First a Note: Posting has been sporadic this month because this is when the day job starts swinging into high gear as the Annual Open Enrollment Period of Medicare Advantage Plans opens up and that means I get to work overtime. I don’t have to work it, but I do like the extra cash and that means I will often miss regular updates to my blog.

I don’t need to tell you that 2020 has been a trying, taxing, and tumultuous year. No matter who you are or what you do your life has been impacted by this year’s seemingly endless calamities. I have lost a dear friend to the pandemic and another friend has lost his spouse and partner.

And yet setting aside the distinctively American historical roots and traditions I think I can be thankful for a least a few things this year.

I have my health. Neither my sweetie-wife nor I have contracted COVID-19 and we are both still fully employed. This year saw the publication of my debut novel and, despite the pandemic hammering books sales around the globe, my relations with the publisher and editor remain strong. Science has promised a brighter future with multiple effective vaccines seemingly just around the proverbial corner.

Our celebrations will be simply this year. Just my spouse and I maintaining social distancing for ourselves and our community. May your days be brighter and may the coming season bring you a bountiful harvest of things to be thankful for.

Election season concludes tomorrow with the US’s official election day, this year November 3rd. The consequences of this year’s election are incalculable but include, redistricting for control of congress, America’s standing in the world, to future of deep and binding relationships with out allies, corruption of our democratic institutions, the rule of law, but perhaps most pressing and certainly most immediate if the course of the pandemic in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic has, due to the bungling of this administration, killed more than nearly a quarter of a million people in America. Our winter of discontent is unlikely to become glorious summer with the narcissistic, intellectually challenged, corrupt crime family of the Trumps still occupying the administration.

To save the nation, Trump must be turned out.

To save our national soul, Trump must be turned out.

To save our lives, Trump must be turned out.

Here is a chart showing the course of the pandemic in the US and it’s plain that the projections of horrific and unsustainable.

8_US Cross Curves

People often say vote like your lives depend on it, this election is not hyperbole.

It’s not new or shocking to state that Trump cares for no one but Trump. Those who expect or hope that his brush with COVID-19 and his mortality will somehow implant the barest empathy for another human being are deluding themselves. A person in the mid-70s is set in who that are and in Trump’s case that is an immoral, narcissistic, sociopath interested only in his own well-being and wealth.

In addition to this the pressures of the election and his immunity towards state and federal crimes along with civil threats including $400 million dollars in personal debts coming due in the next four years provide incentive, beyond his inherent selfish needs, for Trump to do whatever it takes to retain the office of President of the United States.

Which of course means interfering in the process the approve the vital vaccine we need for COVID-19.

The FDA wants to publish guidelines that any vaccine before approval must first have its participant monitored for two months following their last does, waiting to see in adverse events develop or if the vaccine’s protections show signs of being only a short duration. This reasonable, if still highly rushed, guideline is quite acceptable unless your eye is on election day in which case this is terrible. No vaccine can meet this guideline and be approved before November 3rd 2020. Of course, interference from the White House undermines confidence in the vaccine and damages intake of this vital measure to protect our health, our lives, and our economy.

Trump doesn’t care if the vaccine works.

Trump doesn’t care if you die.

Trump only cares for Trump.

Trump only wants to win and your corpse is an acceptable price for that victory.

No, this is not about the Presidential Debate last night September 29th.

The New York Times has an interesting story about a tech start-up in Massachusetts that is raising funds and planning to construct a test reactor for nuclear fusion.

Working with MIT the start-up Commonwealth Fusion Systems hopes to have their reactor built in just 3-4 years and if all goes according to their plans producing net gain energy from fusion.

We have seen this road before and it has, to date, only led to washed-out bridge, collapsed tunnels, and chasms yet to be spanned, but things are impossible to achieve until they aren’t. This is not some fly-by-night operation working without the benefit of major scientific and technological might and several physicists have publisher papers agreeing that this approach looks sound.

