How dare you. How dare I not.

Forty-niners quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is getting a lot of negative attention for his recent choice to take a stand by not standing for the National Anthem because in his opinion racism in the US is still a problem. Well, folks Mr. Kaepernick, has a point, racism is still a thing in the US. While his protest has generated a lot of talk very little of it is in the right direction, of addressing the issue of racism. So you might say that his protest failed. But has it really failed. The sit ins of the civil rights movement did not change things dramatically over night, it took years before meaningful legislation was passed and enforcement of those laws occurred. The same is true for any social change. Certainly Colin hit a nerve with many people but most people do not even think about the meaning of standing up for the national anthem it is a reflex and little to no thought is put into why we stand, it is just something we do. There is not anything particularly patriotic about most sporting events, and they are usually not political events by any measure. Playing the national anthem at the beginning of sporting contests isn’t necessary nor is it required by any law. Somehow it has worked into the fabric of sporting events, and graduations, and other things where someone thinks it should happen as a matter of national pride or some other political gesturing. There is no law that requires the national anthem to be performed at any time, there are some rules regarding how to behave during the playing of the national anthem but these are “should” rather than “shall” making them optional or the preferred means to show “respect” but are not required (unless on a military base, installation, or ship). I put respect in quotes because you can fake respect for anything by doing what is “expected” of you without having any respect for the action. Which is worse; not doing what is expected or faking the respect, that is a question for another discussion. So while you may disagree with the protest and that is your right, Mr. Kaepernick has the right to protest peacefully if he chooses even if you don’t like how he has chosen to protest. Personally I think that all the people who have hung their flags upside down during President Obama’s administration are doing something disrespectful and I don’t agree with their form of protest, but they have the right to protest in that manner, even if I don’t like it. One of the things that is truly great about the US is that we have the right to protest governmental and social wrong doing. Not everyone is going to agree with the means of protesting or with the issue that is being protested. While it may seem hypocritical for an overpaid adult playing a game to say things are not fair for some folks in the US, there is no requirement that you must be part of the oppressed group, or you must be subjected to the unfairness, to say things are not right. It wasn’t all women saying women should have the vote, it wasn’t all black people saying that basic civil rights needed to be law. Pick any social issue where a group is treated unfairly by the government / social system and the people protesting the unfair treatment, are not all in the group which is oppressed or treated unfairly. Like most protests the message is lost in the rhetoric of the unrelated issues, so if you want to hate Mr. Kaepernick, okay you can, if you want to burn his jersey, you can probably do that too, you may want to have a hose ready though, fire can be dangerous. You can even refuse to go see 49ers football or watch the games on TV. You can even ask that he be fired, fined or traded. You can do all of those things, but he can still protest by not standing for the national anthem. I served this country in the armed forces to protect everyone’s rights, not just those people who think like I do. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015, Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Vroom, vroom...

DCU v. MCU Not really a review of Suicide Squad. Movies are bigger than ever and they are promoted so much that they hype usually out performs the movies. I say usually because there are times when a movie overshadows the hype. Comic Book film genre is not going anywhere anytime soon. The movies make money and allow the studios to make other films and not just the comic book genre DC comic Universe (DCU) cannot seem to get the universe series of characters off the ground as well as Marvel Comic Universe (MCU). DC has been happy to just keep their characters in their own realms rather than bring them together. Batman has had very good success and to a much lesser extent Superman has had good first movies without a strong follow up film. Marvel has been building the all characters tie in to a single universe since Iron Man in 2008. The DC film Man of Steel 2013 and Henry Cavill which was more a relaunching of another attempt at the Superman as film star and possibly series. However, I’m not sure that the story in Man of Steel was written with the intention of Universe building for DC but it is now the beginning of the DCU Films and from where all of DC’s characters will interact in the way Marvel has been doing since Iron Man in 2008. While the Marvel movies seem to be homeruns most of the time, DC movies seem to be okay too good with not as many people saying they are great films. For example, DCU film Batman v. Superman = good against MCU Civil War = great. Batman v. Superman got a lot of bad press with Ben Affleck as Batman. I think Ben did a fabulous job as the Dark Knight but the story got all jumbled with too much stuff going on and Jesse Eisenburg’s Lex Luthor was just bad and he is a better actor so you have to blame the director and writers for that mess. Overall thought BvS was a good film not great but good. Suicide Squad is the next chapter of the DCU building the film world series. A lot of things have worked against this film. One is the already mentioned is over hyping of movies for this one it was over a year and it seems that is becoming the norm and it should stop. The Joker. No matter who tried to fill the shoes of the Joker after Heath Ledger was going to suffer harsh reviews. Heath really just nailed the character and competing with a ghost is impossible. Jared’s Joker is not bad but it isn’t great. In defense of this version of the Joker he isn’t in the movie a lot but enough to get a sense of character and I wish there had been more story devoted to the Joker but there wasn’t. As to other characters; Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn was nearly great, as was Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. Will Smith was respectable as Deadshot, Jared Leto was solid as the Joker but again not Heath’s Joker, then the cast goes down from there which has more to do with a story that is all over the place and less to do with actors and their abilities. The big problem DC seems to have with their films is clutter and bad guys which don’t make much sense. The Christian Bale Batman Trilogy excluded from that statement as the exception. DC should use that model moving forward with their universe and upcoming films. Bad guys who are a large enough threat but in a realistically understandable way and not this planet crushing thing with five other subplots that they seem to want to do in every film that is not just Batman stand alone series. Man of Steel there are the Terraforming machines killing the earth and other stuff BvS you have Doomsday trying to kill the earth and a lot of other stuff Suicide Squad has the same type of thing going on. Obviously this is not working for you DC, go back to what Christopher Nolan did in his Batman Trilogy. Have a single villain or problem and not so huge a problem that the entire world is going to end, one large city is big enough it keeps a scale that is managed and interesting for the viewer. Overall I liked Suicide Squad and it had really good scenes but the scenes were not really tied together well enough to have a sense of this is where things are headed. The movie was like oh that was cool, filler, that was cool too, filler, cool back story, filler, that was cool and on it went. There is a clip of things to come midway through the credits so stay if you like those. Hopefully Wonder Woman will be better and the Justice League will be as well. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards