Blog Post: Defending the Postal Service

It seems strange to have to write in defense of the U. S. Postal Service, but it's a measure of the depravity of the man in the White House, and how far he's willing to go in his flailing attempt to win another term in office.  Removing sorting machines, removing mailboxes, doing whatever he can to gum up the works of  a service that everyone loves and has never been more essential in this our age of the COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming Presidential election.   An election which could well determine the fate and future of democracy in this country.  An election which the person now in office will do anything to win,

It didn't start with COVID-19 and this build-up to the election.  Trump's hatred of Jeff Bezos, who created Amazon, became a billionaire, and bought The Washington Post, one of Trump's most effective critics, led him as early as 2018 to attack the Post Office,  Its crime?  It gave Amazon a good, special rate, a smart move both for Amazon and the Postal Service.

Trump's pretext back then in 2018 was that giving Amazon such a good special rate was bad business for the Postal Service.  But like Amtrak which is also often starving for funds, the Postal Service isn't and was never intended to be a profit-making business.  It is a governmental service provided to the people.  And in the case of the Postal Service, it is a service provided for in our Constitution.

But Trump now has a better reason to starve the Postal Service.  He wants to eliminate mail-in ballots, especially necessary in these COVID times, because he thinks (and polls say) that they will be used by Democratic more than Republican voters. (If we want to entertain a maybe only slightly paranoid explanation, perhaps Trump wants to handcuff the Postal Service because the Russians have told him they haven't come up with a way to hack votes cast through the mail). But whatever his reasoning, crippling the Postal Service is one of the things Trump is doing to win an election which current polls show him badly losing. Attacking the media, lying so often that keeping count is a bad joke, are no longer enough.  The fascistic impulse dictates an escalation of tactics.  Dampen, crush the democratic expression by physical means.  Send Federal troops or whatever exactly are into the streets.  Get in the way of people exercising their right to vote.

There are things we the people can do to oppose this.  Shine a light on it.  Pressure our state governments to provide alternate, safe means of casting ballots, like collection boxes.  But also support our Postal Service in whatever ways we can.   They are not only the carriers of our mail, of birthday cards and holiday greetings that we cherish, but now more than ever are carriers of our democracy.

And some people, who like Jeff Bezos are billionaires, can do even more.  If Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg, and Warren Buffet each donated a couple of billion dollars to the Postal Service, that could well enable it to stay whole and functioning through the election.   Fascism triumphs by undermining democratic institutions, eroding the foundations of freedom.   First the press, now the Postal Service, anything that conveys our freedom.   We have a chance to stop this, reverse this, in less than three months.  We have to do all in our power to keep that beleaguered arena for freedom open.

Killing Eve 2.7: Death and Sex

I thought the high-point of the next-to-final episode of Season 2 of Killing Eve last night - 2.7 - was the very end, where we see that Villanelle has killed Niko's annoying new girlfriend.  It was a high-point because it amply demonstrates two enduring truths about Villanelle:  she's a cold-blooded killer (as are most paid assassins) and she's loyal to Eve.  So of course she would kill Eve's husband's girlfriend.

The problem for our characters, of course, is these two truths of Villanelle could well come into conflict.  And though nothing is certain, it's better than 50/50, I'd say, that the killer will win out over the loyalty.   With only one more episode this season, and Killing Eve already renewed for a third season, however, it's a 100% safe bet that the killer won't win out in this season, at least.

But there's so much killing in Villanelle, that I'd day we're likely to see at least one other expression of it in the finale next week.  Aaron Peel, the British Mark Zuckerberg, is the most likely victim, but he was so weird and even nauseating last night that I'm beginning to think it's unfair to compare him to Zuckerberg in any way.  But that never stopped me before.

The other moment of note is Eve pulling the cover off a sleeping Hugo, waking him up and having a go at it (is that a British expression?  I'm not sure).  But it was good to see Eve expressing herself that way - taking advantage of the situation at hand - and Hugo didn't seem to mind it at all, either.

Hey, the Game of Thrones finale was on last night, and I managed to watch and now review Killing Eve after all.   Says a lot about how compelling this series is, and my high opinion of it.