It may still fail.

It may yet be another crushing disappointment.

It may also work.

We need something like this. While viable fusion power would attract attacks from both the lest and the right it would be a huge leap forward in de-carbonizing our energy systems.

This week reports began popping up here and that that women in an ICE detention center, one that is operated by a private contractor, have been subject to unwanted and unnecessary hysterectomies  with some referring to the doctor alleged to have done this as ‘the uterus collector.’ These reports come from a whistleblower from inside the system.

It is important to note that at this time we do not yet know the accuracy, validity, or truth of these reports. Whistleblowers can be wrong, can have incomplete information, or even be untruthful or they can expose gross wrongdoing that authorities want to conceal.  Those of us on the outside need to make sure an honest independent investigation is performed and trust to the results. Congress has started one and we need to keep our eyes on that.

With all that said if these allegations are accurate or close to accurate this is some NAZI level shit.

I am not one to throw around comparisons to NAZIs or Stalinists. These types of verbal assaults are usually the product of intense partisanship and not a considered judgment based upon historical context but post WWII forced sterilization of black and brown people? That is straight up racist NAZI shit.

It is no revelation that those are those on the right obsessed with birth right citizenship and ‘anchor’ babies. It would not take a stretch of the weakest imagination to contemplate a racist, nationalist, medical professional sterilizing non-white women to eliminate the possibility that they may give birth while on American soil.

That is conjecture. Right now, we do not know the facts, but have an administration that dismisses the deaths of Americans that it does not consider as its supporters. ( The offensive comments from the president that if you take out the deaths from ‘Blue States’ we’re doing well with the pandemic.) And that the head of our government considers people from Mexico to be ‘rapists and murderers.’ Is it really that hard to believe that it may have attracted racists zealots to its border enforcement programs?

The horror I am referring to is not the dystopian political landscape, nor the hellish pandemic scarred terrain of our future for the next few months but rather to dark cinema, frightening film, that will shortly be coming into and enriching my life.

This week year 11 of the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival. Two years ago, the festival moved from its native city of San Diego to the Santa Ana in Orange county about an 80-minute drive from my home and in anticipation of days going back and forth to the festival I took several days off extending my weekend to five days. Of course, the pandemic has shattered these plans but the festival’s director Miguel Rodriguez has managed to keep the celebration alive by movie it online and this weekend I will still be watching blocks of short films and several features all of these from around our world. It will not be the same without the mingling in the theater’s lobby, discussing the films we just watched with the fans and filmmakers but in the depressing times we must find what joy we can.

This weekend will not be my only excursion into unknown horror cinema. Sunday night while doom scrolling through the terror that is my twitter feed, I came across a link of an older Finnish horror movie that the tweet described as a were-reindeer movie. I mentioned it to my sweetie-wife, who has a love of things Finnish, and soon we discovered the film The White Reindeer from 1952 was a Cannes and Golden Globe Award winning film inspired by pre-Christian Finnish folklore. Well, damn! That’s something we both need to see and bang a Blu-ray of a recent restoration has been ordered and should arrive from Germany later this month.

Motivated Reasoning is the process where, quite subconsciously, a person used their reasoning to arrive a conclusion that conforms to their already held preconceptions and notions avoid the unpleasant dilemma of changing their opinion about a subject.

People utilize their motivated reasoning skill in a variety of settings and problems but it always occurs for subject to which the person has attached a high personal value, usually related to an identity or core personality self-image. A person who thinks of themselves as generous will find all manner of ‘reason’s when faced with evidence of selfishness. A person devoted to a political faction will construct elaborate chains of logic to maintain that their chosen position and party are ‘good’ and not tainted but some misdeed. An artist who has poured deeply person feeling into a work is likely to reject criticism rather than reevaluate their process or technique. All of these actions and example are not evidence of a person being ‘bad’ or dishonest, often the motivated reasoning takes place below the level of awareness, it is a defensive mechanism.

