Op-ed: A movie that has not been released in theaters in the U.S. yet may tell us what to expect if Donald Trump is elected president. It is “High Rise,” and it features British hunk Tom Hiddleston, better known as the characters Loki in the film Avengers and Jonathan Pine in The Night Manager. If the Republicans get their payback on Hillary Clinton for helping impeach Richard Nixon, and many other acts they consider crimes, it is worth downloading High Rise to see what a class war would really be like. Bloomberg Watergate Clinton The film High Rise, released last year in Canada, was considered a highlight of the Toronto Film Festival. “Biggest surprises of TIFF so far: “…that Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise (Grade: B+) is something I genuinely dig. Wheatley’s labyrinthine black comedy preserves the 1970s setting of J.G. Ballard’s novel, linking its vision of a residential tower regressing into literal class warfare to the rise of Margaret Thatcher…” Toronto Film Festival Reviews For those who judge a movie by its cast, Jeremy Irons is the arch architect of the five towers, if that is a word. Hiddleston plays Thor’s arch enemy in the Marvel series. As in Les Miserables or the French Revolution itself, class warfare develops. This time between those on the top floor and those on the lower flowers. The soundtrack, which ranges from Bach to Abba enhances the film. It gets to the level of eating dogs to survive. Margaret Thatcher is quoted about how pure capitalism is the only answer. The police, apparently too busy with prison riots are only seen once. That is one cop. J.G. Ballard, author of the book, written in 1975, said the architect of the towers “…without knowing it … had constructed a gigantic vertical zoo, its hundreds of cages stacked above each other. All the events of the past few months made sense if one realized that these brilliant and exotic creatures had learned to open the doors.” Amazon says: “When a class war erupts inside a luxurious apartment block, modern elevators become violent battlegrounds and cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on “enemy” floors. In this visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as once-peaceful residents, driven by primal urges, re-create a world ruled by the laws of the jungle.” Fighting for canapés? Cake anyone? Before the architect is shot by a journalist he had tried unsuccessfully to have lobotomized – he was the sanest man in the building -- we learned he planned four more towers like this one. It is the kind of thing you might hear from Trump. The residents are selected to get only certain types. At the close he realized he had chosen too many types.
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Op-ed: If the Democratic presidential race was an NFL event; viewers would have turned off long ago if the pundits covered the Democratic presidential race like the NFL. Everyone knows where teams benefit from the schedule, and when they are likely destroyed by it. Bernie Sanders has feasted on lightly attended caucuses that few people understand, and even fewer have the several hours needed to attend one to demonstrate support for their candidate. Many of them are open, meaning anyone, Democrat, Republican or independent can vote. He won two primaries, Wisconsin and Michigan, both of which allowed non-Democrats to vote. On one of his web sites Sanders said open primaries can be used for “political sabotage,” by allowing non-party members to determine its future. In Sanders’ words, posted on a web site: “Why do some states have closed primaries and caucuses while others do not? Closed primary elections and caucuses exist as a defense mechanism against political sabotage. Some states’ political parties are concerned that voters, instead of using their vote to support the candidate with whom they agree the most, will vote for a weak candidate in the opposing political party. That is to say, these individuals may subvert the opposing political party’s power as a way to advance the potential of their own political party. By hosting a closed primary election, states force individuals in their electorate to register as a Republican, a Democrat, or another political party, and then participate in only their own party’s caucus or primary election. In this way, both the state parties ensure that they are not undermining each other’s political efficacy.” After suffering a string of primary losses that built up Hillary Clinton’s lead to possibly insurmountable levels, Sanders won a series of causes that drew small numbers of votes in small, mostly white states with few minorities. Cable TV called these victories, even when there was a delegate draw in one, Wyoming. Not unaware that there was no path to victory, short of an improbable indictment of Clinton, Sanders did what he has in past campaigns: raised the volume. The New York Times reported Sanders has become very combative in past campaigns when he was in difficulty, including a 1986 campaign against incumbent Gov. Madeleine Kunin. He said things like: “Many people are excited because she’s the first woman governor. But after that, there ain’t much.” Kunin crushed him, getting 47 percent to his 14. Peter Smith got 38. Sanders even tried a Hail Mary, flying his family to Rome to shake hands privately with the pope, who said it was only manners to greet him since he was in the path. Polling reveals double-digit leads for Clinton in next week’s New York primary and similar leads in Pennsylvania and California. Convention playoffs seem unlikely for what Saturday Night Live called Donald Trump’s cartoon opposite this weekend. |
Robert Weller
2016 US election news and other news from the USA
Bio
Worked in journalism, including on the Internet, for more than 40 years. Started as a news editor at the Colorado Daily at the University of Colorado, joined a small Montana newspaper, the Helena Independent-Record, and then United Press International. Archives
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