See also Killing Eve 2.1: Libido and Thanatos ... Killing Eve 2.2: Villanelle as Victim ... Killing Eve 2.3 Lipstick ... Killing Eve 2.6: Billie

And see also Killing Eve: Highly Recommended (Season 1)

Killing Eve 2.6: Billie

Hey, I've been so caught up in Game of Thrones - reviewing and thinking about this finale season - that I see I've been remiss in reviewing Killing Eve.  But there are only two episodes left after tonight's this season, and tonight's was one of the best, so ...

Great new persona for Villanelle - Billie - working for Eve and the Brits, so she had to be something special and she is.  Billie has a passable American accent (about 80-90% right, I'd say), and her job is to get the goods on Aaron Peel, a British Mark Zuckerberg, if you get the picture. (Perfect timing, by the way - I checked the credits to see if Chris Hughes was a special consultant.)  Billie's accent isn't totally on key, but her killing instinct is, and in a scene that reminds Eve and us what we're dealing with, she hugs one of the women from her therapy group, on the sidewalk, and then throws her under a passing vehicle.   Villanelle hasn't lost her touch.

Eve hasn't either.  After her husband leaves her - I never liked him, anyway - she does a little spying on him, of course.  Turns out the reason he gave for leaving her - he can't take her dishonesty about her job, etc - was a lie.   The reason was the much more mundane he's having an affair.  And when Eve confronts the woman with Eve's husband, Eve gets off the best line in the episode, which serves as the title of the episode, "I Hope You Like Missionary!" It's great line, typifying the sharp repartee of the series.  I would've used it as the title for this review, but I like my titles to be a little different from the official titles of the episode.

The other significant exchange in tonight's hour was Villanelle telling Eve to back off with her criticism, advising "I don't like you that much," or words that effect (I'm not in the mood to look back it).  That gives us an important indication of the limits of Villanelle's infatuation with Eve.

Next week is the series finale of Game of Thrones, so who knows what I'll be doing with Eve.  But I'll definitely be here with a review the week after, and, who knows, maybe next week after all.

See also Killing Eve 2.1: Libido and Thanatos ... Killing Eve 2.2: Villanelle as Victim ... Killing Eve 2.3 Lipstick

And see also Killing Eve: Highly Recommended (Season 1)

The Perversity of Things: review #5 of X: Amateurs vs. Corporations

Continuing with my review (#5 of X) of The Perversity of Things: Hugo Gernsback on Media, Tinkering, and Scientifiction, edited by Grant Wythoff (University of Minnesota Press, 2016). I'm now focusing on pages 28-36 of Wythoff's 59-page Introduction to the 359-page volume, with the proviso that these reviews reflect my not Wythoff's organization of his motherlode of research and analysis.

Wythoff begins this group of pages with a discussion of the important role that women played in creating Gernsback's magazines (recognized by Gernsback) and in the ideal public pressing forward with the technological revolution - a presence which runs contrary to the historical gloss of middle-class young men being the carriers of these ideas, which as Wythoff shows also ignored the role of the working class.  But this sociology of science fiction and technocracy soon gives way to a consideration of an issue which is in many ways more fundamental: the tension between talented amateurs and corporate scientists as the spearheads of technological evolution.

Gernsback was clearly a champion of the latter, though Wythoff points out that Gernsback was not allergic to corporate culture, and willing to accept it if it further technological progress.   But the most significant part of this section is Wythoff's study of the sheer speed with radio was transformed from an amateur to a corporate endeavor - literally in a handful of years.   Not to get too melodramatic about this, but it is almost as if radio's very success, so fervently desired by its first amateur practitioners (who both constructed and listened to radio), spelled the very end of those amateurs, who could not possibly service the millions of Americans who quickly came to love and rely on radio, once its genie of entertainment and news was let out of the bottle.

I'd add here, however, that it's important to note that the amateur impulse, and the great things it engenders, was not extinguished with the corporate co-option of radio in the 1920s.  After all, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and the founders of Twitter were none other than amateurs in our own time, and although their revolutionizing inventions have now, too, become corporatized, there is no reason to think the amateur will not spring forth yet again in the future - or right now, though we don't yet quite know about it.

