It's Tough To Make Sense Of The World When People React As If They're In A Comic Book Multiverse

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their summit today. Following their one on one meeting, they held a joint press conference. Reactions to the press conference were fairly uniform. CNN called it "The most shameful, stunning moment of the Trump presidency."  Senator John McCain said, 

“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.”

Even folks who should be reliable Trump supporters like the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Russia and a Fox News Anchor are outraged.

No negotiation is worth throwing your own people and country under the bus.

— Abby Huntsman (@HuntsmanAbby) July 16, 2018

CBN's David Brody calls it "plain bad."

Conservatives defending @realDonaldTrump after his press conference w/ Vladimir Putin are not being intellectually honest. It was just plain bad. “Both countries responsible” on election meddling? That’s the moral equivalence stuff they hit @BarackObama on...

— David Brody (@TheBrodyFile) July 16, 2018

 And yet, there is one political group that can praise Trump's performance, the leaders of religious right.

Thank you @POTUS @realDonaldTrump for pursuing peace above politics. https://t.co/31P23JMW8v

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) July 16, 2018

Graham doesn't seem to be alone. As Brody notes, there are other religious conservatives defending Trump's performance.

The only analogy I have is the DC Comics multiverse. On one Earth-1, there's the Justice League; Earth-X is populated by evil doppelgangers known as the Crime Syndicate of America. I am not trying to make light of the situation or hype today's events. I am trying to underscore the fact that it seems as if it will soon be impossible for Americans to discuss any event because they they won't be seeing the same facts. The Republic works when people argue interpretations of agreed on facts. I don't know if it works when groups of citizens live in two different universes and refuse to agree on both facts and interpretation.

The CIA Must Have Hired A Comic Book Geek Or Someone With An Ironic Sense of Humor

Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux have an in-depth report on government spying operations including those on American citizens. As a civil libertarian and a comic book geek, I find the report alarming.

First, more than half of the people the government is watching have no link to any terrorist organization.

Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.

Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.

The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the terrorist screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than ten-fold, to an all-time high of 47,000—surpassing the number of people barred from flying under George W. Bush.

“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.” 

The CIA meanwhile has chosen to side with Marvel Comics bad guys HYDRA:

The CIA uses a previously unknown program, code-named Hydra, to secretly access databases maintained by foreign countries and extract  data to add to the watchlists.

The CIA shares this information with other surveillance agencies.

The DTI [Directorate of Terrorist Identities] also harvests information from CIA sources, including a secret database called CINEMA— short for CIA Information Needs Management—and a secret CIA program called “Hydra,” which utilizes “clandestinely acquired foreign government information” to enhance the quality of “select populations” in TIDE [Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, a database].

In 2013, DTI and the CIA ran a “proof of concept” for Hydra, using Pakistan as a guinea pig. The DTI provided the CIA with a list of 555 Pakistanis in the TIDE database. After inputting the names into Hydra, the CIA “vetted these names against Pakistani Passports” and provided biographic and biometric identifiers to the DTI.

I would suggest that America spy agencies ought not name a program after a collection of evil scientists in comic books. Such naming would seem to create an image problem. However, this time the name might be appropriate. In Greek mythology, the hydra was a beast that began with 9 heads and grew two new heads every time one  head was cut off. The national security state seems to operate in a similar fashion. It produces two new assaults on civil liberties for every one we learn about.

Developing South Dakota's Democratic And Independent Candidates' Personas: Marvel Universe Edition

It's Saturday morning. The primary season made some folks testy and gave others a headache. There's going to be a long, hot, humid summer before Labor Day and then we will be bombarded by too many bad commercials and too much noisy campaigning between Labor Day and election day. It's time for a little levity.

The South .Dakota Republican candidates are prohibitive favorites in each of the statewide races that have been determined by primary: governor, United States Senate, and United States House of Representatives. It, therefore, behooves fans of both politics and comics to look at what Marvel Comics personas the Loyal Opposition, a motley but plucky collective who will be opposing the Republican nominees, should adopt.

In the United States Senate race, the Republicans have nominated Mike Rounds who seems protected by Teflon and Kevlar. He will be opposed by Democrat Rick Weiland and Independents Larry Pressler and Gordon Howie.

Having visited every town in South Dakota, loyal opponent Rick Weiland has showed he has plenty of endurance, one of 'Wolverine's powers. All Weiland needs to do is add adamantium claws and mean streak to cut through both Teflon and Kevlar.

