Friday, January 11, 2019
The Vagaries Of Art At The Museum Of Fine Arts In Boston -The Mexican Muralist And Political Assassin David Alfaro Siqueiros
The Vagaries Of Art At The Museum Of Fine Arts In Boston -The Mexican Muralist And Political Assassin David Alfaro Siqueiros
A link to a WBUR (NPR) "Morning Edition" report on the installation of Mexican Muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros work of art after a long absence.
http://www.wbur.org/artery/2018/01/10/mfa-siqueiros-painting
By Frank Jackman
We live in weird times. Not just the Age of Trump madness which is getting a bit tiresome although Donald J. represents the best possible “recruiting sergeant” of our side, for the left possible (hell maybe even for the middling muddle and rational right too). No today in light of the sexual harassment and sexual crimes committed by Hollywood power broker, Washington wizard fixer men fisting power, media stars tumbling to stuff twelve year olds would think twice about, and don’t forget a few guys next door who can take the fall too although it will not reach the 24/7/365 news cycle I want to mention, once again, the dilemma of trying to separate out, if that is even possible, the horrible actions and crimes of these creative types and their works.
What got me going on this question was a recent revelation by actress Tippi Hendron who starred in one of Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s classis suspense films The Birds that he relentlessly pursued her against her very strong wishes to the contrary. Worse he basically ruined her future promising career by using his authority as a great film director to bad-mouth her in the film industry when she wouldn’t respond to his brutish behavior. That brought the vexing question to a head. It still has not been fully answered as yet but for myself I have a diminished regard for Sir Alfred’s work when I have to think about reviewing anything of his as I did recently with a review of his classic The 39 Steps.
Now comes another version of that same question although it does not involve sexual harassment or crimes but the more serious one of political assassination. As the link above indicates the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is after a long absence displaying a major work by Mexican muralist and political activist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Fair enough as far as it goes. Although the MFA representative gusted forth about Siqueiros’ combination of artistic mastery and left-wing political activist she left out one little point. David Alfaro Siqueiros led a group of political thugs on the compound of exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico and attempted, and failed, to murder that world-historic figure. Although not for trying it was only a miracle he was not murdered then.
Now we all know of the checkered careers of all kinds of culturati-bandits from Villon to Bellini to modern day and we cherish some of their cultural achievements but even if we recognize, and we should at some level, the great artistry of Siqueiros can we really sweep his criminal political activity under the rug. Or ignore it as the MFA representative did. Shame on her.
Soldiers, you are not alone! a message from Veterans For Peace You are not alone if you are thinking WTF am I doing on the U.S. border with Mexico?
Soldiers, you are not alone!
a message from Veterans For Peace
a message from Veterans For Peace
You are not alone if you are thinking WTF am I doing on the U.S. border with Mexico?
You are not alone if you are thinking WTF am I doing on the U.S. border with Mexico?
You are not alone if you are asking if this is some kind of political stunt.
You are not alone if you wonder what all this concertina wire is for.
Is it even legal to deploy troops on U.S. soil? Against desperate asylum seekers?
You are not alone if you are re-thinking your role in the U.S. military.
No, you are not alone. Many people, in and out of the military, have these very same concerns.
Veterans For Peace certainly does. We believe the deployment of U.S. troops to the border is an illegitimate use of the U.S. military. We believe the Central America caravan poses no threat whatsoever to anyone.
Veterans For Peace certainly does. We believe the deployment of U.S. troops to the border is an illegitimate use of the U.S. military. We believe the Central America caravan poses no threat whatsoever to anyone.
This is no “invasion.” The asylum seekers are traveling in a caravan for their safety from criminal gangs. With their babies and young children, they are fleeing from extreme violence and poverty. They are desperate to keep their families alive. They have every right under both U.S. and international law to seek asylum in the U.S. In fact, we have a special responsibility to help them. For decades the U.S. has been supporting corrupt dictators throughout Latin America, creating the conditions from which these poor people are fleeing. We should be meeting the asylum seekers at the border with open arms, not with concertina wire.
If you decide to follow your conscience and refuse to obey orders that you believe are illegal or immoral, you will not be alone. Veterans For Peace will support you, along with other organizations who have legal resources and know how to organize political support. See below.
If you decide it is time for you to get out of the military, we can put you in touch with counselors who can help you to be honorably discharged.
Most of all, as veterans of multiple wars, we strongly advise you not to do anything that you might regret for the rest of your life, just because you were “following orders.” It is much better to follow your conscience, and do what you know deep down is right.
Veterans For Peace is responsible for this message. The other organizations listed are valuable resources.
COURAGE TO RESIST
www.couragetoresist.org
www.couragetoresist.org
GI RIGHTS HOTLINE, 877-447-4487
Veterans For Peace works to educate the public about the true costs of war. We want peace at home and peace abroad. We are committed to acting nonviolently. We welcome active duty members.
DoD Instruction 1325.06 allows GI’s to read and keep one copy of the leaflet.
Will The Real Bond, James Bond Stand Up- Sean Connery’s “You Only Live Twice” (1967)-A Film Review
Will The Real Bond, James Bond Stand Up- Sean Connery’s “You Only Live Twice” (1967)-A Film Review
DVD Review
By Sandy Salmon
I am not sure what to say right now after reading Leslie Dumont’s scathing polemic cum review of one in the apparently never-ending series of James Bond films which new manager Greg Green went out of his way to have her write even though young Alden Riley and I have been running the rack on this series. The film, Tomorrow Never Dies with the lovely delicious Pierce Brosnan going through the paces of the legendary indestructible MI6 agent in the 1990s. That “apparently never-ending” no joke despite the fact that the original creator of the character Ian Fleming has long passed the shades (they were diddling with the plots when he was alive in any case including on the film I will attempt to review). James Bond, although I am not sure either party will like the comparison, now joins Bob Dylan in the never-ending category (for concerts still performed and Bootleg CD series never finished).
All of that though is not the beef today since Leslie whom I knew for a short time when she was a stringer for the American Film Gazette after she left her stringer job on this site and before she finally, finally landed a by-line at New York Today has thrown down the gauntlet. Leslie in that review of hers took on the whole James Bond male chauvinism bullshit mystique. (Although the fact that he is never really scratched despite an armada of weaponry thrown his way by every bad ass in the world, male or female, apparently does not bother her or the not so veiled battles between the good British Empire and the heathen commies of whatever designation.) But what has me in dither is that she went after the little pseudo-battle that Alden Riley, the former Associate Film Critic under the previous management and I, the former Senior Film Critic under that same management about who was the epitome of the James Bond character. When the deal went down it came down to two contestants-subtly handsome Connery or pretty boy Brosnan. She took us apart for not dwelling on the obvious 1950s sense of the male-female relationship. Seemingly the woman that I knew, even if slightly, with the wicked sense of irony has ditched that persona for the crusading third-wave feminist.
