Kicking People Out of the Country

Amid the swirl of attention brought on by Li'l Donnie Trump's temper tantrum in his meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and recent developments with Robert Mueller's investigation with Trump's former attorney and fixer Micheal Cohen actually going to jail, it is worth remember that Trump and his minions are still trying to get things done to benefit the moron in chief.  

Nothing makes Li'l Donnie happier than kicking people out of the country. Get a load of this shit.  

The Trump administration is  looking to deport  Vietnamese immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades; many of them having fled the country during the Vietnam War.

The administration last year began pursuing the deportation of many long-term immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia, and other countries who the administration alleges are “violent criminal aliens.” But Washington and Hanoi have a unique 2008 agreement that specifically bars the deportation of Vietnamese people who arrived in the United States before July 12, 1995, the date the two former foes reestablished diplomatic relations following the Vietnam War.

The White House unilaterally reinterpreted this agreement in the spring of 2017 to exempt people convicted of crimes from its protections, allowing the administration to send a small number of pre-1995 Vietnamese immigrants back, a policy it retreated from this past August. But Trump is reversing course again, acting on the view that the 2008 agreement fails to protect pre-1995 Vietnamese immigrants from deportation.


When it first decided to reinterpret the 2008 deal, Donald Trump’s administration argued that only pre-1995 arrivals with criminal convictions were exempt from the agreement’s protection and eligible for deportation. Vietnam initially conceded and accepted some of those immigrants before stiffening its resistance; about a dozen Vietnamese immigrants ended up being deported from the United States. 

The latest shift now leaves the fate of a larger number of Vietnamese immigrants in doubt. Now no pre-1995 arrivals are exempt from the 2008 agreement’s protection. That means all such people are subject to standard immigration law, rendering them eligible for deportation.

Many pre-1995 arrivals, all of whom were previously protected under the 2008 agreement by both the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, were refugees from the Vietnam War. Some are the children of those who once allied with American and South Vietnamese forces, an attribute that renders them undesirable to the current regime in Hanoi, which imputes anti-regime beliefs on the children of those who opposed North Vietnam. This anti-Communist constituency includes minorities, such as the children of the American-allied Montagnards, who are persecuted in Vietnam for both their ethnicity and Christian religion.

The idea that the Montagnards may be caught in the net of Trump's virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies is particularly problematic for me. My church has been very involved in helping Montagnard refugees start a new life in the United States, safe from persecution for the Christian faith. The Montagnards are kind, friendly and they work hard to make a new life for themselves here in America.  

Some of the older members of the church who I know helped with Montagnard resettlement are also Trump supporters. There is some small amount of amusement at the prospect of watching their heads explode trying to reconcile that contradiction. Let me take off my "church hat" and put on my "blogger hat" and say, "Fuck you if didn't see this coming!"   

I can't help but think that the current renewed fixation to resume this deportation of  Vietnamese immigrants who have lived here for decades is to appease Trump who is in a bad mood and needs something to brighten his day.  

Baby It's Cold Outside

Hey, I think I'll weigh in on this "Baby It's Cold Outside" thing.

There's been in recent years some misgivings regarding this song that tends to get played a lot during the Christmas season. It is not in fact a Christmas song; it's a winter weather song like "Winter Wonderland" or "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" 

"Baby It's Cold Outside" is a duet between a man who is pleading with a woman to stay home with him because, hey, it's cold outside (text) and he really, really wants to get laid (subtext but still frickin' obvious). 

Meanwhile, the woman voices various objections to not staying inside.

No means no, right? But this dude just want let up, keeps pleading his case for her to stay.

Is he trying to coerce her into sex?

Looking at this song through the lens of the #MeToo movement, yeah, there's stuff in this song that can provoke concern.

"What's in this drink?"  

In today's terms, that could refer to rohypnol, GBH or some other date rape drug. 

When the song was written in 1944, that was not an issue. 

"What's in this drink?" = "Just how much gin is in this cocktail?"   

The view that the man is working way overtime to coerce a woman into having sex with him is, I think, an incorrect view. 

Make no mistake. This guy really, really wants this woman to stay and it's not just for a friendly game of pinochle. But is she really just a victim of his lecherous intent? What is her deal anyway?

While the man's making the case for the woman to stay, she's covering the reasons why she has to go and none of them have anything to do with her. All the reasons she comes up with to leave have to do with what other people will think. 

She voices no objection of her own against staying.

She doesn't counter his arguments. 


"It's up to your knees out there."

"What? It's barely a dusting of snow on the ground." 

I think the woman in the song wants to stay. She just has a lot of societal pressures she has to negotiate. 

This dude doesn't have to worry about any of that. He might be horny as hell but let's face it: there's a frickin' storm out there and she actually could catch pneumonia and die.  

This is the choice the woman is forced to confront: be slut shamed or catch pneumonia and die.  

So she decides to stay and they cuddle by the fire fully clothed and they both fall asleep because the boy does need to work on the "gin to juice" ratio of his cocktails. 

The brouhaha surrounding this song stems from people not listening. Women who are sadly but correctly always on their guard against the predatory sex habits of men can find a lot to be concerned about in "Baby It's Cold Outside". If a woman was ever slipped a drug in her drink in a bar and was subsequently sexually assaulted, "What's in this drink?" is not just a throw away line in a silly seasonal song but a harsh reminder of the constant and real threat of men who abuse sex in a violent exercise in power.  Older people, even women, just don't get why "Baby It's Cold Outside" may cause anyone offense.

And younger people, women as well as men who are trying to be sensitive to the shit that women have put up with, it's great to be on your guard and be aware but they need to listen too. Not every entreaty for physical intimacy is a threat. Some of them are and be on the watch for that. Other instances are just the dance between a man and a woman before intimacy.

Maybe if "Baby It's Cold Outside" was re-made with two female singers? Would that help? Well, then here you go, an accoustic cover of Baby It's Cold Outside by Amanda Ashley Law & KiwiHiwi.  

The woman in "Baby It's Cold Outside" wants to stay and its only because of unfair and inequitable pressures from society that she has to consider her options including leaving this warm house and go out to catch pneumonia and die.

Because, baby, it is cold outside. 

Snow Big Thing?

Well, Sunday was weird. 

Snow began to fall around the ol' Fortress of Ineptitude here in central North Carolina at a rate that folks 'round these parts just ain't used to. 

Hereabouts, someone sees a snow flake and it's...

OH MY GOD! 
OH MY GOD! 
OH MY GOD! 
OH MY GOD! 
SNOW'S A COMIN'!!
SNOW'S A COMIN'!!
SNOW'S A COMIN'!!
SNOW'S A COMIN'!!
ARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

So imagine what it's like to have a foot of snow dropped on this area! 

My first steps outside late Sunday afternoon to try to clear out  some snow from the front steps and the walkway to the driveway shocked me when snow went up to my knees. 

Here's a collage of pics from around the area. 

I cleared out a bit of a path to the 2nd car in the driveway enough to not have to slog through knee deep snow lest we had to beat a hasty retreat due to illness or power outage. 

Otherwise, I wasn't planning to go anywhere. 

Monday, my job was still open for business. So I had to brave the snow and ice slicked roadways? Nope, I get to WORK FROM HOME! 

I don't like to work from home. Work is where I go to get away from home. Home is where I go to sleep. HOME and WORK shouldn't mix like that. It's matter in the anti-matter, for sure, cap'n.  

Sometime Monday afternoon, the sun came out a bit with some blue sky peeking between the clouds. I ventured back outside to make some improvements to the path to the car and then I opted to see if I could in fact extricate the car from the driveway.

It did not go easily. 

After several efforts at various maneuvers, i was able to wiggle and finesse one of my cars out of the driveway.  The street in front of the Fortress of Ineptitude was still in bad shape and traversing it was problematic. But one I got to the nearest adjoining main road, I found travelling a bit easier. 

I plan to go to WORK at WORK on Tuesday although I plan to not head out too soon. Overnight lows are still below freezing and there's still too much snow and ice to refreeze.  