Gordon Howie wants to bring true conservative thunder to the race. Quite frankly, the best fit for anyone trying to bring that thunder is Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Taking on the persona of a pagan god might also allow Howie to show that he's willing to be inclusive of those beyond his conservative Christian base.

Former Senator Larry Pressler has been out of the public view since he left office in January of 1997. Captain America was on ice from the end of World War II until the Avengers revived him in the early 1960s. Captain America uses his age to bring to the fore good old-fashioned American virtues; Pressler has video of his ability to avoid the vice of greed. Rounds association with EB 5 program and its assorted irregularities may make him vulnerable on that front. More importantly Pressler has political history that is being mined for for weak spots. Cap's shield may come in handy if Rounds decides to run a a few attack ads.

In the gubernatorial race, incumbent Dennis Daugaard will face loyal opponents Democrat Susan Wismer and Independent Mike Myers.

Conventional wisdom has it that Wismer needs to bring a little lightning to her campaign. No female superhero can do that job better than Storm.

Myers is the longest of long shots who needs to dramatically alter all known laws of probability. Fortunately, the Marvel Universe has a relatively unknown character with the proper name and probability altering powers, Longshot.

Finally Corinna Robinson needs to demonstrate strength and intellect to defeat incumbent Republican Congresswoman Kristi Noem. Although the individual titles have been played for laughs, She-Hulk's appearance is assorted team books demonstrate the character has the necessary power, intellect, and wit that Robinson will need to dispatch Noem.

There you have, The Loyal Opposition. The name doesn't have the ring of The Avengers, but should Democrats and Independents adopt these personas, the races might be a little closer and a little more interesting.

If The South Dakota Republican U.S. Senate Candidates Were Superheroes. . .

The old joke about U. S. senators is that they all believe they are one election away from being the most powerful human on the planet. If that's the case, candidates must have secret dreams about being superheroes. Here, in no particular order, are the South Dakota Republican candidates as their true superhero selves.

Mike Rounds is Elongated Man. He's really elastic and tough to pin down. He smiles a lot and is a poor man's Mitt Romney.

Elongated Man
Image from DC Wikia

Stace Nelson is an extremely large former U.S. Marine who often shoots first and asks questiosn later.(Metaporically speaking) 'Nuff Said.

Sgt. Slaughter, the G.I. Joe Edition
Image from Wikipedia

Larry Rhoden is West River Rancher striving to adapt to new political realities. The Two-Gun Kid came from 1880s Wild West and adapted to the current time quite handily..

Two-Gun Kid
Image from Wikipedia

Finally, I'm not sure Annette Bosworth is a real candidate at this point. She frequently seems invisible. Space Ghost's sidekick Jan never became a fully realized character. She could become invisible.

Jan is the character in the middle.
Image from YouTube

I'll update the page to add Venner should he choose to enter the race. If Democrats challenge Rick Weiland, I'll work up a similar post.

I Give Away My Strategy For High School Policy Debate During The 2013-2014 Debate Season.

High School students who compete in policy debate will be debating the following resolution from now until the final round of the National Forensics League National Tournament in June 2014:

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic engagement toward Cuba, Mexico or Venezuela.

I can't speak for the rest of South Dakota's debate coaches, but my young'uns have had few problems finding affirmative and negative evidence about Cuba and Mexico. Venezuela has been a tougher nut to crack. Yesterday, I discovered my negative strategy for any case about Venezuela. My young'uns are going to run the Spider-Man Violence Kritik.

The Link (in policy debate, one must capitalize every element of the argument) will be plan increases economic engagement toward Venzuela. The Internal Links will be economic engagement will require advertising; advertising relies of pop culture; superheroes are hot pop culture properties; Spider-Man is one of the hottest superhero icons. The Impact comes from the following card: (For those uninitiated in high school policy debate, the bolded and underlined portions of the card constitute the evidence the students will actually read.)

Tag: Spider-Man causes violence in Venezuela.

Citation: Melrose, Kevin. "Venezuelan president blames Spider-Man for nation’s violence." Robot 6. Comic Book Resources, 20 09 2013. Web. 21 Sep. 2013. .

OK, so it’s primarily Spider-Man causing the problems. But can we blame the wall-crawler for the horrible violence plaguing an entire country? Let’s ask Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose nation saw 16,000 murders in 2012, and another 3,400 in the first quarter of this year.

In a new interview with the Bolivian newspaper La Opinión, Maduro said there’s a correlation between youth violence and the idolization of superheroes — it contributes to a “factory of anti-values,” apparently — a connection he made while he and his wife were watching Spider-Man 3.

“This kid, at 14 years old, carries a 9mm with a mind filled by thousands of hours of shows where people are killed,” he said. “I start to think how many thousands of hours of violence that kid will have consumed, in the end, stimulated by consumerism and violence when he grabs a 9 mm and goes to kill. [...] That’s the trouble, from the beginning until the end there are more and more dead,” he said. “And that’s one of the series small children love most … because it’s attractive, it’s from comics that are attractive, the figure, the colors and movements … so much so that we finished watching it at four in the morning.”

Our Alternative will be to reject the Affirmative until Venezuela is able to develop its own superhero genre based on historical Latin American liberators such as Simon Bolivar or the most famous 20th Century opponent of imperialism and violence Gandhi.

Melrose provides another card to give the kritik an added advantage.

Tag: Rejecting Aff Will Preserve Important Venezuelan Historical And Spiritual Connections

Citation: Melrose, Kevin. "Venezuelan president blames Spider-Man for nation’s violence." Robot 6. Comic Book Resources, 20 09 2013. Web. 21 Sep. 2013. .

Before J. Jonah Jameson orders that special edition of the Daily Bugle, it’s worth pointing out that Maduro has also claimed the spirit of his late predecessor Hugo Chávez spoke to him through a little bird to say he’s doing a fine job running the country.

Clearly, increasing economic engagement with Venezuela will destroy that nation's spiritual roots and cause it to descend into spiral of violence as kids seek to emulate Spider-Man.

Our format may not quite follow that of a traditional kritik, but our cards and story are solid. I'm pretty sure my young'uns who don't know this blog exists will be angry I gave away their best argument when I tell them on Monday.

The Best Rant Of The Summer: Elon Rusk Is Not The Inspiration For Iron Man

John Oliver has done a wonderful job subbing for Jon Stewart on The Daily Show this summer, but my favorite bit might be the 15 seconds of geek rage when Oliver calls out a reporter for mistakenly identifying entrepreneur Elon Rusk as the inspiration for Tony Stark, Iron Man's alter ego. The good stuff starts around 2:40.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Capitalism Destroys Everything: What Are They Doing To Batman?

First, there was this movie:

Now, there are Batman car seats.

Is nothing sacred?

Quotations Of The Day: Stacks of Bibles And Graphic Novels Edition

From a Sara Beck article in The New York Times: Stacks of Bibles, and Graphic Novels,

To readers of philosophy, “logos” means reason and rational argument. To readers of the Gospels, it is the word of God made incarnate in Jesus Christ. But for seekers of all kinds on the Upper East Side, Logos is also a cozy bookshop with a lumpy recliner and a black cat named Boo Boo, who sleeps near a stack of Bibles.

“Really, we are two shops in one,” said Harris Healy, the owner, gesturing to a display table piled with Father’s Day books on grilling and graphic novels. “We have a religious side and a secular side.”

Later,

“I guarantee we’re the only nondenominational Christian bookstore in the world that hosts an interfaith sacred book salon led by an atheist Jew who was educated at a liberal Methodist seminary," [Ben Siegel, an employee,] explained, offering a hint of his own unorthodox background.

Comic Book News That Saddens Me

It's Wednesday afternoon and a snow day, so I got to engage in a few geeky pursuits.  IO9.com lists 8 Marvel heroes who will never get a movie. Some, like Sentry, are totally unknown to the general public. However, seeing She-Hulk on the list bothers me even if the logic behind her inclusion makes sense:

2) She-Hulk

Seeing as the Hulk can barely get a movie even after Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner stole the spotlight every minute he was on-screen in Avengers, the chances of his cousin Jennifer Walters — who turned into She-Hulk after receiving a blood transfusion from Bruce — are pretty much nil. Besides, any rampaging monster-type stories they’ll want to save for Hulk, which leaves She-Hulk starring in comedy, such as her Marvel universe lawyer gigs. Unfortunately, that comedy would denigrate pretty much the entire tragedy of the Hulk (why does Bruce turn into a raging best while She-Hulk stays totally normal? Why does Bruce hate the Hulk, while Jen is completely fine being She-Hulk?), ruining a much more popular superhero. Marvel’s definitely going to concentrate solely on Hulk… whenever they decide to come back to him.

Still, seeing a 7-foot green woman who can smash things and serve as her own lawyer would make me want to see the movie.

As A Mythology Teacher, I Am Very Afraid

From IO9.com

. . . Brett Ratner, director of X-Men: The Last Stand, is doing a sword-and-sandal movie about Hercules, which is slated for release on July 25, 2014. The film begins shooting any day now, with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson playing Herc. Be very, very afraid.

