Year: 2018

Some years ago it became stylish to trash Stan Lee.

I’m not entirely sure why. It might be because they had it right in “The Dark Knight”: You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. That might have well been the situation in Stan Lee’s case.

The accusations were that Stan did nothing to promote the legendary artists who created the characters with him. The typical complaint was that Stan was rich while the others were struggling, and that was unfair, and Stan had no business being declared the co-creator of Fantastic Four or Spider-Man or the Mighty Thor or Doctor Strange or the Incredible Hulk. We were increasingly told the characters were the sole creations of the artists and horrible old Stan just stuck his name on them and tried to take all the credit. I’ll never forget when Jack Kirby stated in Comics Journal that he had gotten the idea for the Hulk by watching a news report about a frantic mother who, because she was so upset, had enough strength to lift a car that was pinning her struggling child to the ground. And Jack thought, “What if we did a hero who, when he got really angry, changed into a super strong monster!” Great idea…except in the Hulk’s origin the transition was brought about by the rise of the moon, like a werewolf. Anger had nothing to do with it and wasn’t established until years later. I’m not saying Kirby knowingly lied. I’m just saying memories can be problematic and claiming that all credit should be taken away after the fact based on differing memories is a slippery slope.

This of course also ignored the fact that while DC was still publishing comics with no creator names on the title page, Stan broke from that tradition and slapped the artists’ names right on the credits page. While DC artists labored in anonymity, Stan gave us King Kirby, Stainless Steve Ditko, Jazzy Johnny Romita, Genial Gene Colan. We would have known none of those names if it wasn’t for Stan. DC editors privately dubbed him “Stan Brag” because they thought taking credit wasn’t…I dunno…gentlemanly. At least, they thought that until they started doing it, too.

Yes, he was richer than the artists. But he was also an executive at Marvel, and spent pretty much every day of his waking life promoting the Marvel heroes, the Marvel philosophy, the Marvel artists, and the Marvel brand. He toured colleges all over the country, doing endless Q&As.

Are there still people who despise him? Oh yeah. But I think he thwarted the “Dark Knight” line because his popularity stared to swing back over the years. I believe part of it was his string of cameo appearances in the Marvel movies. Finding Stan transcended finding Hitchcock in his films. People even theorized that he was actually one guy observing the Marvel Universe, and even found affirmation of that when he was filling in the Watchers on all he’d seen in the previous films during a closing credits seen in “Guardians 2.”

Over the years Stan began to reaffirm himself as what he was: the oldest comic book fan alive. How can you keep hating somebody who was clearly just having so much fun? Whose continued presence in the films served to remind you that he was there when it started.

The Village Voice dismissed him as merely a “writer of word balloons.” Yeah, well, compare the word balloons of “Fantastic Four” with Jack Kirby and the word balloons of “New Gods” with Jack Kirby and you’ll realize what a master of dialogue he was. But it’s way more than that. The fact is that the comics industry as it currently exists would not be around if Stan had not only co-created the characters, but made Marvel Comics into what it was:

The House of Ideas.

PAD

Remember when Trump swore to uphold the Constitution? I laughed then because I knew it was BS. This week we have two instances of Trump violating the Constitution, and naturally nothing has been done yet by the Senate (hah) or the House to stop it. Although boy, they sure have let him know it in a variety of cities where masses of people have protested. I haven’t seen such a crowd in Times Square since New Year’s Eve.

Continue Reading “Freak Out Friday – November 9, 2018” →

It is so frustrating to me, and to the “enemy of the people” that the press has been falsely dubbed, that simple facts have become a thing of the past. Falsehoods are spewed about at all levels in our society, from the lowest to the highest, and are instantly accepted by the credulous. Many don’t even bother to read past a specious headline. If they see it, and especially if someone in their tribe says it, they believe it.

It turns out this is not a new concern. A philosopher named Willian Kingdon Clifford wrote a piece about it called “The Ethics of Belief.” You very likely haven’t heard of him since his writings were nearly two centuries ago, but the beliefs he asserts of what damage can be done to society if people acceptingly embrace so-called facts without challenging them basically assert that they can bring down our social mores and even our ability to interact.

