services, they're refusing to consider raising revenues like responsible states do - through an income tax. But they do have time to pass legislation to allow concealed carry on campus. Even the highly corporate Board of Regents don't support this law. This isn't about safety on compass, it's about power - and what better symbol of power than a gun.
But, in the mean time, concealed carry, or any carry, is not allowed on campus. But if Pete Kelly gets his way, while you won't be able to light up on campus, you can take your gun when you talk to your professor about your grade on the last exam.
I realize that posts like this will probably cause a group to sponsor legislation to allow smoking on campus.
Officials shot one of the Oregon protesters at a road block. They've released the video. Lots of thoughts go through my head.
Once more, why aren't officers trained in non-lethal restraint and capture? A shooting and a death should be the very last resort. Cops who kill should be thought of as failing to do their jobs. But they need better training. I think of Asian martial arts masters whose training is for self-defense, and who use their control of their bodies to disarm their enemies. But a gun is so much easier. No years of training of the body and the mind. Just pull a trigger.
I can't help but think - well, white guys get shot too. But that's not the answer. No one should get shot except in the most extreme circumstances. I think the approach to wait things out was good. Let the cold and the boredom take down the protesters. The buildings are high priority places, particularly in the winter. But then, why this? Where's Zorro with his whip when we need him? Where are all the Kung Fu masters?
I think of how people watching this who have no sympathy for the protesters, DO have sympathy for other protesters, and vice versa.
I think, in the future, others who see this will think: if they're just going to die anyway, why not crash into the vehicles and take some cops with them, rather than swerve off into the snow? Or maybe he thought he'd get around them. This does counter the report that he was on his knees with his hands held high, but it still doesn't look good.
OK, these are all things that go through my head as I watch the video. Maybe it only means that a cop, in a high adrenalin situation panicked and pulled the trigger.
The bigger issues are why Americans are angry and divided. They involve the income disparity in the US. College grads facing graduation with huge debts that cut down their options. They need to get a job and pay off the debts. They have less room to fail. Of course, that's a luxury that Americans have had - second, third, and fourth chances - that other people around the world don't have. Many don't even have first chances.
And even those who went into 'sure career' fields, like petroleum engineering, find out that timing is everything. And it's older folks facing retirement with not much savings. It's hard working folks who have saved their money who think their success is solely their own doing, who don't see the help they got along the way. And feel no sympathy for those who didn't have the skills or the will power or the luck to retire financially comfortable. And maybe they've got money, but the pursuit of that money has left many of their family members wounded.
" Mortality rates were 60% to 76% higher than they would have been if the trends of the 1980s and 1990s had continued in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma."
Anger and violence breed anger and violence. Cooperation and generosity require a basic level of self-confidence and trust. Yet even the most bitter are willing to give their money or their time to help others.
There are no easy answers. We need to start talking to each other, stop demonizing each other, find common ground. We need to stop fomenting hate and giving attention to those who do.
Ramble, ramble, ramble.
One thing that I can only hope might come from this video: Angry white males watching this might, for even an instant, relate to angry blacks watching their sons shot by police. Though most of the blacks we've seen killed on video last year were unarmed.
The LA Times listed a slew of new laws that came into effect today. Sounds like something like something all major newspapers ought to do. ADN, you working on the Alaska new laws story? I can't find a list of new Alaska laws, though there is plenty online about the Alaska's new marijuana law.
Here's one that has the potential to impact Alaska, especially if other states copy it:
The state’s two major public employee pension funds must sell holdings in companies that derive at least half of their revenue from mining coal used to generate electricity by July 1, 2017.
The state will increase compensation for innocent people who are wrongly convicted from $100 for each day behind bars to $140, to reflect inflation.
Here are the others
Prosecutors are allowed to seek forfeiture of the images and storage devices used in “revenge porn” cases, in which an estranged romantic partner posts nude or sexual pictures of the other person online
Law enforcement agencies must obtain a search warrant before looking at private emails, text messages and GPS data stored in smartphones, laptops and the cloud
Requires short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb to alert users that if they are renters, listing their home on the site could violate their lease agreements.
Companies with state contracts worth at least $100,000 must provide equal benefits to transgender employees.
Bans concealed weapons on college campuses.
Crisis pregnancy clinics certified by the state must post notices that California has public programs providing affordable contraception and abortions.
The word “alien” will be removed from California's labor code to describe those not born in the United States.
The vaccination law eliminates the ability of parents to waive immunization rules for their children based on personal beliefs. Though the law takes effect on Jan. 1, it allows parents to delay the vaccinations until July 1 if they filled out a request before New Year’s Day. But almost all students will have to show proof of immunization shots for the start of the new school year this fall
High schools that mandate health courses must provide lessons aimed at preventing sexual violence and the concept that both parties must consent to sexual relations.
Students are required to take sexual health classes unless their parents object — the classes are now voluntary — and the lessons must include the teaching to be inclusive of different sexual orientations.
Cheerleaders for professional sports teams are considered employees, not independent contractors, and therefore are eligible to receive a minimum wage, workers' compensation and other benefits.