Actually, the Hercules film, based on a graphic novel called Hercules: The Thracian Wars, sounds like an awesome bit of cheese, and possibly the perfect outlet for Ratner's talents. It's a "dark" version of Herc, in which he's completed his twelve labors and now he's turned his back on the Gods. He's working as a mercenary, alongside six other hard-bitten Greek dudes, and they go around fighting for money in various wars. Until they realize how far they've fallen, and they get a chance for redemption.

Everything about "The Rock" shows the subtly necessary to portray the need for redemption and the joy of salvation

Comic Book Art On Classic Album Covers

Because it's Saturday; I'm old enough to remember vinyl, and I'm a comic book geek, here are a few classics from Brian Cronin at Comic Book Resources.

HT: This IO9.com post

New Year's Day Geek Post: All The Bruce Waynes Morphed Into One

From this IO9.com post:

Still debating on which Hollywood representation of Bruce Wayne was the very best? No need to anymore. Here is a shot of every single actor who has played the live action superhero morphed into one perfect Batman. It includes Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and Christian Bale. This comes from Redditor morphinapg. Personally we would have left Kilmer's lips, but that is still one fine looking troubled millionaire.

I have to admit that I'd be much more interested to see a photo morphing all of the actresses who have played Catwoman: Julie Newmar, Lee Merriweather, Eartha Kitt, Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry, and Anne Hathaway. The following YouTube video includes all of the actresses except Hathaway.

Superman To Become A Blogger

Finally someone more indefatigable than Cory Heidelberger has a blog. USA Today reports that Clark Kent, Superman's alter-ego will quit the Daily Planet and start a blog.

Newsrama.com reproduces a page in that shows Clark undergoing a bit of career angst.

Somehow it all seems fitting; if politicians resemble supervillains, the world needs Superman as a blogger. It appears that is further evidence that newspapers are going the way of this 1950s TV intro for a Superman television program.

Presidential Candidates Aren't That Different From Supervillains

IO9.com notes that the choices for President seem rather grim this year:

When many American citizens cast their vote this November, they'll be choosing between the lesser of two evils. But why choose the lesser evil when you can choose a supervillain as your president? After all, supervillains can be effective leaders, provided you can get past the lying, unilateral decision-making, rampant murder, and dismantling of your Constitutional rights.

Given that both candidates have no problem with using drones to kill innocents abroad and have no problem destroying civil liberties, it seems advisable to look at the site's other criteria for advocating a supervillain in the Oval Office:

They have a strong vision for the future.

They'll go to great lengths to rebuild the country.

They won't stand for idiotic interview questions.

They make our monuments far more interesting.

They'll keep up morale (in order to further their evil schemes).

They'll eliminate unemployment—albeit through slavery.

They're already part of the shadowy conspiracy that runs the planet.

They're surprisingly easy to depose.

It also appears that our government has provisions for dealing with certain types of evil elected official.

Chances are you won't notice a difference between them and your non-supervillain presidents.

Let's see how Romney and Obama stack up on these other measurements.

Both Obama and Romney claim to have a strong vision and concrete plans to better the country. On the other hand, both answered Barry's stupid question during the town hall debate, and neither will ever get on Mt. Rushmore.

The election of either candidate will enrage opposing partisans, so the national mood will remain somewhat depressed no matter who wins in a couple of weeks. Romney's Bain tenure and his belief that corporations are people makes him more likely to embrace enslaving the populace, Republican hyperbole about health care notwithstanding.

Moving on to the "shadowy conspiracy," Both candidates seem to have shadowy people supporting them, but no one seems to care. If a supervillain wins, this criterion will allow South Dakota's own Steve Sibson and every other conspiracy theorist will get to say, "I told you so." Further, black helicopters look cool.

Given that Obama has been terrible on civil liberties and I'm certain Romney or any supervillain would be worse, having an easy to depose or a rather controllable supervillain might be an improvement.

Looking at the list, the last point seems rather accurate; Americans probably wouldn't see any difference if we elected a supervillain like Lex Luthor or Doctor Doom instead of Obama or Romney. In fact, the country might be better off

Doom is not an American citizen, however. I am sick of the Birther folk who would no doubt become apoplectic if Doom took office. That fact leaves me little choice; I'm going to support Lex Luthor in 2012.

Plains Pops: A Give Me Something To Belive In Trio

I always feel good when I can use a Poison song as part of post headline.

