A cinematic experiment I'd be curious to see, but we're probably better off if Hollywood doesn't attempt.

Saw White House Down yesterday on TV. Had never heard of it -- nor of its fraternal twin, Olympus Has Fallen -- and only watched out of lazy Sunday afternoon loss of will to channel surf. At the end, was surprised to find it had hooked me, despite being a typical dumb-and-loud actioner, trying to make some scratch off the corpse of Die Hard with maybe a dash of Air Force One thrown in.

Part of the reason I hung in with it was watching the noxious James Woods play the villain. At this stage of his career and celebrity, where his politics are well-known, it's the role he was born to age into. The old saw goes: to be a good villain, the bad guy should think he is the hero. This is what the movie gets exactly right in both the writing and casting of Woods' character -- retiring, terminally ill head of the Secret Service Presidential Detail with extreme right wing politics, forced to serve a black President who is trying to practice diplomacy in the Middle East -- they've given us a villain who could credibly be seen as believing he is right. He believes he, and his fellow conspirators, are going to save the world. It helps that the character's politics, while demented and malevolent, are not hard to find in the real world.

This movie cried out for an alternate version, one that could have been shot at the same time, but where all the cinematic conventions used to identify the hero in this sort of story were used to depict Wood's Martin Walker and Richard Jenkins' House Speaker Eli Raphelson as the heroes, and Channing Tatum's John Cale and Maggie Gyllenhaal's Agent Finnerty as the villains.

To be clear, I'm not saying we need movies with a crypto-fascist heroes. Rather, to have the version we got and my proposed alternate version, both produced with the same budget and rudimentary competence Roland Emmerich achieves with WHD, shown side-by-side would be the perfect object lesson to drive home the point of your Film Studies 101 classes and scores of youtube video essays. Add a few scenes where we get to see Walker's grief over his son's death, remove the scenes where we see Cale with his daughter being a good dad, and you'd be most of the way there. I can pretty much guarantee you the alternate version of this movie would find an adoring audience in the Republican base. They'd probably start forming Martin Walker Societies. (Which is why this should remain a thought experiment.)

You know John McCain (not to mention Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, and the rest of the #47traitors crowd) would help promote it.

The invisible hand at work, making things efficient. Business as usual ...

H&R Block Lobbied to Make Tax Forms Harder for Low-Income People to Fill Out | Mother Jones: 

Block lobbying via opensecrets

H&R Block said in a statement last week that "this is not about competitive business interests. It's about reducing fraud and protecting the future of the EITC." 

H&R Block has used the threat of fraud for years in arguing for a more complex tax filing system. In fact, studies have found that the majority of EITC overpayments are the result of unintentional error, not fraud—and research suggests that self-filers are already pretty good at getting it right. As Vox points out, a 2014 IRS study found that EITC claims filed from 2006 to 2008 by paid preparers were more likely to result in overpayments than self-filed claims. 

CBPP's Greenstein also notes that there's a double standard when it comes to tax-preparer companies' advocacy around fraud. The Treasury Department estimates that $16-19 billion was lost in 2014 from EITC overpayments. But the underreporting of business income cost $122 billion in 2006 (the latest year for which data are available) and is the single largest component of uncollected taxes. [emphasis mine]

H&R Block has no interest in protecting the government from fraud. Nor does it have any interest in serving a socially valuable purpose. It is interested is profit, which capitalists will point out is the point of the thing. Block is, not to put to fine a point on it, a predator. A predator that market worshipers will tell you is: (1) serving its natural function, and (2) that function is good for society.

Blogpost of the Week: "How to Disappear Completely" | Fascist Dyke Motors

So, while I was lamenting one of the great hardships of my young life -- the broadcast of a shitty Doctor Who story when I was about 13-years-old -- Katy, over at Fascist Dyke Motors, was blogging about how she went from being homeless from the ages 12 to 18, to achieving academic success, and being invited to speak to groups of homeless youth.

*Checking my privilege*

When it comes to gun control, no more talk is needed. #MMWMMI

Seriously. There's nobody left to convince. We've won the hearts and minds of the public. Polling shows this. [86% support in Virginia for gun control legislation, prior to this morning's on-air shooting] Sure, there are plenty of gun nuts talking shit, but they're a vocal minority. The lunatic fringe.

In the discussion, that lot don't matter. What matters about them is the money they spend on guns and supporting the NRA.

Stop engaging them, it's a waste of time. You won't change their minds and, even if - by some miracle - you did make a breakthrough with one, changing the mind of some rando doesn't change policy. They aren't just talking, they're lining the pockets of guys who profit and set policy.

All that's left for us to do is make our politicians do their fucking jobs. The hearts and minds of their constituents have been won. But, our politicians don't work for us, they work for the money. If we want sensible gun control, we're simply going to have to pay for it. That's how this works.

Rivers of blood and the pleadings of reasonable people aren't enough to bring about change; the lever we need to push is the one labeled "Money and Lobbyists." Therefore, starting with this post, I'm going to flip $10 to the Brady Campaign each time I post or tweet about the need for sensible gun control legislation.

It's no good though unless my money where my mouth is motivates others to do the same. I'm not wealthy, I can't afford to say much. Still, from now on, every time I post something I'm going to remind you that I'm putting my money where my mouth is (#MMWMMI) and, frankly, that you're wasting your time, my time, everybody's time if you're talking about it but aren't putting your money where your mouth is as well.

There are other issues where advocacy may be enough, where we can change minds and policy with ideas and by effective communication of those ideas. Gun control has proven not to be one of those issues. To keep trying without funding the groups that our trying to change policy is to resign yourself to an unending parade of mass shootings, murder-suicides, and accidental death and injury.

Best as I can tell, there are two main lobbying organizations that have done significant work on this front: Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. They need our support. The NRA has our craven political system held at figurative gunpoint to do its will. There is no crime so heinous it will move them off their psychopathic commitment to ensuring we are awash in guns. The Supreme Court has subscribed to the delusions that money is speech and that only the words "shall not be infringed" have any meaning in the 2nd Amendment -- a pair of terrible ideas that are having disastrous effects on our Republic. 


Even if this post accomplishes nothing, I hope what I saw below does.

Updates:

@robdelaney @NRA "Money talks, Jefferson quotes walk” - gunfuck congresspimples

— Groucho Marx’s Dog (@SchleppoMarx) August 26, 2015

Nation To Try Channeling Outrage Over Gun Control Into Issue That Can Actually Be Addressed http://t.co/UBwwqrCtRJ pic.twitter.com/avr27aNV4d

— The Onion (@TheOnion) August 27, 2015

Announcing: Bigger on the Inside, The World's Smallest #DoctorWho Fanzine (Allegedly)

Tonight, cryptonaut-in-exile is proud (well proud-ish) to announce the launch of a new Doctor Who 'zine, the World's Smallest* Fanzine: Bigger on the Inside!

Like your regular size fanzines, it's got original fiction, useful information, original art and photography, and an essay, of sorts.

So there it is. Digital and paper copies of Issue #1 are free while supplies last!

In fact, if you're interested in contributing to a fanzine, but want to start small. Literally. Reach out to me through the comments, or on twitter, and I'll send you a template/guidelines you can use to create a piece of content that will fit. If your material meets our stringent editorial guidelines, you could be a featured contributor in Issue #2**

Honestly though, it's so small, if you wanted to monkey around and make one of your own, just let me know and I'll send you the template I created and the folding instructions so you can print and make your own.

Got a child that's a fan of Adventure Time or Gravity Falls and wants to start a fanzine with their friends? Use my template and *bam* your little one could be publishing their own 'zine (and burning through all your printer ink) in no time flat! They'll either be publishing magnates, or in trouble for littering, by the end of the week.

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* "World's Smallest" claim not verified. 
** Editorial guidelines to be determined. Chances of there being an Issue #2 ... slim.