It's too bad that Gernsback didn't live long enough to see the digital revolution which his tinkering in the early days of electronic media presaged.  Like McLuhan, Gernsback died a little before the digital age which both foresaw, in different, complementary ways.   But their ideas and visions live on, and fortunately in the case of Gernsback, we have Wythoff's The Perversity of Things to carry it forward.

And I'll be back here soon with my next review of this book.

See also: The Perversity of Things: review #1 of X: Gernsback as Philosopher of Technology ... #2 of X: Learning by Doing ... #3 of X: The Evolution of Media ... #4 of X: Gernsback and the The First Amendment ... #6 of X: Thought Experiments and Toys ... #7 of X: The Invention of Invention, and the Advent of Science Fiction ... #8 of X: Definitions and Fake News

 

Murder in the First: A Review

Catching up at summer's end with a review of  a series that I watched and liked a lot, but didn't have time to write about, finishing my latest novel, swimming as much as possible, and everything else: Murder in the First.

In a way, all ten episodes were like a top-notch Law and Order story, with a murder, arrest, trial, and then police work again, except presented over ten hours rather than one.   Did it work?  Yes, it did. Murder in the First was always enjoyable, sometimes outstanding, and memorably surprising at times.

My favorite part was the lawyerly action, with superb work by James Cromwell as Defense Attorney Daniels and excellent work by Richard Schiff as Hertzeberg, the defendant's personal attorney. Meanwhile, Tom Felton - best known for his performance as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies - put in a chillingly effective performance as Erich Blunt, a character who could be described as Mark Zuckerberg, if he were a sociopath.

Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson (who was fabulous in the first season of Boss) did a serviceable job as the detective team, Terry and Hildy, investigating the murder.   This creates an interesting issue as far as renewal, with one of the best characters, Blunt, no longer on the show, and Hertzberg not likely to be around, either.

But if Daniels is back as defense attorney with another good murder mystery, a second season of the Murder in the First could be excellent.   Indeed, it could be better than the first, if Terry and Hildy are pushed to take more chances, not only professionally but personally.   Their kiss made some critics uncomfortable, but I would've liked to see them go all out with a continuing liaison nibbling at the edges.

I do hope the series is renewed - I promise to be a more diligent reviewer if it is.


 another kind of crime story

#SFWApro

Santorum's Deficient Education

Probably Rick Santorum's blanket denunciation of colleges and universities as "indoctrination mills" is the least offensive of his 18th-century regressive, repressive views publicized in the past few weeks.  But that's because his views about contraception, for example - which he opposes, even though he always says he wants to reduce teenage pregnancies - are so far gone and off the wall.

But since I know a  little something about college education, I thought I'd mention how at variance with reality Rick Santorum also is about that.

First, I should say I'm no blind advocate of higher education.  I've always found some merit in Cole Porter's "a college education I would never propose, a bachelor's degree won't even keep you in clothes".   A university degree isn't necessary for everyone.  Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs all did just fine without one.

But the claim that a college education is a course in indoctrination is just nonsense.  Where I teach at Fordham University, no one ever told me or even encouraged me to present a specific political or cultural point of view.    That's what academic freedom is all about.

More important, I've never told a student what to think.  The goal, as every college professor knows, is to teach students how to think.  Or, in the Writing Workshop course I'm currently teaching, how to write, clearly and effectively, whatever your point of view.

Perhaps there are professors somewhere who teach differently.  But I've never met one.  And for those many that I have known, their emphasis has always been on teaching students how to think clearly.

Wherever Rick Santorum got his education, he obviously failed to learn that lesson.

The Good Wife 2.16: Information Wars

A great Good Wife 2.16 tonight, with so many excellent stories swirling around, some with neat and excellent resolutions, that it was hard to keep track.  All to the good in entertainment, making it just like real life.  Here are some highlights -

1. Will and Diane have a client - played by Miles from Lost (Ken Leung) - who was in prison in China for five years.  His social network gave up his name - and those of other blogging dissidents - as the price of doing business in China.   (In our world, Google for a while played along with Chinese requests for censorship, but never turned over any one's names.)  The head of the social network defends his actions as necessary to keep the door open in China to the democratizing influences of new media (or what I call "new new media," or online media that put power in people's hands).  He gets off an amazingly current line about this - "look what happened in Egypt" - which I bet was dubbed in the past two weeks, good for the producers of the show or whoever did his.   (See the special lecture I gave at St. Francis College last week for more on these Internet revolutions.) Will gets to quote Steward Brand's "information wants to be free" (unfortunately without attribution - one reason I like Criminal Minds so much).  And there's a great, surprise resolution of this case, which involves the firm's Zuckerberg-like client that we saw in a previous episode.

2.  Will and Diane's attempt to outsmart Bond and give him the boot comes to a head and a vote.  Lots of good ingredients in this one, including Diane enlisting the help of some "alteh kackers" (the "al" pronounced, by the way, like the "ol" in "Ollie" and not as Will said it, which made the "alteh kacker" seem to come from an alternate universe).   By the way, the leading "alteh" was played by Jerry Adler, of Hesch on The Sopranos and Chief Feinberg of Rescue Me fame.  And that wasn't even the best part of this thread, which featured a great triple agent feint in the final voting as to who will be thrown out of the firm.

3. Peter has a good episode with his political aspirations, thanks to the sharp work by Zach.  It was great to see them hug at the end.

4. Kalinda is under serious investigation.  Cary brings her this news, and kisses her.  They obviously had something going that we don't quite know about in the past, maybe just last year.

Add to this that "Google's" lawyer expressed interest in hiring Alicia away from the firm, Zach and Becca are getting close again, and you have one superb episode in this fine series, indeed.


See also  The Good Wife Starts Second Season on CBS ... The Good Wife 2.2: Lou Dobbs, Joe Trippi, and Obama Girl ... The Good Wife 2.4: Surprise Candidate, Intimate Interpsonal Distance ... The Good Wife 2.9 Takes on Capital Punishment

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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

The Social Network: A Few Thoughts about the Movie

I've been meaning to post a few thoughts about The Social Network - an excellent movie that deserves all the praise and award nominations it's been receiving.

First, I think it's important to assess the movie as not a literal documentary, but rather the fictionalized account - in terms of conversations, etc - that it is, and in fact indicates in the closing credits.  Indeed, since the actual micro details regarding the birth and early growth of Facebook are not generally known, there is no way the average viewer can even judge the authenticity of given fine points in the movie.   As I indicated in my 2009 book New New Media, I've been on Facebook since 2004 - my son was a student at Harvard then (in the same year as Mark Zuckerberg), and he let me know that my faculty account at Fordham university (a .edu account) would be enough to get me on Facebook.   But that gives me no more knowledge than anyone else about the early days of Facebook.

To the movie then ... its best parts were actually the details and the conversations, ranging from the way Sean Parker first came upon The Facebook (as it was then named - it was Parker, the creator of the original Napster, who suggested losing the "The") to Zuckerberg's zestful contempt for all levels of authority, especially his opponents' lawyers, which I found very appealing.   The truth is I didn't find the Zuckerberg in this movie to be much of an asshole at all, but rather a genius who doesn't suffer gladly the fools that beset him.

The one weakness of the movie, I thought, was the ham-handed romantic angle which was presented as the underlying motivation of Zuckerberg's Facebook endeavors.  Girl breaks up with him.  This sets Zuckerberg to create Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook.   Zuckerberg tries to speak to her a few months later, when Facebook is starting to take off.  She rebuffs him.  And the movie ends with Zuckberg trying to Friend her on Facebook, now a huge success.   More important than this not being factually accurate - Zuckerberg had a girlfriend all along (but as I indicated above, the movie is better evaluated not as to its truthfulness as a documentary) - but more important than that, the storyline of a genius moved by a hurt heart is trite, simplistic, and distracting from the more complex factors that motivate genius.

Still, the acting was superb - especially Justin Timberlake's spot-on performance as Sean Parker (Timberlake was reminiscent in this role of a young Sean Penn) - and the movie provides a satisfying snapshot of a painting still not dry, indeed, still being painted, which in itself is a rare and awesome accomplishment in movie-making where such subjects are usually decades or further in the past.

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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book