First, this trailer for The Life of Pi reminds one to believe the unbelievable:

Second, this post from GeekDad  begins with the following paragraph on the search for saviors:

Not to sound like a woe-is-me fatalist, but if the world has ever been in need of saving, it’s now. We’re continuously looking for heroes to step in and fix everything. Some turn to politics and the upcoming election – okay, we won’t be going there – while others are drawn to their religious community – and we’ll be skirting by that issue, while we’re at it. In entertainment, one certainly doesn’t have to look too far to see what has everyone abuzz. The Avengers brought in just shy of infinity million dollars while in theaters; and Christopher Nolan’s final Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises saw about half of that. Both of these blockbusters were derived, of course, from the rich and overflowing heroics of the Big Two comic book companies. While Marvel and DC Comics are certainly both rife with saviors, they are far from being the sole source material. In Kristopher White’s indie graphic novel The Thirty-Six, we see that our comic heroes don’t have to wear tights, or special armor with Tron-esque piping, for that matter, to be super and save the day.

Most importantly, this series of meditations on The Odyssey from political blogger Rod Dreher powerful illustrate why Homer's poem still resonates.

Comics Matter And They Still Belong In The Classroom

Artist Kerrith Johnson captures the iconic nature of many of contemporary comics major heroes. Because these characters have become icons, they can easily remind readers, teachers, students, and skeptical members of the public, that there's something more the mundane of day-to-day life. Johnson's "Believe" series attempts to keep superheroes "iconic but positive." This artwork would be far more effective than some of the motivational crap that clutters school hallways and classrooms.

A few of my favorites:

For the Lincoln-Douglas debaters:

For all other students who write, speak, act, or create:

Because we all make mistakes and need a little help:

There are good people out there:

Lightening strikes every day:

When all of these things come together, there can be a little magic:

Comic Book Characters And Religion

The fine folks as Adherents.com must have far more time than I do. They have taken the time to catalog the various faiths held by comic book heroes. Not only do they provide a handy chart, they also group heroes into faith teams.

Should I ever decide to switch universes, I find it comforting that my Catholic wife will be well protected by The Hulk, Daredevil, Hellboy, and a host of other formidable super-powered folk. I can call on the services of Rogue, Ghost Rider, and Falcon. As a mythology teacher, I would hope that Hawkman and other followers of the classical Egyptians, Thor and the rest of the Norse pagans, along with Wonder Woman Namor, and rest of the Greco-Roman classical religion adherents would also offer assistance.

Atheists can call on Savage Dragon, Starman, and Yellowjacket. Lutherans, South Dakota's largest protestant group, don't fair so well in the comic book multiverses; they can call on only four minor-league characters. That's a much less impressive group than the small but powerful Roma representation that includes Magneto, Dr. Doom, and Nightwing.

HT: IO9

Plains Pops: Dark Knight Rises Edition

First, many have opined that the film is a commentary on Occupy Wall Street. Given that the film was on location in Pittsburgh on July 30, 2011 and the first Occupy demonstration occurred on September 17, 2011, that connection seems tenuous at best. I suppose it's possible that Christopher Nolan, the film's director has prophetic powers, but it seems more likely that those who find a critique of the Occupy movement are doing a bit of projecting.

It seems more likely that Nolan is asserting that Thomas Hobbes was right:

Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man. . . .

In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Second, the film can succinctly described as the French Revolution meets Star Wars meets Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex.

Third, the film misses no opportunity to demonstrate the "appearances deceive" motif. Harvey Dent/Two-Face's Ghost hangs over Gotham. The most interesting example is the film's ironic twist of the "faith of the child" allusion. Bruce Wayne must become childlike to escape the prison, but Miranda Tate, the child who originally made the climb, literally stabs him in the back. She's also the daughter of Ra's al Ghul, one of Batman's most dangerous foes.

Finally, I have a nagging suspicion that this Batman trilogy owes much of its worldview to Norse mythology.

The Bane Of Education

It's not this; teachers aren't superheroes.

Instead, the Tempered Radical points out that it's this.

By the way, merit pay and testing just to test isn't creative, but this slide is also a mirror.  I got in a rut last year and need to change some things.

Plains Pops: Literature Links

Jonathan H, Liu, one of the "Geed Dads," analyzes novels that various comic book publishers have adapted.  Some, like Stephen King's The Stand are predictable adaptations.  Others including Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Emma, or Pride and Prejudice may not be.

Continuing the theme of combining comic books and literature, Flavorwire declares The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay to be a quintessentially American novel.  I'd contend that American Gods should also be on that list.

On a sadder note, Gabriel Garcia Marquez is suffering from dementia. His "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" is one of my favorite short stories. His development of magical realism is unsurpassed.