And Leslie might be right. No, not right about Alden and my little fisticuff but in light of the sexual harassment and sexual crimes of Harvey Weinstein and a now long trial of powerful Hollywood power brokers, Washington heavies, media hotshots, and hell the guys next door against women maybe this is a time to shed some light on the way business was done in the old days. Maybe the way the female eye candy in the various Bond films are portrayed aids and abets those real life situations but I believe that is Leslie’s place to speak about. And she did.
Look I have spent a zillion years doing freaking film reviews here and at American Film Gazette (according to the new site manager here Greg Green who also came over from that publication it has racked up forty thousand plus reviews in its long hard copy and on-line history). The angle I was looking at, Alden too except he wanted to look at it from the view of the more recent Bond films, was in the context of the silly plotlines, the improbable escapes and the silly concept of sexual allure developed in those films. It would have been false, and maybe that is wrong but that is the way it comes down, for me, Alden can speak for himself, if I started going on and on about the sexploitation inherent in the romanticizing of what after all in real life is a pretty dull and unrewarding profession-covert spying. This is probable not the last of the dispute between Leslie and me on the social issues as she called thet but let’s fight that out on more serious looks at what is wrong with the still prevalent sexually unequal society that we live in. As we have found very graphically in the immediate past we do not live in a post-racial society and now we know we have been living in a “bubble” as well about living in a post-sexual inequality world.
It almost seems silly to go through the plot now except there is no heavy lifting once you have seen a few of these formula films and can do a quick, very quick, summary since we have already hit Leslie’s male chauvinist pig aspect, my hero unscathed aspect, and that anti-communist angle as well. All we really have left is whether Sean Connery is the real Bond, James Bond or is that sniveling pretty boy the champ.
An American spaceship is dragooned in space whereabouts unknown except it was probably brought down somewhere near Japan. Naturally in anti-communist, pre-Soviet meltdown times that country would be the number one fall guy. But the Bolsheviks don’t figure although not for trying since before long a second space almost goes missing and the POTUS (you know what that means today in text-speak) is ready to rain hell and damnation on Moscow and Leningrad if the caper goes off. Not to worry because not only is WWIII avoided but private citizen bad guys are put to the screws (although not forever since, as usual, the mastermind bad guy makes his escape to fight another inevitable day).
The whole caper was an outsourced job by the infamous SPECTRE organization that knows no limits, no boundaries and will do whatever is necessary for the highest bidder. Here the Reds, Red China, People’s Republic. After ten million kicks, about six millions rounds of ammo fired his way, a few new techno-toys driven escapes, some cavorting with women after a hard day’s work Bond, James Bond, once again saves the world. As Leslie quoting mad monk Phil Larkin, another wild man writer here, WFT. And maybe that is really what we should all take out of this stuff.
The Con Is The Con-Is On-Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen’s “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968)-A Film Review
The Con Is The Con-Is On-Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen’s “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968)-A Film Review
By William Bradley, Junior
[This review is not under the “in the pipeline” truce negotiated with the site manager here so is free from any mention of the previous site as per the agreement. Moreover this is William Bradley’s very first review and so he is unaware of, and had not been part of the previous turmoil. Greg Green]
The Thomas Crown Affair, starring Faye Dunaway, Steve McQueen, 1968
In my old growing up neighborhood back in the 1980 of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the Sacred Heart Parish part if anybody knows Pawtucket which is what we always called it although the city called it The Heights every guy around, some girls too but not too many and mainly the ones who hung around with the guys who cared about such things, loved the con. Loved the con artist above all others, the local favorites being Ben Jeffrey and Ralph Morris who pulled some serious capers (and later did serious time but that was when they got in coke and smack and lost their bearings and not in the days when they were on a roll). In the days when barely out of high school they clipped a society guy for fifteen thousand big ones in a time and place where that number meant something. So don’t think I am blowing smoke at you. Think I am a small time rube who gets all starry-eyed over criminals and bad asses.
Of course there was a corollary to the high regard that con artists were held in over mere bank robbers and burglars, people like that who had no style, unlike that possessed by the legendary Thomas Crown, played to cool hand perfection by dare-devil Steve McQueen in the film under review The Thomas Crowne Affair (the 1968 one not, as Bart Webber a helpful writer here told me, the re-make with pretty boy Pierce Brosnan in the 1990s). Everybody loves a con except when he or she is the victim. That is when the “ouch” comes in as it will to the supposedly inured to con artistry Vicki the very successful insurance investigator who runs up against our boy Thomas. And is overmatched, way overmatched
Perfection itself is how the whole thing went. Poor little rich boy Tommy has a yen for the dark side, for stretching the limits just for the hell of it to tweak society or to prove something to himself. So he hires five guys all unknown to each other (four for the heist and then the weak link getaway car guy whom you should never trust sine they usually get the short end of the stick money) and him to them to pull the biggest Boston bank job since the Brink’s job. Two mil in small bills which he quickly ships over to Geneva in a couple of suitcases. Of course if for no other reason than the insurance companies do not like to take such hits, raises premiums there is blowback, big blowback. In the form of a beautiful ruthless and smart woman investigator Vicki, played by then new star Faye Dunaway. She will play a cat and mouse game with Tommy while the public coppers diddle and dandle. No problem except one big problem not for Tommy but for Vicki she falls for the guy while getting his chains ready for him, ready for the big step-off. As she closes in he proposes a way out-do the robbery again. She buys into the thing. But who had the last laugh. A classic double con-beautiful as he flies the coop and so Brother Crown will go into the Hall of Fame, become a legend for public coppers and private snoops alike.
And whoever is left back in Sacred Heart Parish to sing the praises.
*On The 100th Anniversary Of Newly-Fledged German Communist Leader Rosa Luxemburg And Karl Liebknecht-Oh, What Might Have Been-From The Pen Of Karl Liebknecht- "Militarism and Anti-Militarism
Click on title to link to an important Karl Liebknecht article addressed to the youth, "Militarism and Anti-Militarism".
On The 100th Anniversary Of Newly-Fledged German Communist Leader Rosa Luxemburg And Karl Liebknecht-Oh, What Might Have Been-Those Who Fought For Our Communist Future Are Kindred Spirits-Every January We Honor Lenin, Luxemburg, And Liebknecht-The Three Ls- Liebknecht’s’” The Future Belongs to the People-(Speeches made since the beginning of the World War I)”
Markin comment
EVERY JANUARY WE HONOR LENIN OF RUSSIA, ROSA LUXEMBURG OF POLAND, AND KARL LIEBKNECHT OF GERMANY AS THREE LEADERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT.
