#even hunter would be reluctantly interested in the conspiracy

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Joy finding the hipothetical journal and convincing the whole crew to forma a conspiracy theory with her

they'd jump on that so fast

when you have a group of people who are each geniuses in their own right, and you trap them in a compound with very little to do that doesn't involve training, they're going to find ways to entertain themselves

[sarcasticcynic]

Andrew Sullivan is a lifelong conservative and author of (among other books) The Conservative Soul. Nonetheless, he has reluctantly concluded that “the only proper constitutional response to this [Trump’s] abuse of executive power is impeachment.”

Sullivan begins with a review of some of the worst “ways in which Trump has attacked and undermined the core legitimacy of our democracy”:

“He is the only candidate in American history who refused to say that he would abide by the results of the vote.”

“Even after winning the 2016 election, he still claimed that ‘millions’ of voters — undocumented aliens — perpetrated massive electoral fraud in the last election, and voted for his opponent.”

“He has repeatedly and publicly toyed with the idea that he could violate the 22nd Amendment, and get elected for three terms, or more.”

“He consistently described a perfectly defensible inquiry into Russia’s role in the 2016 election as a ‘witch hunt’ and a ‘hoax,’ demonizing Robert Mueller ... Trump ordered no cooperation, and refused to testify under oath.”

“He lies and misleads the American public constantly, in an outright attempt to so confuse Americans that they forget or reject the concept of truth altogether. Lies are part of politics, but we have never before seen such a fire hose of often contradictory or inflammatory bald-faced lies from the Oval Office.”

“He has obstructed justice countless times, by witness tampering, forbidding his subordinates from complying with legal subpoenas, and by ‘using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his close subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct’ both the Mueller and now the Ukraine investigations.”

“Trump has also ‘failed without lawful cause or excuse to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives … and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas.’”

“He has declared legal processes illegitimate if they interfere with or constrain his whims and impulses.”

Sullivan provides an excellent summary of the nature of Trump’s current impeachable offense, and why it matters:

“In the current scandal over Ukraine, Trump is insisting that he did ‘nothing wrong’ in demanding that Ukraine announce investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden, or forfeit desperately needed military aid. If that is the president’s position — that he can constitutionally ask any other country to intervene on his behalf in a U.S. election — it represents a view of executive power that is the equivalent of a mob boss’s. It is best summed up in Trump’s own words: Article 2 of the Constitution permits him to do ‘anything I want.’ ...

“He seems to think in the Ukraine context that ‘l’état c’est moi’ is the core American truth, rather than a French monarch’s claims to absolute power. He believes in the kind of executive power the Founders designed the U.S. Constitution to prevent. It therefore did not occur to Trump that blackmailing a foreign country to investigate his political opponents is a classic abuse of power, because he is incapable of viewing his own interests and the interests of the United States as in any way distinct. But it is a core premise of our liberal democracy that the powers of the presidency are merely on loan, and that using them to advance a personal interest is a definition of an abuse of power.”

And Sullivan’s disturbing conclusion is that, if Trump is not impeached and convicted, it will signal the end of the American experiment in democracy:

“If the Senate exonerates Trump, it will not just enable the most lawless president in our history to even greater abuses. ... It will cast into doubt the fairness of the upcoming election. It will foment the conspiracy theory that our current laws and institutions are manifestations of a ‘deep state’ engineering a ‘coup.’ It will prove that a president can indeed abuse his power for his personal advantage without consequence; and it will set a precedent that fundamentally changes the American system from a liberal democracy to a form of elected monarchy, above the other two branches of government.”

Unfortunately, Sullivan should have begun with a different word: “When the Senate exonerates Trump...”

[marymosley]

Is Pelosi Saving Trump By Shaping Impeachment To Fail In The Senate?

Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the curious profile of the emerging impeachment against President Donald Trump. Notably, while Democratic members have been saying for three years that there are established crimes and impeachable offenses found by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, reports indicate that none of those allegations will be the basis for impeachment. Instead, Democratic members are saying that they want to limit impeachment to the Ukrainian controversy. Not only that, but they want to hold just a couple weeks of public hearings and vote an impeachment vote. If so, this would be the most narrow and least developed impeachment of a president in our history.

Here is the column:

As President Donald Trump continues to counterpunch his way into an impeachment, many Republicans appear conspicuously and ominously silent about the Ukrainian scandal. That would normally spell growing danger for an increasingly isolated president looking at a Senate trial.

Trump, however, may have a curious ally in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. When she held a press conference to announce the impeachment inquiry, some of us expressed doubt that she had dropped her opposition to it. Since then, every move she has made strongly supports suspicions that Pelosi is less of a convert than a collaborator in the House impeachment effort. While Trump aides such as Rudy Giuliani have now caused untold damage to the White House position, Pelosi repeatedly has intervened to steer impeachment efforts into either a wall or, more recently, over a cliff.

For three years, Pelosi has been widely credited with slowing down the impeachment efforts despite many of her fellow Democrats campaigning on an impeachment pledge in 2018. Pelosi has struggled to maintain the appearance of wanting to impeach the president while preventing any meaningful steps toward actual impeachment. She wants Trump mortally wounded but still alive in 2020. Moreover, she understood the Russia investigation was not producing clear criminal or impeachable conduct.