Still, at some point, I plan to take my chances. I've had too much of home and I don't look forward to having to do more work in it. I wanna do WORK at WORK.

Be safe and be good to one another.   

Doctor Who Is NEW!: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

This week marks the end. 

This week brings us to episode 10 of a 10 episode season.

This week is the finale of Doctor Who Series 11. 

This week brings us to The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos. 

What do we find at the end of this journey? What is the nature of this battle? What is being fought for? What is there to be gained and to be lost? 

We'll look at all of this after the break.

Spoilers coming up. 

The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos 

by Chris Chibnall

The episode opens on a desolate planet (Yay! Rock quarries on Doctor Who?! Classic!) with a pair of aliens with facial application straight up out of Star Trek.  Apparently they are practitioners of a faith waiting to be followed and can manipulate matter with their minds. Then an ominous dark figure surrounded by blue fire appears out of nowhere.

Then we get a helpful graphic that tells its  now 3,407 years later. 

The Doctor and friends arrive on Ranskoor Av Kolos in response to distress calls.  The planet has psychotropic waves that messes with people's brains. The Doctor whips up some tech to help her and her gang resist the negative effects of the planet on their minds.  

The Doctor and friends meet a space ship captain who can't remember his name or why he's even there because of the psychotropic waves. The Doctor has a spare piece of brain preserving tech and this guy eventually remembers his name is Paltraki and that his crew came to Ranskoor to retrieve a mysterious item. The artifact is a weird semi-opaque cubist thing with an orb in the middle. His crew is being tortured and held by an unseen figure who wants this artifact back.

That unseen menace is Tzim-Sha who we met back in episode one of Series 11. 

Graham makes it plain to the Doctor: if he gets the chance, he plans on killing Tzim-Sha for his role in the death of this wife, Grace. The Doctor warns Garham off of that path, telling him if he straight up murders anyone, he can't travel with her anymore.    

What happens next is... complicated.  

Ryan and Graham are off to look for and hopefully rescue Tzim-Sha's hostages. Ryan has sussed out that Graham intends to try to kill Tzim-Sha which Ryan is not on board for. Yes, the alien bastard killed his grandmother but Graham's his grand dad and he loves him. He what now? Hey, don't make Ryan say that twice now. 

Yaz is off with Paltraki on another part of the plot. (Hey, I'm working from memory here and I'm a little fuzzy on the details.) Paltraki's memory of who is and where he comes from are starting to come back thanks to the Doctor's neural  balancer (I just remembered what that's called). Yaz and Paltraki find 4 more of the artifacts. 

The Doctor is off on her own with the artifact Paltraki had with him, looking for Tzim-Sha. She encounters one of the two Ux beings who believes that Tzim-Sha is the Creator foretold by her faith.  The Ux is a little off balance to learn that the Doctor and the "Creator" know each other.  

The Doctor and "Tim Shaw" have their confrontation where our tooth faced villain lays down some exposition.  

(Is it just me or the expository info dumps in Series 11 been more obvious than in seasons past?) 

After the Doctor used both his DNA bombs and his transporter tech against him, Tzim-Sha wound up on Ranskoor Av Kolos which is not his concept of an ideal travel destination. But it's not all bad for our villian. The Ux who can manipulate matter with their minds think he is the "Creator" foretold in their faith. Using a combination of Stenza tech and the abilities of the Ux, Tzim-Sha has an ultimate weapon that he can use for revenge on the Doctor by targeting the Earth.  

The Doctor leaves Tim to stew in his vengeance as she meets up with Yaz and Paltraki; the Ux are up to some sci-fi glowing stuff to zap a hole in space which in turns is zapping the Earth.  The Doctor works out the orbs in the center of the cube things are planets and whatever Tzim-Sha is doing will destroy those planets, the Earth and for good measure, the universe.

That's a lot going on at one time.

Paltraki heads off to help Ryan and Graham with the hostages. The Doctor tells Yaz to go with him. Yaz insists her place is with the Doctor. And the Doctor does not argue with her. 

(And all the Doctor/Yaz shippers go "Awwwwwwwww!")  