Biography
The son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founders of the SPD, Karl Liebknecht trained to be a lawyer and defended many Social Democrats in political trials. He was also a leading figure in the socialist youth movement and thus became a leading figure in the struggle against militarism.
As a deputy in the Reichstag he was one of the first SPD representatives to break party discipline and vote against war credits in December 1914. He became a figurehead for the struggle against the war. His opposition was so successful that his parliamentary immunity was removed and he was improsoned.
Freed by the November revolution he immediately threw himself into the struggle and became with Rosa Luxemburg one of the founders of the new Communist Party (KPD). Along with Luxemburg he was murdered by military officers with the tacit approval of the leaders of the SPD after the suppression of the so-called “Spartacist Uprising” in January 1919.
**********Liebknecht's May Day Manifesto
THIS May Day Manifesto called the people of Berlin to the May Day Demonstration of 1916. He was sentenced to jail for expressions in this May Day Speech.
"Poverty and misery, need and starvation, are ruling in Germany, Belgium, Poland and Servia, whose blood the vampire of imperialism is sucking and which resemble vast cemeteries. The entire world, the much-praised European civilization, is falling into ruins through the anarchy which has been let loose by the world war.
"Those who profit from the war want war with the United States. To-morrow, perhaps, they may order us to aim lethal weapons against new groups of brethren, against our fellow-workers in the United States, and fight America, too. Consider well this fact: As long as the German people does not arise and use force directed by its own will, the assassination of the people will continue. Let thousands of voices shout 'Down with the shameless extermination of nations! Down with those responsible for these crimes!' Our enemy is not the English, French, nor Russian people, but the great German landed proprietors, the German capitalists and their executive committee.
"Forward, let us fight the government; let us fight these mortal enemies of all freedom. Let us fight for everything which means the future triumph of the working-classes, the future of humanity and civilization.
"Workers, comrades, and you, women of the people, let not this festival of May, the second during the war, pass without protest against the Imperialist Slaughter. On the first of May let millions of voices cry, 'Down with the shameful crime of the extermination of peoples! Down with those responsible for the War!' "
Liebknecht's May Day, 1916, Speech
Delivered at the Potsdamerplatz, Berlin, May 1, 1916
(Report by one present at the demonstration)BERLIN, May 1. Very early in the morning, with three other comrades, I reached Hortensienstrasse, where Comrade Liebknecht lives. We enter No. 14, climb up the stairs, ring his bell. Comrade Liebknecht opens the door himself. He is thin, his hair looks unusually black and his face is deathly pale. He walks like a dead man, walking with grim steps. He leaves us and soon returns with his wife; she is a Russian. She nods welcome to us all. Suddenly a terrible fear comes to me. No one has spoken a word, yet we all feel that we are in the presence of a supreme moment. From Comrade Liebknecht's grim silence we judge that he is about to hurl prudence to the four winds and defy the Government.
He hands out, one to each of us, a copy of the speech which he will deliver. So far not one word has been spoken. While we are hurriedly reading his speech, which is to be delivered within a few hours, he remarks, "I have several thousand of these printed."
We have finished reading the prospectus which will make history and send him to prison. Then we go into conference. We have been with him just an hour. We leave him.
Shortly after 2 P.M. of the same May day, I have taken a hasty lunch at the Central Hotel. As I near the door I hear the footsteps of the great multitudes. As far as I can see, all the streets and side streets are full of surging, silently moving human beings; all moving in the direction where the May Day demonstration is to take place. These are men and women, mostly women. The men among them are mostly over fifty. Suddenly it becomes apparent to me that there are more children in the crowds than men and women together. As they march I notice that I cannot see one in the crowd who has a smile on her or his face. Along the route no one is cheering them. I had never seen such immense crowds in the streets of Berlin. Not even during the Agadir crisis had the streets of Berlin held such multitudes. The crowds move as though they are part of a funeral procession. They are all sad, very sad. I recognize a group of comrades in the crowd. I rush in and join them. Mund halten (keep your mouth shut) is the unwritten rule, and every one seems to observe it strictly.
Some one has turned the head of the procession into Unter den Linden. We do not know why; very few of us have noticed it, anyhow. We suddenly see a platoon of mounted guards dashing through the crowd, but they are riding on the sidewalk. The part of the procession that had been marching on the sidewalk rushes to the middle of the street in order to escape being trampled upon by the mounted guards. Another group of mounted guards rides past hurriedly, and still another follows. The people in the procession all about me do not seem to notice them. Not even a whisper one hears. On reaching the palace grounds I see in the distance five persons. From their elbows up they tower over the heads of the multitude surrounding them. I leave my friends and elbow my way through the thick crowd. I explain my impolite advance on the ground that I am a reporter on a party (Socialist) paper. I finally reach the spot where Comrade Liebknecht and other comrades are standing. The crowds are close where they are standing, and I cannot make out whether they are standing on a raised platform or in a motor car. I am about twenty or twenty-five feet from the doctor.
Suddenly one of the comrades near Dr. Liebknecht raises his hand and at once proceeds to speak. The multitude is anxious to hear him. Every one is sounding "Hush" in order to obtain silence and thus making more noise. Dr. Liebknecht uncovers his head; some one near by offers to relieve him of his hat. Deathly silence reigns all about the grounds. The interior of a cathedral cannot be more silent. The doctor begins: "Comrades and friends." They start to cheer him. He holds up his hand forbiddingly, then he resumes: "Some years ago a witty Socialist observed that in Prussia we Germans have three cardinal rights, which are: we can be soldiers, we can pay taxes and we can keep our tongues between our teeth. The Socialist who made this observation made it with a grim humor, but to-day the humor of it must be disconnected from it – it is all too grim. Especially in these days this observation is too true. To-day we are sharing these three great Prussian State privileges in full. Every German citizen is given the full privilege to carry a rifle in any manner. Even the Boy Scout has been incited to play the ridiculous role of a soldier. They have thus planted the spirit of hate deep in his youthful soul. Meanwhile the old Landsturmer is forced to perform forced labor in invaded countries, in spite of the fact that under the laws of the Imperial Constitution he cannot be called out for any other purpose than for the defense of the Fatherland.
"As for his second privilege – his right to pay taxes – in this respect the German citizen is, up to the present time, far ahead of his brothers in foreign lands whom he is engaged in exterminating. And yet more privileges of this kind are awaiting him in the days to come – after the end of the war. The high taxes which the German people have so far paid are insignificant compared to the great burdens which they must carry after the war, and for which their masters are daily preparing them with such touching delicacy of patriotic sentiment through the medium of the official press.
"The new Germany has the unquestionable right to hold its tongue between its teeth. Recently our official press has been flooded by authoritative and pharisaic exhortations to soldiers' wives that they must, for God's sake, not complain so much about the scarcity of food. Keep your mouth shut tight when hungry. Keep your mouth shut tight when your children are hungry, keep your mouth shut when your children want milk, keep your mouth shut when your children cry for bread, keep your mouth shut and write no letters to the front."
Outside of Germany these phrases might sound like the stock phrases of a professional agitator, but not so in Germany, at least not in those days. I carefully watched for the effect of these remarks all about me, and I saw no dry eyes.
Amid tense silence the doctor continued: "In a recent issue the mouthpiece of the Pharisees, the "Muenchener Neueste Nachrichten," complains thus (reading from a clipping)
" 'Our soldiers do not always receive from their dear ones at home the best encouragement to hold on. A soldier on furlough who, before obtaining leave, had performed for his Fatherland unflinchingly, went through many hardships with good humor, but after a visit home returned to the front with a sad face, worrying day and night about his dear ones and the pretended scarcity at home.'
" 'Pretended' scarcity certainly is palatable, especially when one is reminded of the fact that our police is weighing the bread, that butter is out of the market, that fat, meat and margarine have reached a price that is beyond the probable reach of the workingman!
"Another well-nourished Pharisee exhorts in the columns of the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung by asking, 'Where is scarcity to be found?' and no doubt after having partaken of a good dinner he preaches with these words: 'We must teach ourselves at home how to manage to get along in our homes with as little as possible. But of course in large families with children the small earnings of the breadwinner being now totally absent, this sum must be replaced by the creation of a relief fund so that there may not be any serious want.' Exactly, but under no circumstances must the people complain of hunger. It annoys the soldier terribly and cripples his fighting power. Therefore do not write complaining letters to the front. In other words, you wives of soldiers, hide the truth from your husbands; in fact, lie to them. "The old proverb says, `The mouth speaketh out of the fullness of the heart,' and if her children's stomach is empty it is hard for the wife not to mention to her far-away soldier husband that it is hard to provide for his children with food while he is offering his life for his country. But if it is not found possible for your masters to prevail upon you to 'keep your tongue between your teeth,' then they resort to a more practical means. They have a very simple means of stopping these annoying complaints. The Prussian censor is now supervising these letters of wives at home to their husbands at the front. They simply do not allow this objectionable correspondence to go through. Poor and unfortunate German soldier! He deserves pity! At the command of the militarist Government he has gone into the enemy country, and at the command of the Government he must steal from other nations. He is required to perform difficult services. The sufferings that he endures are past description. About him everywhere shells and bombs sow death and destruction. His wife and children at home are suffering want and hardship; she looks about her and finds her children crying for bread. She is desperate, but she must not appeal or complain to any one. She must hold her tongue and suffer inwardly. But how can she silence her children? She must not even share the sympathy of her husband at the front, because that cripples her soldier husband's fighting powers. Her soldier husband must `hold on' and 'steal' in the land of her neighbors. He must hold on and 'suffer' because the capitalists, the hurrah patriots and the armor-plate kings have willed it so. Every one must keep his or her tongue between the teeth, for the war profiteers must make money out of the want and misery of the wives and their husband soldiers at the front.
"By a lie the German workingman was forced into the war, and by like lies they expect to induce him to go on with war!" A mighty shout went up from a thousand throats – "Hurrah for Liebknecht." Liebknecht raised his hand for silence. Then steadily, though knowing the cost, he said: "Do not shout for me, shout rather 'We will have no more war. We will have peace – now!' "
Scarcely had he finished speaking when, as if by magic, a tremendous tumult arose. Near the spot where the doctor and his friends had been standing the crowds surged back and forth. The great multitudes in the palace grounds had the appearance of an immense sea whose surface was every inch covered with human heads, those of men and women. The children became terrified. The shouts of the grown-ups and the terrified shrieks of the children added vehemence to the scene. The next moment I see Comrade Liebknecht pulled down from the stand. His friends also follow. Then I see fists raised. I suddenly discover that the jostling of the crowds about me has carried me further away from the spot where a riot is in progress. I again elbow my way toward where the doctor and his companions have been pulled down from the stand. I had made some progress when suddenly I find myself being swept backward by a huge human wave.
In spite of my wish to see what is going on behind me I am being carried away further and further. Several hundred thousand panic-stricken souls are rushing towards the streets and avenues that lead to the grounds. The scene is frightful. Every one is shouting. I steal a glimpse of the spot which is now the center of the sudden panic. I gasp with fright. I see numberless mounted soldiers with large black whips in their hands lashing the crowds. Their mounts are so close to the struggling and frightened men and women, yea, even children, that it is a miracle that thousands are not pinned to the ground. I cannot tell whether they are killed or whether they fainted. But there are many of them. I myself was forced to step over several persons. I tried to lift up a body, but in the next moment I was carried away. . . .
May Day evening. Twenty-five or thirty meet secretly at the home of a comrade in ---------- street. We all know what the report is. Herr Doctor is arrested. We are all sad, very sad. We have met to exchange views as to what step to take next. Every one is laboring with heavy thoughts within himself. The silence is sickening. With the exception of four the men who come together to exchange views are all soldiers in the active army. Not all of them are privates. We have spent the entire night, sometimes in heavy silence and again in deliberation. It is decided that we ---------- ---------- ----------. Are the German workingmen thinking? Their present thoughts are tragic. They hurt.
Liebknecht's Reply to his Judges
WHILE in prison Dr. Liebknecht sent two letters to the military court handling his case, in which he explained his position. It was Dr. Liebknecht's hope that these letters would be read to the Reichstag and in that way reach the German people. But this was not the case. The letters were put before the Parliamentary Committee, which investigated Liebknecht's case and on whose recommendation the Reichstag, by a vote of 229 to 111, refused to ask for his release. A copy of one of these letters was smuggled out of prison and sent out of Germany.
Berlin, May 3rd, 1916.
To the Royal Military Court, Berlin:
In the investigation of the case against me, the records of remarks need the following elucidation:I. The German Government is in its social and historical character an instrument for the crushing down and exploitation of the laboring classes; at home and abroad it serves the interests of junkerism, of capitalism, and of imperialism.
The German Government is a reckless champion of expansion in world politics, the most ardent promoter in the competition of armaments, and accordingly one of the most powerful influences in developing the causes of the present war.