Indeed, earlier this year, I wrote a column exploring whether the real scandal was not likely Russian but Ukrainian in its origins. I noted that various Trump figures, along with Democrats including Hunter Biden, were involved in suspect dealings in Ukraine. The investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller found no conspiracy or collusion with the Russians. The Justice Department correctly rejected obstruction. Pelosi moved to put impeachment to bed, saying she would not accept one that was not based on articles with “overwhelming and bipartisan” support.

Everything was going according to plan, until Trump called the Ukrainian president. The danger of pretending that you want to impeach Trump is that you may accidentally stumble over a potentially impeachable offense. Moreover, with a whistleblower complaint, Pelosi lost all her control. The Democratic base was simply not going to accept another bait and switch.

So Pelosi was forced to hold her bizarre press conference to announce that an impeachment inquiry would begin in the House, despite other Democrats declaring for weeks that they already were conducting such an inquiry. Despite her recent pledge, she pushed through an impeachment vote with no support from Republicans, and the country divided right down the middle on the issue. Pelosi then took two unexpected steps.

She reportedly said she wanted to limit any impeachment investigation to Ukraine, not the stuff that she and others claimed was clearly criminal and impeachable for three years. She also removed the investigation from the House Judiciary Committee, which was looking more broadly at Russian matters with special impeachment counsel, and then gave it to the House Intelligence Committee to hold hearings behind closed doors. After single handedly slowing down impeachment efforts for years, Pelosi now is pushing for a quick impeachment vote by the end of the year. Why?

The day this story broke, I stated on air that the greatest threat to Trump would be White House national security adviser John Bolton, a disgruntled former aide who was the most likely witness to have damaging evidence of any quid pro quo. Yet Democrats have done relatively little to get his testimony. Bolton seemed willing to testify but he wanted to be legally compelled to do so. On Friday, his attorney even dangled a promise of “relevant” undisclosed evidence. Democrats have subpoenaed various officials but refused to do so with Bolton. They shrugged off his refusal to testify and said they simply had no time to go to court for an order. Why?

The reason appears to be Pelosi. While she reluctantly agreed to allow members to impeach, she wants to submit an anemic impeachment to the Senate by the start of 2020. After moving for years at a glacial pace, she now wants an abbreviated and expedited impeachment process with just a few weeks of evidentiary preparation. Such an impeachment would go forward with a significantly undeveloped record with a couple of slapdash articles, along with ample room to acquit Trump in the Senate.

The term for all of this is planned, or programmed, obsolescence. The term was created by former General Motors head Alfred Sloan Jr. to refer to products that suddenly stop functioning and have to be replaced. This was the basis of a huge class action lawsuit against Hewlett Packard over inkjet printers and cartridges allegedly designed to shut down at some undisclosed date. The company settled the case for millions of dollars.

Similarly, this impeachment is looking like something designed to fail, to suddenly stop functioning in the Senate so Trump survives and Democrats can once run again on a “lesser of two evils” campaign. The design flaw is found in the artificially narrow foundation of articles on abuse of power. It is not true, as was suggested by former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, that abuse of power cannot be the sole basis for impeachment because abuse of power is not a crime. Not only can abuse of power be impeachable, but a proven quid pro quo can qualify as such an abuse.

However, there is a reason why members of Congress have never sought the impeachment of a president on such a narrow ground. The Clinton impeachment was relatively narrow but involved the president lying under oath, which is a clearly defined criminal act. Abuse of power is stronger in the context of other offenses. The reason is that it is often very difficult to distinguish between the problematic statements or conduct of presidents. All politicians deal in their self interests, including members of Congress.

To focus on this narrow abuse of power claim as the foundation for this impeachment, Pelosi maximizes the chances of acquittal for Trump. By pushing for an impeachment by December, with limited hearings and no compelled testimony by key witnesses, she would achieve her original goal to guarantee that Trump will stay in office at the start of primaries. That is indeed the perfect planned obsolescence product, one designed to fail just in time for the voters to be offered a product “upgrade” in the form of the Democratic presidential candidate and a Senate majority.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He also served as the last lead counsel in a Senate impeachment trial and testified as a constitutional expert in the Clinton impeachment hearings. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

Is Pelosi Saving Trump By Shaping Impeachment To Fail In The Senate? published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[mygangtome]

Where They've Been, Where They Are Now - Jonas Armstrong

He was the man in the hood with the bow, with a cheeky grin and stirring speeches.  Now it’s time to find out what Jonas Armstrong has been doing since Robin Hood ended. 

This is a long post! 

Book of Blood (2009) – Simon McNeal

Summary: A paranormal expert discovers a house that is at the intersection of so-called “highways” transporting souls in the afterlife.

Character Bio: Simon declares he is a clairvoyant, though the reluctantly agrees to work with Mary and her partner Reg to investigate the paranormal events leading to the violent death of teen girl.  He winds up further tangled in the events and the supernatural powers at work than he could have ever thought.

