general audiences

On this day in 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America replaced its stringent and interventionist Motion Picture Production Code (the Hays Code after the association’s president Will H Hays) that had been in force since 1930 with a voluntary ratings system, which appealed to filmmakers and cinema-operators and did not smack of censorship and prudishness as much as the previous regime of conduct. Originally the tiers of suitability were:

Rated G: Suggested for General Audiences
Rated M: Suggested for Mature Audiences—parental discretion advised
Rated R: Restricted—persons under sixteen not admitted, unless accompanied by parent or adult guardian
Rated X: Persons under Sixteen Not Admitted

By 1984, the standard included PG-13 (parental guidance suggested—some material may not be suitable for children under thirteen) and in 1990 X (originally not sanctioned by the MPAA) was replaced by NC-17, no children under seventeen admitted. The broad categories have translated to over half of the movies released in the past five decades have garnered an R-rating or higher.

rubicon, rio bravo

Despite the refutation on the part of the US Secretary of Defence that “this department doesn’t do stunts,” Trump’s fearmongering is playing to the crowds thronging his Nuremberger rallies with his announcement that he will deploy up to fifteen thousand active duty soldiers to the southern border to act in a support capacity for the army of deputised goons already there, and could hardly be characterised as anything else. Fully thirty-nine military units have been put on notice. Barred by federal law (posse comitatus) from acting in an enforcement capacity within the United States, their role during this mission will be limited to intimidation and building temporary barriers.

the march of folly

Via the ever-excellent Nag on the Lake, we are introduced to the intricate, kinetic wooden sculptures of Colorado artist John Buck whose characters tell a fitting allegory for our times and was created specifically in reaction to America’s approaching mid-term elections.
The title of the collection references the 1984 study of the same name that examines the thread of a government paradoxically acting against its own better interests through history from Troy to Vietnam by historian Barbara W Tuchman and couching it in contemporary times with timeless symbol to be teased out of the parade floats that urge the procession onwards. Learn more and see the sculptures in action at the links above.

october surprise

We’re all probably too fatigued already to weather another political bombshell and while the term was informed during the previous US election-cycle and came into common-parlance during the following presidential run-off between Richard Nixon and George McGovern, on this day fifty years ago (1968) President Lyndon Johnson announced probably the first non-spontaneous, last-minute policy shift by ordering cessation of all bombardment in North Vietnam.
Johnson cited progress in the Paris peace negotiations as his motivation but his opponents accused him of making a desperate overture to voters and as a sort of retribution for a series of unfortunate coincidences that tarnished his campaign in 1964 and nearly cost him the election: the unexpected retirement of Nikita Khrushchev, a gay sex scandal of one of Johnson’s top aides, a successful nuclear missile test in China and Labour taking control of the UK. The Vietnam October Surprise failed, however, to carry Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s vice president, to victory and the Nixon administration continued hostilities. Ironically, the subsequent October Surprise in 1972 that helped the incumbent hold office and defeat Barry Goldwater was a promise delivered by Henry Kissinger that “peace was at hand” and that ground forces were to be withdrawn from Vietnam in the following year.

happy halloween!

As always, thanks for visiting and spooky tidings to you and yours!

rocky horus

Via Messy Nessy Chic, we are treated to the 1981 production from Egyptian director Mohammed Shebl, who had several horror credits to his name, called Fangs (al’Anyab, الأنياب)—an homage to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The plot, with ample musical interludes, is faithful to the original up through the first act (plenty of glam vampires but nothing too transgressive to sneak past the censors) and certainly demonstrates a degree of craft and talent that separates it from other knock-offs, like the nearly unwatchable “Turkish Star Wars.”

jus soli

Via Boing Boing, we learn that Trump intends to nullify the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US constitution (previously here and here), by means of an executive order, that guarantees birthright citizenship to children born within the United States’ territory regardless of the status of their parents.
Though rarer and usually qualified in most of the rest of the world, thirty-one countries in the Americas automatically confer citizenship (though with America, also comes the onerous burden of taxes on worldwide income, which along with citizens Eretria one cannot opt out of) proponents of unrestricted jus soli (law of the soil, as opposed to jus sanguinis which puts an additional requirement for citizenship that one or both parents to have been born in the country) argue that without these protections, we risk creating a disenfranchised underclass and more stateless persons. During the interview, Trump claims he is already in consultation with counsel on drafting the executive order, and though it is unclear how he has the authority to undo a duly ratified amendment, one of his Svengalis might have shown him the clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and explained that it is meant to exclude children born to enemy forces engaged in hostile occupation of the country’s territory and convinced him it’s referring to the caravans of murderous migrants massing at the borders.

∼ ≺

Via Duck Soup, we’re served a nice demystification of a free market fairy tale—that of preference and predatory capitalism. It’s well established that once a chain operation moves into a market, if local, established businesses cannot compete, they’ll eventually be edged out by dint of inefficiencies and although the community may mourn the loss of one of its anchors, customers will ultimately be better served by the franchise.
It’s a bit of cold comfort and consolation but what it relies on illusion preference (the symbols above are shorthand in that field of study for equivalence and strong preference) that predicates the narrative on flattening out all companies as entrepreneurs running lemonade stands—which is vastly far off from the case of a local shop competing with a multinational corporation. This scenario reminds me of monopsony—the big company will necessarily enjoy much larger margins for profit because it has great purchasing power for supplies, advertising and even recruiting labour. The big corporation does not even necessarily need to undercut the competition, charging the same or even more for a comparable good or service or attract and retain loyal patrons, but magnitude will eventually prevail—that is, until people and governments are disabused of the myth of the Invisible Hand that belies its appeal.