There’s a fascinating article about him on Aeon. Here’s my favorite paragraph:

“What we believe is then of tremendous practical importance. False beliefs about physical or social facts lead us into poor habits of action that in the most extreme cases could threaten our survival. If the singer R Kelly genuinely believed the words of his song ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ (1996), I can guarantee you he would not be around by now.”

You can find the rest of the article here

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I’ve been seeing ads and postings claiming that Trump and the GOP care about all manner of things that are important to America whereas the Democrats just hate Trump.

Yes. That’s true. We hate Trump.

We don’t hate blacks. Or Mexicans. Spaniards or Latinos. Caravans of refugees. Immigrants. People who are American because they were born here. People who need health care. People who have pre-existing conditions. Muslims. Jews. We don’t even hate Trump supporters; while they post relentless attacks on the Dems, we mostly feel sorry for them because of their blindness.

We just hate Trump.

At least we’re focused.

Kidding.

Maybe.

PAD

Godwin’s law is out of date when it comes to Trump, since the comparisons to Nazism are legion by this point. However in the last seven days Herr Trump (or, if you prefer, Hair Trump) has absolutely reaffirmed his resemblance to Hitler in pretty much every way imaginable.

Continue Reading “Freak Out Friday – November 2, 2018” →

I know I’ve been gone for the last several weeks. It’s just been too much of Trump doing the exact same thing: Vilifying opponents (mostly female or black or black females), blaming the Democrats for every single thing that he’s caused to go wrong, calling the press the enemy of the people because they dare to criticize him, and lying, lying, lying (over five thousand as of last month, according to the Washington Post.). It’s just…it’s so much the same that I was feeling sick of it.

And then we had a new wrinkle. We had the bombs or, as Trump put it on Twitter, “Bombs.” Right there, right in front of millions of people, he put basically air quotes around the word as if to imply that it’s all some show, some false flag thing put together by the evil Democrats. The ones who he claims will get rid of pre-existing medical coverage, which is explicitly what the Republicans want to do. The ones he falsely claims came up with laws compounding the immigrant situation. The ones he blames for everything that he and his fellow GOPers do that screws things up. And now he was implying that the entire bomb situation, where bombs were being sent to all his opponents and news organizations, wasn’t real. That it was all being arranged by Democratic operatives in order to make the GOP look bad (as if everything they say or do doesn’t accomplish that.)

Of course, the problem is that the GOP loves conspiracy theories, embraces them, broadcasts them, reports on them as news items on Fox. They claim that George Soros, a philanthropic Jew, organized the migrant march. They still claim that Barack Obama is a Muslim born outside of the USA; Trump was their standard bearer for that one. And their latest was that the left itself was behind the attempted bombings. Despite the fact that the typos in the return addresses screamed it was GOP because a startling percentage of Trump followers have trouble with spelling.

Except now an arrest has been made. In Florida; of course Florida. The lunatic drives a van that is festooned with Trump stickers and a photo of Hillary Clinton with a target on it. He has a criminal record and is a registered Republican.

Trump’s reaction before the man was arrested? He claimed that we need to come together, to become a vast United America. He did it in his trademark soft, barely awake voice that he uses when he’s saying something he really doesn’t want to say. Because the simple fact is this: there is no more divisive man with a microphone as Donald Trump. He creates splits between our allies, he cuts his friends loose the moment they run into trouble, often claiming he barely even knows them. He complains how Brett Kavanaugh was falsely and hastily judged while encouraging shouts of “Lock her up” at rallies over women (of course) who have committed no crime.

After he was arrested? Trump congratulated law enforcement. Which is fine, but is not what needs to be addressed.

The simple fact is this: Trump should shoulder some, if not all, of the blame for this.

Trump loves violence. He has since the campaign began. He has embraced it wholeheartedly. He encouraged his followers to beat up protestors at rallies, claiming that he would cover their legal fees. He urged police officers to bang around suspects who were under arrest. He embraced a politician who beat up a reporter, calling him “my kind of…my man!” He loves Putin who kills reporters, Kim Jong un who had his step brother and uncle assassinated. Trump is, and always has been, a brute. He either embraces violent answers to questions, or uses threats of violence to intimidate his idiot followers. That’s why he claims without any proof that terrorists are marching toward us in the caravan. That’s why he described Mexicans as rapists and gang members. He wants to keep his base in fear and use violence against those whom he dislikes.

Naturally it culminated in a Florida sicko who rose to his master’s words and attempted to bomb anyone who Trump disliked.

Will Trump take any responsibility? Of course not. Instead he and the right will shout “Baseball shooter” because they think that one idiot doing something on impulse is comparable to a Trump nut systematically trying to bomb everyone that Trump doesn’t like. Trump has yet to conceive of the fact that words have meaning. That when you rail against people and endorse violent means to an end, people are going to take that and run with it, believing that they are doing what you would want them to. Even more to the point, it is quite simply insane that they take wrongdoing on the part of the Left as an excuse when someone on the right does something ten times worse. The right should aspire to be better than the left, just as the left does with the right. “Whataboutism” is pretty much a right defense. I don’t use the right’s obsession with analyzing and scrutinizing everything Obama ever did in a restaurant as a reason to excuse leftists harassing GOPers who are just trying to have an evening out.

The worst is when righties try to claim that Trump has done “so much good” for the country. Typically they’re wrong, buying into actions that are misreported, false, or insanely exaggerated. But you know what? Let’s say, just for fun, that Trump has done positive things. You know what? Hitler built up a sizable infrastructure in Germany, including the Autobahn. And Mussolini made the trains run on time. Does that make them admirable leaders and good guys?

This bomber is yet another Trump production, even if he doesn’t have Trump’s name on his back in gold letters. Trump’s supporters will of course not cop to that either. This guy is the face of home grown, Trump spawned terrorism, but Trumpies will declare he’s a single lone mentally ill nut who should not be accorded any importance. An isolated incident, that’s all.

No. He’s a landmark, a map, a guide for others to follow. I’d wager there are White Supremacists already putting together a GoFundMe page to pay for his defense. His kind has millions of supporters, and God only knows what they’re doing now. Now that the door has been opened to launch a terrorist attack on people Trump hates, it’s likely going to be kicked wide open and others will come marching through.

But what’s Trump worried about? He’s busy claiming Twitter is cutting back on his followers. Well, I know of one guy in Florida who may have been dropped off by now.

PAD

So we’ve had a week to mull over the UN report that says the effects of global warming are no longer something that will impact the next century. We’ve got from twelve to twenty two years to pull it together, or my children and grandchildren will find the world uninhabitable around them.

This requires immediate action, and there’s one thing in which we can take complete confidence: Trump will do nothing. Even if he said he’d do something, he’d do nothing (right, Elizabeth Warren?)

But some individual states have proven they’re willing to step in where Trump ignores the needs of the world. Now we need to widen that.

There is no more respected scientist in this country than Neil deGrasse Tyson (okay, MAYBE Bill Nye.). Everyone knows and respects him. So Tyson needs to organize GUST.

What is GUST, you ask? Governors United to Save Terra.

Tyson needs to organize a national convention attending by governors from all fifty states. He needs to bring them together to one place, summon a coterie of scientists, and have them lecture at, and work together with, the governors to lay out a plan for them to undertake that will help to decrease the undeniable impact of global warming. Yes, even the governors of states with coal miners need to get on board with this.

Where would the money for this come from? From us. If Tyson began a Kickstarter or GoFundMe page dedicated to organizing the GUST meeting in order to save the planet, he’d easily get the money to do the job. Everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, respect Tyson and, oh, by the way, want to do what they can to save the Earth.

This is the United States of America, but as states we really haven’t been united since…I dunno…World War II. Now we need to come together. The Feds aren’t going to do it: Trump rejects global warming and the EPA is slowly disintegrating. The states need to do it, and Tyson can get it done.

Organize GUST, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Let a new wind blow through the environment.

PAD