In partnership with the Austrian Government the German Government contrived to bring about this war and so burdened itself with the greatest responsibility for the immediate outbreak of the war.
The German Government started the war under cover of deception practiced upon the common people and even upon the Reichstag (compare, among other things, the concealment of the ultimatum to Belgium, the make-up of the German White Book, the elimination of the Czar's dispatch of July 29, 1914) , and it tries by reprehensible means to keep up the war spirit among the people.
It carries on the war with methods that, judged even by standards hitherto conventional, are monstrous. The invasion of Belgium and Luxemburg, poisonous gases, which in the meantime have become of common use by all the belligerents, and then. look at the Zeppelin bombs, which outdo everything and which are intended to kill all that live, combatants or non-combatants, within a wide region; submarine commerce warfare; the torpedoing of the Lusitania, etc.; the system of hostages and forced contributions at the beginning, especially in Belgium; the systematic entrapping of Ukrainian, Georgian, Baltic Provincials, Polish, Irish, Mohammedan, and other prisoners of war in the German prison camps for the purpose of having them do treasonable war service and treasonable spying for the Central Powers; Under-Secretary Zimmerman's agreement with Sir Roger Casement in December, 1914, regarding the organization, equipment, and training in the German prison camps of the "Irish Brigade," composed of captured British soldiers; the attempts by means of threats of forcible interment to compel Christians of a hostile nationality found in Germany to do treasonable war service against their countries, and so forth. (Necessity knows no law!)
The German Government has, through the establishment of martial law, enormously increased the political lawlessness and economic exploitations of the people; it refuses all serious political and social reforms, while at the same time it tries to hold the people docile for the imperialistic war policy, by means of rhetorical phrases about equal rights accorded to all parties, about alleged discontinuation of discriminations in social and political matters, about an alleged readjustment and new direction of political matters, and so on.
The German Government because of its consideration for agrarian and capitalists' interests has completely failed to care for the economic welfare of the people during the war, to guard against misery and the practice of revolting extortion upon the people.
The German Government is still holding fast to its war aims and so constitutes the chief obstacle in the way of immediate peace negotiations upon the basis of renunciation of annexations and oppressions of all sorts: Through the maintenance – in itself illegal – of martial law (censorship, etc.) it prevents the public from learning unpleasant facts and prevents Socialist criticism of its measures. The German Government thereby reveals its system of seeming legality and sham popularity as a system of actual force, of genuine hostility to the people and bad faith as regards the masses.
The cry of "Down with the Government!" is meant to brand this entire policy of the Government as fatal to the masses of the people.
This cry also indicates that it is the duty of every representative of the welfare of the proletariat to wage a struggle of the most strenuous character – the class struggle – against the Government.
II. The present war is not a war for the defense of the national integrity, not for the liberation of oppressed peoples, not for the welfare of the masses.
From the standpoint of the proletariat this war only signifies the most extreme concentration and extension of political suppression, of economic exploitation, and of military slaughtering of the working-class body and soul for the benefit of capitalism and of absolutism.
To all this the working-class of all countries can give but one answer: a harder struggle, the international class struggle against the capitalist Governments and the ruling classes of all countries for the abolition of all oppression and exploitation by the institution of a peace conceived in the Socialist spirit. In this class struggle the Socialist, whose Fatherland is the International, finds included the defense of everything that he, as a Socialist, is bound to defend. The cry of "Down with war" signifies that I thoroughly condemn and oppose the present war because of its historical nature, because of its general social causes and specific way in which it originated (developed), and because of the way it is being carried on and the objects for which it is being waged. That cry signifies that it is the duty of every representative of proletarian interests to take part in the international class struggle for the purpose of ending the war.
III. As a Socialist I am fundamentally opposed to the existing military system as well as of this war, and I always supported with all my power the fight against Militarism as an especially important task and a matter of life and death for the working-class of all countries. (Compare my book "Militarism & Anti-Militarism" and my reports to the International Young People's Conferences at Stuttgart, 1907, and Copenhagen, 1910.) The war demands that we carry on the struggle against Militarism with redoubled energy.
IV. Since 1889 May 1st has been consecrated to manifestations and propaganda in favor of the great basic principles of Socialism, against all exploitation, oppression, and violence; dedicated to propaganda for the solidarity of workers of all countries – a solidarity which the war has not abolished, but strengthened – against the workers' fratricidal strife, for peace and against war.
During the war the manifestation and propaganda of these principles is a doubly sacred duty imposed upon every Socialist.
V. The policy advocated by me was outlined in the resolution adopted by the International Socialist Congress held in Stuttgart (1907), which pledged Socialists of all countries – after they should have failed to prevent a war – to work with all their energies towards its quick ending, and to take advantage of the conditions created by the war for hastening the abolition of the capitalist order of society.
This Socialist policy is meant to be international, even in its ultimate consequences. It imposes upon the Socialists of other countries the same obligation with reference to their Governments and ruling classes that I with others in Germany followed against the Government and ruling classes of Germany.
This Socialist policy has an international effect, by spreading reciprocal encouragement from nation to nation; it promotes the international class struggle against war.
Since the beginning of the war I, together with others, have defended in every possible way and upheld in the most public manner this Socialist policy, and besides, so far as possible, have entered into connections with those who shared my sentiments in other countries.
(I may mention, for example, my journey to Belgium and Holland in September, 1914; my Christmas letter in 1914 to the Labor Leader; the International Socialist Meetings in Switzerland, in which, I regret to say, I was unable to participate personally, being prevented by superior powers, etc.)
VI. This policy to which, cost it what it may, I shall hold fast, is not mine alone, but it is also the policy of an ever-increasing proportion of the people in Germany and of the other belligerent and neutral States. It will soon become, as I hope – and to this end I am resolved to toil on – the policy of the working-class of all countries, which will then possess the power to break the imperialistic will of the ruling classes, and to shape as may seem best the mutual relations and conditions of the people for the benefit of all mankind.
KARL LIEBKNECHT,
Armierungssoldat.
Armierungssoldat.
Liebknecht's Trial and Release
ON June 28th, 1916, Karl Liebknecht was sentenced at secret trial to thirty months' penal servitude. When the public prosecutor asked for this secrecy, Liebknecht exclaimed:
"It is cowardice on your part, gentlemen. Yes, I repeat, that you are cowards if you close these doors."Nevertheless, the court decided to exclude the public, upon which Liebknecht cried to his wife and Rosa Luxemburg, in the audience, "Leave this comedy, where everything, including even the decision, has been prepared beforehand."
Following the announcement of the sentence given Liebknecht, the Potsdamerplatz in Berlin was the scene of a serious outbreak.
The next day (according to reports from Switzerland) strikes of protest against the Liebknecht case took place in Berlin and some 55,000 persons were involved in them. In other cities strikes and demonstrations of protest also took place.
An appeal was taken but resulted only in an increase in the sentence to four years' and one month's imprisonment at hard labor. Furthermore, he was deprived of all his civil rights for a period of six years after he should have served his term.
[Associated Press Dispatch]
PARIS, October 25. – An enormous crowd assembled before the Reichstag building in Berlin yesterday, calling for the abdication of Emperor William and the formation of a republic, according to a special dispatch from Zurich to L'Information.
Dr. Karl Liebknecht, the Socialist leader who has just been released from prison, was applauded frantically. He was compelled to enter a carriage filled with flowers from which he made a speech declaring that the time of the people had arrived.On The 100th Anniversary Of Newly-Fledged German Communist Leader Rosa Luxemburg And Karl Liebknecht-Oh, What Might Have Been-Those Who Fought For Our Communist Future Are Kindred Spirits-Every January We Honor Lenin, Luxemburg, And Liebknecht-The Three Ls- Liebknecht’s’” The Future Belongs to the People-(Speeches made since the beginning of the World War I)”
Markin comment
EVERY JANUARY WE HONOR LENIN OF RUSSIA, ROSA LUXEMBURG OF POLAND, AND KARL LIEBKNECHT OF GERMANY AS THREE LEADERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT.
Biography
The son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the founders of the SPD, Karl Liebknecht trained to be a lawyer and defended many Social Democrats in political trials. He was also a leading figure in the socialist youth movement and thus became a leading figure in the struggle against militarism.
As a deputy in the Reichstag he was one of the first SPD representatives to break party discipline and vote against war credits in December 1914. He became a figurehead for the struggle against the war. His opposition was so successful that his parliamentary immunity was removed and he was improsoned.
Freed by the November revolution he immediately threw himself into the struggle and became with Rosa Luxemburg one of the founders of the new Communist Party (KPD). Along with Luxemburg he was murdered by military officers with the tacit approval of the leaders of the SPD after the suppression of the so-called “Spartacist Uprising” in January 1919.
Liebknecht Protests at Being Prevented from Discussing the Submarine Warfare
Reichstag, March 22 1916
PRESIDENT KAEMPF presides.For discussion: First reading of the Budget in connection with the taxation bill.
PRESIDENT KAEMPF: In accordance with an understanding between the representatives of the different parties in the Reichstag the submarine warfare will be excluded from this discussion until further decisions of the Seniorenconvent. (Committee composed of the Party Leaders to discuss the business of the Reichstag before it is discussed in open session. S. Z.) The discussion of this question will take place in the meetings of the Budget Committee in the first days of next week.
MEMBER DR. K. LIEBKNECHT (not belonging to any party in the Reichstag, questions the order of business): I consider it my duty to dispute the decision (laughter). This is a question which concerns most vitally the present public interests. Everything is done under cover and we are brought to discuss only accomplished facts. (Great commotion and shouts so that the following words of the speaker can't be understood very clearly.) Very soon it will be Tirpitz redivivus. The people have a right to hear the Parliament on this important question immediately. The people have a right to demand that nothing shall be hidden from them.
PRESIDENT KAEMPF: Please make your remarks in a parliamentary fashion, and don't present general political considerations when you speak to the question of the order of business.
DR. K. LIEBKNECHT: In the Prussian Assembly everything is done under cover. The same methods of concealing matters obtain as here. (Stormy interruptions and calls: "This does not belong to the discussion about the order of business.") I wish to protest against such a policy injurious to the people, against the continuation of secret diplomacy in Parliament.
Reichstag Meeting, March 23, 1916
DISCUSSION of the Budget and taxation bill.
Different persons spoke.Dr. Liebknecht asks to be recognized on the motion of closing the discussion.
DR. LIEBKNECHT (speaks to the question): I am sorry that under this motion, which was directed in the first place against me, I will be unable to say that I certainly refuse all taxes to the Government of martial law, the government of War über Alles. (Excitement at the right side of the House.)
PRESIDENT KAEMPF: I must ask you to confine yourself to this discussion of the order of business.
MEMBER DR. LIEBKNECHT: I assert that even in the Prussian Assembly there exists more freedom of speech than in this House. (Laughter and excitement.)
PRESIDENT KAEMPF: If you don't obey my orders I will be forced not to let you talk any further to the question.
MEMBER DR. LIEBKNECHT: It is also made impossible for me to look into the dark chamber of our German war policies and military dictatorship.
PRESIDENT KAEMPF: I can't give you the floor for this question any longer.
Liebknecht's Comments on the Imperial Chancellor's Speech
Reichstag Meeting, April 5, 1916
ON April 5, 1916, Karl Liebknecht made some sharp comments on certain passages of the Imperial Chancellor's speech. Asserting that Germany's aims were peaceful, the Chancellor said that Germany wanted the "strength of quiet development" before the war. "We could have had all we wanted by peaceful labor. Our enemies chose war." Liebknecht retorted: "Lies, it was you who chose war." (Uproar followed, with cries of "Scoundrel!" "Blackguard!" "Out with him!" The President at once called Liebknecht to order.)Later Bethman-Hollweg made reference to the necessity of guarantees against Belgium becoming again a vassal of France and England. "Here also Germany cannot give over to Latinization the long-oppressed Flemish race." Liebknecht interjected, "Hypocrisy!" "We desire to have neighbors who will not again unite against us in order to throttle us, but with whom we can work to our mutual advantage," said the Chancellor. "Whereupon you suddenly fall upon them and strangle them – the invasion of Belgium," said Liebknecht coolly. This sally caused another uproar, Liebknecht shouting out "Invasion" whenever he got the chance.
Towards the close of his speech the Imperial Chancellor declared that the peace which ends this war must be a lasting peace. It must not contain in it the seeds of new wars, but the seeds of a final peaceful regulation of European affairs. "Begin by making the German people free!" shouted Liebknecht. "Germany is only fighting in self-defense," remarked the Chancellor. "Can any one believe that Germany is thirsting for territory?" "Yes, certainly," roared Liebknecht as loudly as possible. Thereupon the uproar redoubled. The President had to call the Reichstag to order to prevent personal violence to Liebknecht.
Reichstag Meeting, April 7, 1916
VICE-PRESIDENT PAASCHE in the chair.
On April 7, 1916, Liebknecht declared – in the Reichstag during the discussion of the military estimates – that he had documents showing an agreement between Herr Zimmerman, the Under Foreign Secretary, and Sir Roger Casement, by which British prisoners were to be drilled to fight against England. After some further remarks about Mohammedan prisoners of war being pressed into service for Germany, Liebknecht was prevented from speaking amid shouts of "Traitor!" from all parts of the Chamber.Liebknecht was able to speak later about the resignation of Von Tirpitz, but was prevented from discussing the submarine campaign. Here is what he said about the resignation of Von Tirpitz:
"After the War had begun with the cry 'Against Czarism' the aim was soon shifted westward." (Vice-President Paasche: "To say that the war began with one or the other object is to insult the Government. I call you to order and ask you not to dwell at any length on our war policy.)
DR. LIEBKNECHT: "After the war aims had been shifted westward – (the Vice-President: "I repeat my request"). I must touch on this question if I am to discuss the opposing currents in the Government which brought about the change in the Admiralty. The manner in which the conflict was taken up in the Prussian Diet, the way in which the sharpening of the war against England was demanded in the Reichstag on account of the Baralong affair, and the scenes in the Prussian Diet before the change of office; throw an interesting light on the differences within the Government and in capitalist circles. A memorandum was to be published on the subject of armed British merchantmen. It was kept back for some length of time. In this one saw an acknowledgment by the Government of the demand for a sharper submarine warfare. The attack in the Prussian Diet was made premeditatedly, in order to show the strong opposition to certain members of the Government (the Vice-President interrupted the speaker) on pressure from the Prussian Diet. (The Vice-President again requested the speaker to keep to the point.) You must not suppress a most important political question." (General commotion. The Vice-President again requested the speaker to keep to the point.)
"I did keep to the point. I shall now discuss the memorandum on the question of armed merchantmen, for which the Admiralty is responsible. It is so composed that those who do not read it carefully with all the supplements must be misled. The memorandum attempts to prove that British merchantmen are armed in order to attack German submarines. (The Vice-President again forbade a discussion of the submarine question, and called Dr. Liebknecht to order.) With such a ruling I am unable – (The Vice-President: "I ask the member not to criticise me.") So I am obliged to say nothing on what politically is most material!"
A few days after this scene in the Reichstag Herr Däumig, the editor of the Socialist organ Vorwärts, sent a Hungarian journalist with a letter of introduction to Dr. Liebknecht for an interview. The censor condensed the interview, and it only reached Budapest by messenger. The following extracts are from the suppressed portion printed in a Budapest (paper) pamphlet:
Dr. Liebknecht was greatly surprised at the visit, as he had been "quite neglected by reporters nowadays because what I say is generally considered `dead copy' by the censor."
The correspondent explains that it is a mistake to suppose that Herr Liebknecht is as unpopular in Germany as he appears to be inside the Reichstag. He showed him correspondence from parts of Germany, a pile received in two days amounting to hundreds and hundreds of letters, ninety per cent of which are of an encouraging and congratulatory character. The remaining ten per cent are scurrilous anonymous attacks, and these he puts in a separate bundle, which he compares with great pride and satisfaction with the heap of more flattering epistles.
He is overjoyed at the idea that he is, after all, not alone, as he appears to be, and that although he is persecuted by his fellow-members of the Reichstag, he is recompensed by the hearty congratulations of the people. What he wanted to say in the Reichstag when he was muzzled and expelled was said by two members, and he is quite satisfied on that point.
"Herr Davidson," said Liebknecht, "referred to the two cases I wanted to mention, and he drew just as vivid a picture of the spirit prevailing in the army and of the illegal persecutions as I should have done if I had been allowed.
"I wanted to call attention to the case of Dr. Nicolai, the world-famous professor at the University of Berlin, who attended the Empress before the war, and who was persecuted some time ago by the military authorities for what were termed indiscreet utterances. He was appointed to the directorship of two military hospitals at the beginning of the war at Graudentz, but some one reported him to the military authorities and he was discharged. On March 1st he was again sent away from Berlin, this time to Danzig, and was ordered to be sworn in as a soldier. He refused to obey, and as a consequence the world-famous professor was degraded to the status of a private. Orders were given that he was not to be allowed to provide his own food, and he was ordered to submit all his scientific literary work to the military authorities for approval.
"The same thing happened to another scientist, who wrote in a letter: `I am sorry for and disapprove of the cruelties committed in Belgium, and, as a good Christian, I regret and disapprove of the terrors of this war."
"I know for a fact that the higher command uses German soldiers to spy on other German soldiers, a system which brands soldiers and commanders alike."
Liebknecht's Remarks on the German War Loan
(Reichstag Meeting, April 8, 1916)
DR. LIEBKNECHT: "Gentlemen, the principal work of the Secretary of the Treasury, whose salary we are asked to vote for, was his activity for the war loan during the last year. I intend to examine critically those activities (great merriment). The new loan has brought 1,400,000,000 marks less than the preceding one, but still a grand total of 10,000,000,000 marks. We should investigate carefully from what funds the money invested in the war loan comes. Does this money invested in the war loan come from private or public funds. (Cries of protest from all sides of the House. Many Deputies rise from their seats in excitement. Continued cries: "This is the limit! Shall we allow him to go so far?" Cries of "Treason." "The fellow belongs in an insane asylum.")Dr. K. Liebknecht clenches his fists and shouts a few words which cannot be understood. Great uproar again. Shouts of "Finish! Finish!" A few members of the Reichstag call out loudly: "Mr. President, you must preserve our rights!" "Down," from the platform! The Secretary of the Treasury tries to calm a few members of the House
PRESIDENT DR. KAEMPF: According to the order of business the floor cannot be taken from a member of the House until he is called to order three times.
MEMBER DR. MÜLLER MEININGEN (Progressive Party): "Then he will betray us three times." (Stormy applause in the House in which the galleries join.)
DR. K. LIEBKNECHT: In regard to our loans, it has been said that our system of inbreeding – that the practice of obtaining loans on a former loan in order to invest the capital thus obtained in another new war loan is a sort of "perpetuum mobile." In a certain sense the loans may be compared to a merry-go-round. To a large extent it means simply the centralization of public wealth in the Treasury. (Great uproar and cries of "Finish" and "Treason.") I have the right to criticise. The truth must be spoken and you shall not hinder me. (Great uproar. Member Hubrich goes to Dr. Liebknecht and snatches Liebknecht's notes from his hands, and throws them on the floor. Stormy applause in the House in which the galleries join. Liebknecht raises his clenched fists and shouts. He then addresses him self to the President in an agitated tone. He is twice called to order by the President. Around the speakers' tribune are small and excited groups gesticulating. Member Dr. Müller Meiningen goes to the tribune and in a violent tone hurls indignant reproaches at Liebknecht. The minority Social-Democrats of the Reichstag – Henke, Dittmann and Zubeil – rush to the tribune and put themselves in front of Liebknecht, other members of the House try to calm down the excited ones. The majority Social-Democrat Keil shouts: "Put the fellow out and then all will be finished." The whole House is in great excitement and uproar, notwithstanding the continual clang of the presidential bell. Finally the President is able to restore order, and declares that the chair finds that there is no quorum. The meeting is adjourned.)