The best way to combat it is to question not that which confronts your world view, or that which attacks your directly, but question those things, evidence, and conclusion that make you feel warm and safe. The lie that is most dangerous is the lie we want to believe. Seek out evidence and arguments contrary to your positions, and not argument that have been filtered through allies presenting the counterargument or you will simply be swayed by their own motivated reasoning. When you reach a conclusion that is alignment with what you already accept as right and proper be merciless on yourself for flaws in your reasoning and logic. This is not easy and it is a never-ending process but you cannot reach truth via self-delusion.

Let’s get this out of the way right up front, this post is not about Rowling recent and deplorable political/personal/aggrieved writings. On the subject of equality for transgendered people and her stance on transgendered people she is just wrong. As the British would say, ‘Full Stop.’ This about the stated theme of the Potter franchise, a ‘plea for tolerance,’ and how the text of the work itself undermines that goal.
The ideological conflict separating the heroes from the villains in Potter is a properly fascistic mentality that the value of a person is derived from the blood lineage. The villains of the work are obsessed with a purity of blood referring to all wizards with either muggle, i.e. non-wizard parents, or with one of the parents or ancestors that were muggle as ‘mudblood.’ The terminology makes the analog to real world racism evident as it is clearly derived from the slur ‘mud people’ used by white supremist. The very utterance of the word ‘mudblood’ is considered by the wider wizarding world to be offensive. The Death Eater in the franchise stands in very nicely as an analog for the genocidal monstrosity of fascist thinking that places individual human life on a scale of value determine by the accident of their birth. Harry, Dumbledore’s Army, and all the heroic characters of the work stand firmly against this poisonous ideology.
So far so good. The villains believe people’s inherent worth is determine by their ‘blood’ and the heroes stand for equality and intrinsic human value.
Except in the work to be a hero, to be a valued, noble, worthy character you still have to be the right kind of person, you have to be a wizard and that is solely determined by your birth.
Reading the books there are no admirable characters that are not also wizards. The plea for tolerance doesn’t extend to ‘muggles,’ represented by the stupid, greedy, cruel, and fat Dursleys. There are no ‘on screen’ muggles with good character and noble actions.
Yes, the story is centered on the wizarding world, the fight takes place in that setting and the wizard in defeating the Death Eaters are also protecting the muggle world from the genocidal ambitions of the deranged cult but the seven volume series there is room for a few moment where that humanity, nobility, and heroism could have been extended to the non-wizards of the world. With this omission that text makes the same mistake as its villains, though from neglect rather than malice, that value comes from the quality of your blood. Like all ‘Prophesized Ones’ stories the foundation states that to be the hero you have to be born to it but unlike most stories of that trope Potter extends the lineage requirement to all of its heroes.
I am not arguing that the central character or even on of the major recurring heroes needed to be a muggle. That would have never worked in the setting or world-building of the franchise. It is a story about wizards, the wizarding world, and the war that tore it apart. Its central character had to be wizards and a muggle in the center of it would have felt forced and inorganic to the structure, but there is a world of difference between forcing in a character to address this issue and having the sole representation of the muggle be the Dursleys.
I am reminded of the romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle which suffered a similar failing. Throughout the film a recurring concept is the conflict between guy movies and chick flicks. The Dirty Dozen is used as the platonic ideal of a ‘guy movie’ while An Affair to Remember stands in for ‘chick flicks,’ with the commentary that no man ever really gets it. This is sloppy, stereotypical, and reductive. (Side note: An Affair to Remember was written, produced and Directed by men, so clearly men can ‘get it.’) At the climax of Sleepless Meg Ryan’s character is trying to get into the Empire State building to meet hank’s character and she makes a reference to An Affair to Remember to the guard who is stopping her. He comments it’s his wife’s favorite film and just like that Nora Ephron missed the chance to repudiate the stereotyping of men and women the film had engaged in. Had it been his favorite film the whole concept would have been undercut and the diversity of humanity celebrated.
In the same way Harry Potter didn’t need a main character that was a muggle all it need was when Harry and Company were on the run and hiding in the muggle world from assassins just one muggle that showed bravery and heroism helping Harry and the others to rescue the franchise’s central theme. An easy fix that an editor should have suggested and Rowling should have implemented.