Designates lace lichen, commonly known as Spanish moss, as California's official lichen.
One imagines that Texas and California are polar opposites. JRLawFirm let's us compare a bit. In some ways it's true. While California banned concealed weapons on campus, Texas did the opposite.
Senate Bill No. 11, which will take effect on August 1, amends the Texas Government and Penal Codes to allow handgun license holders, in some circumstances, to carry a concealed handgun on public and private colleges and universities in Texas, as well as other independent institutions of higher learning (does not apply to public junior or community colleges until August 1, 2017).
But in other cases they are moving in the same direction. Texas also took action against 'revenge porn' and they're requiring a search warrant for cell phone and wireless devices.
It is now illegal to broadcast or disclose private, intimate, visual material if that material was disclosed without the person’s consent, the material was not expected to be disclosed, the disclosure of the material caused harm, and the disclosure revealed the identity of the person in any matter. This is now actionable in criminal as well as civil court, per State Bill 1135, effective September 1st, 2015.
Police must now obtain a search warrant in order to search a persons’s cell phone or wireless communication device, per House Bill 1396, which will take effect on September 1st, 2015.
And while California now has an official lichen, Texas now has an official hashtag - #Texas. I'm sure there will be a lot more activity involving the hashtag than the lichen.
Trying to make a sentence using all the words from the titles of the feature films in competition taught me that verbs and conjunctions are scarce in the titles. I had to change some nouns to verbs. Left on the table: 'bullets' and 'the'.
But if you remember this sentence - My voice rocks 6 unicorns in my pockets; I come, Ambassador, to Bern in hell I believe: in-appropriate behavior. - you should be able to remember all the features in competition. Now go find the titles this came from.
Features are films that are fiction (even if based on a true story) and over 55 minutes long.
In Competition means that after the initial screeners "selected" the films to be in the festival, the juries picked what they thought were the best of those selected. Those films are 'in competition" for festival awards.
I'm sure there are other outstanding features - there always are - that don't make it into competition. If I learn about any I'll let you know.
Fourteen Features were selected and six are in competition. They represent eleven different countries.
Australia/USA
Canada
France/Germany/Turkey
Hungary
USA
Spain/USA
United Kingdom/Poland
USA/Latvia
One more film, Kurmanjan Datka [Queen of the Mountains] from Kyrgyzstan was selected and in competition when the Features were first announced, but it's no longer listed. In that past that has meant a more prestigious festival won't take it if it's been shown elsewhere or some such situation.
Our loss according to someone who saw the film.
6 Bullets To Hell Tanner Beard Spain/USA √
80 m
10:00 PM Tue, Dec 9 Bear Tooth
"Opening with the sturm-und-twang of Ennio Morricone’s ‘Seconda
caccia’, from The Big Gundown, and the killing of a cowering priest, 6
Bullets to Hell signals its intentions even before the rotoscope-style
credits gambol across the screen. Assembled on a miserly budget by a
coterie of genre aficionados and shot entirely in Almería and its
environs, this US-Spanish co-production is an unabashed love letter to
the overheated vendetta westerns that rolled in this region in the
Sixties.”
The Ambassador to Bern (A Berne Követ) Attila Szász Hungary
✓
77m
5:30 PM Tue, Dec 9 Bear Tooth
5:30 PM Wed, Dec 10 AK Exp Small
The English poster for this film reflects the USA's obsession with guns. The violence in the Hungarian poster is much more subtle. I hope this means that violence in the trailer is all the violence in the film and the rest will be more drama. I'm leaving the trailer off here because the quality of the youtube video is much poorer than the video on the movie's website.
It's taken from a true story about Hungarian immigrants in Switzerland, after the Russian invasion of Hungary in 1956, who take over the Hungarian embassy in Bern.
The film won the Bronze Zenith for the First Fiction Feature Film at the Montreal Film Festival in September this year.
Appropriate Behavior Desiree Akhavan USA √
90m
5:30 PM Mon, Dec. 8 Bear Tooth
8:00 PM Sat, Dec 13 Alaska Exp Small
Anchorage is Appropriate Behavior's 13th film festival this year - including Sundance - according to the film's website.
From a New York Times piece on Desiree Arkhavan:
"For her part, Ms. Akhavan is quick to play down any suggestion that she is pursuing an agenda in her work as writer, director or performer. “I see where the funny lies and where the story is, and I chase the story wherever it leads me,” she says. “And it usually leads to a very personal place and my life just happens to involve all these hugely political things — being bisexual, being Iranian, and now being a woman is inherently political, too. But I don’t consider those things at all while I’m doing it.”
Variety's review sees a good, but imperfect film, with lots of promise for its director:''
"It would probably be horribly reductive to describe Desiree Akhavan’s “Appropriate Behavior” as a lesbian Persian-American “Girls” knockoff, but it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate, either. A debut feature from the writer-director-star, this tart, sexually frank portrait of a disintegrating relationship — and its long, bitter aftermath — packs plenty of punch in its best scenes, but it also frequently tests audience patience with its relentless deadpan affectlessness and insistence on leaving no Brooklyn cliche unmined. Pic should be a natural for future festival play all the same, and its auteur ought to be well worth watching once she starts to find her own voice."