Paltraki shows up to stop a bunch of sniper bots and lead to safety the hostages freed by Ryan and Graham. Graham holds back to set off a grenade to hold off another wave of sniperbots and quotes Die Hard in the process.  

But Tzim-Sha shows up and Graham confronts him. Tzim-Sha assesses that Graham is not a warrior. Graham lowers his weapon. "No, I'm the better man." Graham does shoot Tzim-Sha... in the foot. Incapacitated, Graham and Ryan toss "Tim" into one of his suspension cells and sentences him to life in prison.  

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Yaz suss out that their neural balancers might help get the Ux to think clearly and stop doing Tzim-Sha's evil bidding. It works but the planets in the cubes are about to burst free which will destroy those planets as well (for reasons of plot) doom the universe. The Doctor cobbles together stuff from the Stenza tech, the powers of the Ux and the TARDIS in a last bid effort to save those planets and the universe. 

Yaz wonders if this will work? The Doctor notes the TARDIS once towed the Earth across a galaxy and turned a Slitheen into an egg so why not? 

Levers are thrown, lights flash, people scream, power sparks and the planets in the cubes are transported safely back into space! Ta-da!  

The episode ends with Paltraki looking to return his crew home and the Ux hitching a ride to see what's going on there in the universe. 

The Doctor and her fam (she has settled on "fam" for her group of friends) depart in the TARDIS, unsure of their next destination but the universe is full of surprises.  

The End

So that was stuff that happened. 

Surprisingly, there is a fair amount of references to prior episodes, the Woman Who Fell To Earth and The Ghost Monument plus Boom Town from Series 1 and Journey's End in Series 4. 

As it tends to happen a lot during this season of Doctor Who, the details of the plot tend to get lost for me. There's a lot of frantic and breathless running around while the Doctor tells me things are pretty bad unless she thinks of something quick. As the Doctor herself puts it, there's too many things going on at once. Any one of the threats in this episode could've engaged the viewer for the whole hour. 

Shrinking planets and keeping them in cubes? That could've been the focus of an episode and a great one to bring back the Master/Missy who had a tendency to shrink things in the classic series. Nope, planets in cubes are just a plot device in service to a larger, unnecessarily complicated story.  

We got our first re-visit on the season with the return of Tzim-Sha who lacked a certain force or power to warrant us being that worked up about his return. He was serviceable enough as a villain in episode one. 

His return did give us an opportunity for Bradley Walsh to explore more depths to Graham who calmly and rationally tells the Doctor that if he gets the chance, he will kill Tzim-Sha to avenge Grace's death.  

There are good character moments for our cast. Jodie Whittaker getting a bad-ass Doctor moment as she remotely summons the TARDIS. 

The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos is an effective coda to Series 11 for the Doctor's fam. Ryan gains confidence to challenge the Doctor and declare that he loves his grand dad. Yaz demonstrates her loyalty and devotion to the Doctor but on her terms. Graham growth as a character, hit hard by grief from the loss of his wife to now having his eyes open to the new possibilities of life.  The Doctor herself seems to have lacked a development arc; other than getting a new outfit, the Doctor who crashed through the train roof in episode 1 is the the same person who disappears into the TARDIS at the end of episode 10.  

However, in terms of the actual plot and story, The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos is not a powerful end to a season. 

Coming up next time, a look to the future: the New Year's day special and the painfully slow arrival of Series 12 of Doctor Who.   

There's No Weather Like Snow Weather

The Fortress of Ineptitude is under assault by a winter storm. 

Snow and ice, a foot of it outside the fortress and around the Greensboro NC area.

Power has flickered on and off here at the Fortress. 

Stay warm and stay safe. 

And remember to be good to one another. 

Doctor Who: The Future

What does the future hold for Doctor Who?

Well, it does hold on to Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor. 

Whittaker told The Hollywood Reporter that she will be back for Series 12 of Doctor Who.   "It’s such an incredible role. It's been an extraordinary journey so far and I'm not quite ready to hand it over yet."

Which is good news to me. I’ve really taken to Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor during Series 11 and I’ve really enthused to see her do more with the role. 


Given the lack of classic foes this year, I want to see Jodie to stick around long enough to go up against the Daleks and some other classic foes. As much as I like to see Doctor Who move forward with new worlds, new aliens and new monsters, I want to see Jodie’s Doctor interact with the show’s history.

So Jodie Whittaker will be back for Series 12 of Doctor Who.

But exactly when will that be?

Rumors continue to swirl about when the next series of Doctor Who will air and that Series 12 may not appear until 2020.

The article in The Hollywood Reporter announcing Jodie Whittaker continuing with Doctor Who (which I didn't know was something in doubt that needed to be announced), it says that Jodie will begin production in early 2019. This contradicts what Starburst magazine reported from the BBC that the show as of November 2018 was already back into production. 

Not starting until early 2019 does lend some credence to those "no series until 2020" rumors. 

Bleeding Cool.com seems to think that the 2020 release for Series 12 is a done deal. 

So far the BBC ain't saying nothin'.  

________________________________

Updated 12/09/2018, 10:35 PM EST

OK, we have news about the future of Doctor Who magazine.

So sorry, Starburst magazine.

More on that in a future post.

The write up on tonight's episode may be up on Monday but later than expected as the Fortress of Ineptitude has been hit by a major winter snow and ice storm and is experiencing intermittent power outages. 

Marvel Movies: Captain Marvel and Avengers 4

It’s been a big week for Marvel movies with a new trailer for Captain Marvel and yesterday’s long awaited, much anticipated trailer for Avengers 4. 

Captain Marvel has lots of scenes with the good captain flying, throwing around energy bolts, punching stuff and overall being a super powered badass.

She also has a cat.

It appears that at the core of various super powered shenanigans involving warring alien races using Earth as a battle ground is a story of identity. Carol Danvers is a woman who is both human and more than human, caught between what she wants out of life and what other forces beyond her control would have her be. Her memory is in pieces and she’s uncertain about who she is or who she is supposed to be.

But she does have a cat. 

We get to see a younger Nick Fury with both eyes open. Will we get to see in Captain Marvel how he loses one of his eyes?

We might. Captain Marvel has a cat.  

The agitation over when we would finally get a sneak peek at Avengers 4 has been building to an almost fever pitch in the last week or two. So I imagine there was a palpable sense of relief when the trailer for Avengers 4: Endgame finally dropped on Friday.  

Endgame? Well, we have a title of the sequel. Ominous much? 

Things do not look good for Tony Stark. Lost in space, our not so invincible Iron Man is running out of everything keeping him alive. Presuming he’s going to die, the trailer opens with Tony recording a last message to Pepper Potts, a lovelorn message in a bottle, his Iron Man helmet, cast into the infinite ocean of space, a last statement to the woman he loves, a message she will likely never get.

We look in on Thanos, living his life as a farmer, his armor used as a defacto scarecrow.  

Back on Earth, the Avengers are devastated in the wake of the decimation of half of all life in the universe. We get a glimpse of a new hooded figure who looks like Ronin from the comics. We also see Jeremy Renner, our erstwhile Hawkeye. In the comics, Clint Barton was revealed as the man beneath Ronin’s hood. 

Captain America talks gravely of the fight to come. Who are the fighting? What is the nature of this fight? Is it a fighting chance to restore those lost? Or a fight to avenge those who have been lost?

“We will save the Earth and if we don’t, we’ll damn sure avenge it.” That’s what Tony Stark told Loki back in the first Avengers movie.

But I think there is more than vengeance at work here.

The clip ends with Ant Man himself, Scott Lang, showing up at Avengers HQ. At the end of Ant Man and the Wasp, Scott was left stranded in the Quantum Realm after Hank, Hope and Janet got zapped by Thanos’ decimation snap. Somehow Scott has extricated himself from the realm which may hold the answers to undoing the losses caused by Thanos. We learned in Scott’s last movie is that the Quantum Realm has temporal characteristics. Time travel, anyone? 

Speaking of time, we have a few months to speculate over all this.  

Click here for the Captain Marvel trailer on You Tube.

Click here for the Avengers 4: Endgame trailer.