As many of you know a dear friend of 40 years died last week from COVID-19. (Wear your damn masks! Wash your Damned hands! And stay home as much as you can!) I wish I did not have so much experience with the death of friends and loved ones. Having that grim specter intrude into your life at a young age leaved emotional trauma that never leaves and forever alters you.

But even with all my experience a death remains an event that sends your emotions spiraling are odd and inconsistent times.

There are moments where the enormity of the event just pushes everything else aside and the realizing that it is all real, it is not some nightmare and that your dear friend is truly gone, pushes all other thoughts aside leaving only the grief and the sorrow.

There are moments when you are reminded of the challenges others will now face, those who depended upon him, whose lives were not only emotional but financially intertwined and you fear and apprehensive on their behalf.

There are the trivial and small concerns that sometimes haunt your thoughts, how to properly and with respect deal with his absence when social events like role play gaming resumes.

And there are the brief times when it is not at the front of your mind and prompts a guilt that stalks your mood.

Life is not just.

Life is not unjust.

Life and Death simply are.

On June 24th, 2020, COVID-19 killed my friend of 40 years, Craig Anderson.

He was a quirky, generous, geek friend and there is no amount of words I can use to capture his spirit or our loss. I will share a couple of stories here that capture the essential Craig and illuminate just briefly why he will be so missed.

Flightiness

Craig was gifted a ’66 Ford Mustang and he love driving fast. One evening in the mid-80s I rode with him late at night as he sped along Highway 8. It must have been nearly midnight or so because the freeway was pretty much deserted and Craig was doing nearly ninety miles per hour. (Speed limits at the time were supposedly 55 MPH.0

I looked across Craig as he drove through his driver’s side window and spotted a California Highway Patrol car exited Highway 8 taking a ramp along a north-bound freeway. Apparently the CHPie had more important matters to attend to and turned his car’s spotlight towards us, playing the beam back and forth across the driver’s side.

Befuddled, Craig asked “Why’s he doing that?”

“He wants you to slow down,” I explained.

“Oh.” And  Craig, at least for a while reduced speed.

Humor

I shall not recount any of the nearly endless terrible puns that Craig so loved. He could always be counted upon to find a pun that was truly terrible and rarely actually funny but I do have an example of how humor infused his life.

In the early 80s Craig was struck with testicular cancer. He went into the hospital and they removed one testicle and then proceeded to crock open his chest because they had spotted a shadow on his lungs. Luckily that was not more cancer but Craig endured weeks in the hospital for treatment and recovery. I was unemployed and home when the one-testicled Craig returned to the apartment. He opened the door, dropped his bag, waved, and in a terribly high-pitched falsetto said, “Hi, Bob!”

Generosity

In the early 90s I shared a house with Craig and another housemate Bear. (Truly that nickname is one of the most apt I have ever encountered.) Bear and I were driving back to the house and I was facetiously debating him in favor of Ayn Rand and her Objectivism with its core concept that at heart all people are selfish and selfishness is in fact a virtue. (Not a philosophy I believed then or now but mere fun debating.) we entered the house Craig was sitting crossed legged in the center of the living room. I walked over to him and said that I wanted $20. Explaining that I did not need the money, there was no crucial debt or need just that I wanted it and also that this was not a loan as I would never pay it back. It would just make me happy to have an extra $20. Without a moment’s hesitation he leaned forward and staring taking his wallet say “Sure, Bob.” And Bear died in a fit of hysterical laughter. Objectivism was no match for Craig big heart and boundless generosity.

We will not see his like again.