Come to My Voice [Were Dengê Min][Sesime Gel] Hüseyin Karabey France, Germany, Turkey √
90m
8:00 PM Thu, Dec. 11 Bear Tooth
11 AM Sun, Dec 14 Alaska Exp Large
"Raiding a Kurdish village after a tip-off, a Turkish military unit fails to find the weapons suggested by the informer; enraged, the captain (Nazmi Sinan Milici) orders all male villagers to be taken away for detention and questioning at the barracks, and told the remaining folk - elderly and children mostly - they would have to hand over 15 rifles and 20 guns within a week in exchange for the release of the men."
According to the review, this is just the starting point; the film shows the wider ripples of the Turkish military's action, but it appears that the main characters are a Kurdish grandmother and granddaughter.
The review says it won the audience award at the Istanbul International Film Festival this year.
I Believe In Unicorns
Leah Meyerhoff USA √
80m
5:30 PM Sat, Dec 6 Alaska Exp Small
8:00 PM Tue, Dec 9 Bear Tooth
I can't tell much about this one. The website has too many balloons and unicorns for me, but the reviewers see promise in filmmaker Meyerhoff. Dear Lemon Lima had cutesy teen stuff too, but turned out to be a very good film, if you could suspend reality enough for kids to wear shorts and go swimming in Fairbanks in December. But it did win the audience award, so people here looked past those things.
". . . While the film gets kudos for carefully unpeeling the psychology of its young (anti-)heroine, "Unicorns" also contains a few fairly graphic sexual encounters between 16-year-old Davina, played with startling grace by Dyer, and Sterling, seething with the handsome Vack's silent menace. Nothing like being bent over a bail of hay and fucked doggie-style to cap off an affair to remember.
"Unicorns" is so narratively thin, it could be a short, and Meyerhoff's scrapbook style will irritate some, and enrapture others. But in a world of increasingly stentorian female filmmakers, she's one to watch."
. . . Even the live action sequences are scattered with moments of sublime and wistful beauty, notably when Davina and Sterling come across a group of circus performers in the dark. This scene is imagined, as are others in which Davina walks through a forest with a pair of wings, but they’re revealing nevertheless. The film becomes totally immersed in Davina’s way of thinking, using her own myths and metaphors to elucidate her deepest feelings.
As the title suggests, I Believe in Unicorns is a film about using fantasy as a means to escape the world. For Davina, this leads to excitement and new experiences but her belief in her visions blinds her to what’s really going on. Despite taking its structure and aesthetic from the American road movie, the film avoids all the usual pitfalls and clichés of that gnere. Instead, it uses nostalgia and familiar imagery to highlight just how far from that kind of situation this really is. These are ordinary teenagers in a dysfunctional relationship, grabbing half-heartedly at the chance for another life.
Rocks In My Pockets Signe Baumane USA/Latvia √
88m
3:00 PM Sat, Dec. 6 Museum
5:00 PM Sun, Dec 7 Alaska Experience Large
Can you tell this story might involve mental health? Peter Dunlap-Shohl is a local cartoonist (and AIFF film maker) whose blog on Parkinson's uses animation to help others understand what it's like to have Parkinsons. And to remind others with Parkinsons that they are not alone. I'm hoping this film will prove as enlightening and as funny as Peter's work. Here's a short interview with filmmaker Signe Baumane from Rooftop Films, back in February 2013, before the film was complete:
Usually people want to make and see films about fantasy. They want to have these romantic comedies, scenarios of which could never take place in real life. Since early age I was always wondering how come the things that I read in books about and the things I see in movies never take place in real life. And why is no one trying to depict or tell how it feels from inside. I wanted to focus on how the living process feels inside.
. . . As to depression. You know, I get depressed sometimes, like twice, three times a year. It hits me unexpectedly and I have to deal with with. I don’t know why does it happen, theres no reason. You go through this cloud of foggy thoughts, slow expression, slow speech, you feel fatigued and have pain inside. I was wondering how would I describe that pain to other people. Not only describe but also visually depict it.
For me, a very honest take on depression is also very funny. The absurdity of it: here is life and it is wonderful – why would you want to die? Still, every 12 seconds of my day I think of killing myself.
. . . Depression has a stigma attached to it. You’re not supposed to be depressed, you’re supposed to be dealing with everything. And you should be dealing with everything but, except, sometimes you cant. I wanted to communicate that moment of truth when you can’t deal.
The whole interview, which also discusses how the movie was made (by hand) is here.
I need to check on how this made it as a feature in competition without even being selected into the animated category. I've had disagreements with some of the animated selections and winners in past years. This looks to be a dark film, but one with lots of imagination. But no judgments until I see the animated films. And why doesn't this show at the Bear Tooth at all? Are they afraid people don't want to see films about depression? In December in Anchorage? They would sell a lot of beer. But I'm just speculating with no actual evidence. I usually find out that things that seem strange often have a good explanation.