When Legend Slayer Will Bradley Falls Down On The Job- Marvel Comic Universe’s So-Called Legendary Heroes Ride Again-Yawn-The Avengers: Infinite Wars (2018)-A Film Review
When Legend
Slayer Will Bradley Falls Down On The Job- Marvel Comic Universe’s So-Called
Legendary Heroes Ride Again-Yawn-The Avengers: Infinite Wars (2018)-A Film
Review
DVD Review
By Sarah
Lemoyne
The Avengers:
Infinity Wars, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and a cast of mutants, foul balls,
quirky bastards, the merely ugly, dead-beats, grafter, drifters, grifters and
the chronically unemployable, 2018
I am pissed off,
and no don’t pardon my English, not with what I have say. I have been sidelined
for a while doing other projects for site manager Greg Green. Stuff which will
see the light of day this Spring under my by-line. That completion made me available
for another assignment, a film review to get my hand back into that tough racket,
that cutthroat business where since everything is essentially subjective you
are only as good as your last review, maybe the last word of your last review. I
was anxious to get back into the game after months of research, quiet writing, and
editing. What I did not expect was to get this loser of a so-called superhero film,
The Avengers: Infinity Wars (and
whatnot). And that is the focus of why I am pissed off, and remember I am not looking
for any pardon.
First off I
thought we were supposed to be done with this Marvel/DC comic book characters come
to the big screen after the internal rebellion when the writers here, young and
old, unlike the purge of Allan Jackson the previous site manager which was before
my time, and was essentially young against old refused to continue to 24/7/365
if it had come to that last number write about this type of film. The brainstorm
of the clueless Greg Green (sorry Greg) who wished to boost the readership by
appealing to the crowds interested in these bogus superheroes. I had not been
paying that much attention to individual reviews but had thought that fever was
over. Greg has assured me that it really was with the exception of an occasional
foray to keep our hand in.
Here is what I
don’t get, don’t understand even if Greg and others want to grab an occasional spike
in readership by ripping out a page from the comics to the chagrin of the serious
and older readership who don’t give a fuck about such muck fouling up this publication
and have been vocal about the matter. Beside this superhero stuff, this legend
business is supposed to be the domain of Will Bradley who over the past couple of
years has made a name for himself as the “legend-slayer.” The guy who wants us
to face crummy reality without the crutch of undeserved or faked legends. Fair
enough and I was happy when he took down guys like that rack-renter, Will’s
expression, Robin Hood and that slave-driver Captain Blood among others. When
Greg asked him to do this review he balked telling Greg that for the foreseeable
future he was going all out to break the one legend that he has not been able put
a dent in, the legend of early aviator Johnny Cielo.
You know what I
say. Who the hell is this guy who nobody knows about, or as in my own case only
knows from history class in high school where he was said to have something to
do with the Wright Brothers down at Kitty Hawk back in the early days of
flight. I asked around and the only ones who knew more about the guy were a
couple of lefties I knew from Columbia University who told me he had been some important
cog in the Cuban Revolution, had delivered guns and supplies to Fidel Castro up
in the mountains when they needed that kind of help. Will couldn’t have spared
the time to bust this weak-kneed Avenger crowd in about three paragraphs and go
about his business with Johnny what’s his name.
Next ancient Sam
Lowell who in the old days they tell me actually was the film editor and chief reviewer
here who by rights should have been the “go to” guy when Will went into his tantrum.
No such luck. It appears that the old goat (and in the interest of transparency
an adversary in a couple of earlier film review battle of wits with me) is now
knee-deep, Greg’s term, in trying to prove that the reason that the famous,
famous to him and maybe some of the older crowd, private detective from California
Lew Archer never made the Hall of Fame was that he suffered from sexual
impotency. That seemingly two-minute job and done has got Sam (and poor Laura
his long-time companion and something of mentor to me) staying up late at night
trying to figure out what went wrong with this Lew. Lew, another guy nobody I
know ever heard of since our P.I models are Savanah Duane and Ben Silver, neither
of whom take beatings and grab slugs doing their private eye work like they say
Phil Larkin and Sam Spade did. How primitive.
With those guys
sidelined Greg came sauntering in to ask me for a big favor. Fortunately, as
the “disclaimer” above pointed out we are in some cases, and this Avenger stuff
is prime evidence for the policy, doing short reviews. Praise be. But why
couldn’t I just do a thumbs up or down. Easy thumbs down. That would bust that legend
is less than a minute. But no go as Greg wanted a few paragraphs to fill in some
blank spot or something. So here goes.
Actually
before here goes let me say that I, like young writer Will Bradley who like me
is still trying to grab a niche, go up the food chain as Seth Garth also
something of a mentor to me likes to say I am not opposed to legends, solid deserved
ones. I heartily agree that the Green Lantern operation which is now protecting
the greater universe with a limited task force and our own section guardian Hal
Jordan are doing a great job and grand public service in guarding us against
our real and imagined fears. I can even buy the idea that maybe Superman or
Iron Man has a small role to play in protecting us from an occasional bad actor
who gets loose and who menace us for a minute. But the whole freaking Marvel
Comic Universe stable for one simple job, no way.
Thor, you know
the guy who had the hammer, lost, found, lost again, one of the Marvel Comical
Universe stalwarts was having dispute, a big time dispute with some Thanos,
some bad ass guy who wants to control the universe and was willing to wipe out
one half of said population if he didn’t get his way, get his magic elixir or something.
Thor takes a well-deserved beating and Thanos is half way home to the fruition
of his master plan. Since the rest of the Marvel clowns are unemployed, are
sitting on their hands, are really otherwise unemployable they gather round their
loser Thor. To yet again battle Thaos and his minions, a rough-edged crew that
I would have advised Iron Man, the Black Widow, Spider Man, the Hulk and the other
lesser has-beens to avoid at all costs since they looked meaner than Satan and
his minions and you know what they did to Paradise, at least according to John
Milton.
Naturally
there are twelve million sham battles, a few altercations, some armed truces
and then the final push which gets half of the citizenry of the universe blasted
all for Marvel Comic Universe hubris. Wait until the next film. No, call up the
Green Lantern organization and have them sent their ace Hal Jordan to come and
deal with these cretins associated with this bastard Thanos. Then see how it was
when real legends earned their keep.
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