Fan comments: This was one of the first projects that came out after RHBBC ended, and I had been really eager to see it. However, despite being touted as a physiological thriller, it was a more violent, bloody and intense than I expected.  I haven’t rewatched it since, but it was certainly a change of pace to seen Jonas in this role after Robin Hood.  

The Street (2009) – Nick Calshaw

Nick Calshaw returns from fighting in Afghanistan, wounded and disfigured due to the blast of a suicide bomb.  He struggled to adjust to normal life again, as his family and girlfriend try to help and balance their own horror at what happened.

Character Bio: Nick is an ordinary guy who has to deal with the stress and trauma of coming back to war, with the added pain of having been wounded and disfigured.  He lashes out, is depressed, and tries and fails to be ordinary but can’t figure out how to get past his disfigurement and reactions of those around him.  

Fan comments: This was difficult watch, as it is obviously a very loaded and emotional topic. Jonas does an extraordinary job handling the roller coaster of emotions that Nick struggles with.  The script is sometimes a bit obvious and a little on the nose, but the characters hold it together.  And this is the second time post RH that he had to deal with and act with some intense prosthetics and make up, and he does it well.  

Agatha Christie’s Marple: The Secret of Chimneys (2010) – Cade

A lavish weekend party sees Miss Marple accompany Lady Virginia Revel to her family home of Chimneys - a house which was once prized for its diplomatic gatherings until a rare diamond was stolen from the premises over twenty years ago. The tenacious career politician, George Lomax, has persuaded Virginia’s father, Lord Caterham, to host an evening for an important Austrian Count, Ludwig Von Stainach. Virginia, the daughter of Miss Marple’s late cousin, must decide by the end of the weekend whether to accept a marriage proposal from George Lomax or to follow her heart and the courtship of another more adventurous suitor, Anthony Cade. Dismayed by the odd array of guests, including socialist spinster Miss Blenkinsopp, Caterham’s formidable eldest daughter Bundle and the quietly inscrutable maidservant Treadwell, Lomax castigates his affable assistant Bill Eversleigh, who also has a soft spot for Virginia. It becomes apparent that Count Ludwig has taken a personal interest in Chimneys …

Character Bio: Suitor of Virginia. 

Fan comments: I have not seen this, and the information about it is rather sparse, hence the lack of character bio. The only information I could find was that Cade was the adventurous sort (and that his character was rather pared down compared to the character in the book.)

The Field of Blood (2011) – Terry Hewitt (2 episodes)  

Set in Glasgow in 1982, Paddy Meehan is a young girl in a world of men; a feisty copy boy in the sexist, hard-boozing, cutthroat world of journalism. Paddy dreams of being an investigative reporter, and she grabs the opportunity when a young boy, Brian Wilcox, is kidnapped and found murdered. Paddy sees connections to a year-old crime that nobody else sees and she is determined to make it her story. But when Paddy crosses the line, she becomes outcast from her devoutly Catholic family and puts the lives of her colleagues, as well as her own, at risk. The closer she gets to the murderer, the closer she gets to murder; and the price of achieving her dream will prove greater than she can ever imagine.

Character bio: Terry is bright, resourceful and together. What he needs is the story that will make his name. After an initial misstep he becomes one of the few people in the newsroom who believes in Paddy. Terry is prepared to back Paddy’s instincts as they break the rules to prove that the police are wrong about a recent child murder. (bio from BBC One).

Fan comments: This was one I started watching, but then lost the ability to do so, and never tracked it down again, so I cannot offer much insight.  

The Body Farm (2011) – Nick Warner (1 episode)

A British police procedural, which follows the team from a forensic pathology facility that conducts scientific research to help solve crimes.

Character Bio: Nick Warner is the son of the episode’s victim.

Fan comments: Again, another one that I never have seen, so no comments available.

Rage of the Yeti (2011) – Bill

A quest for riches becomes a fight for survival after treasure hunters find snow monsters on a mountain in the Arctic.

Character Bio: Bill is part of the rescue team that goes in to help the treasure hunters deal with the yeti, and he may also be a turn coat.

Fan comments: Also have not seen this one, but have heard it is basically a terrible B movie that is nearly unwatchable. Unless you want to make fun of bad movies, then apparently, it is good for that.

Prisoner’s Wives (2012) – Steve (6 episodes)

Gemma’s perfect life comes crashing down when her husband is arrested for murder. As Gemma learns to navigate the prison system, she starts to think the unthinkable of her husband.

Character bio: Steve is serving time after being arrested for murder. He declares his complete innocence to his wife, Gemma, but he is not being entirely truthful.

Fan comments: Another one that I started to watch but never finished, so I don’t have many impressions to pass along. (There is a distinct connection between my ability / time to find places to watch these BBC productions and my senior year in college and then graduation.)

Hit and Miss (2012) – Ben (6 episodes)

Follows the life of transgender contract killer Mia, who travels to West Yorkshire to seek out her ex girlfriend.

Character bio: Ben is a romantic interest of Mia, who struggles to figure out his feelings and their relationship when she comes out to him.

Fan comment: Have not seen this one, but the premise sounds very intriguing, but possibly too violent.  

Twenty8k – (2012) – Clint O’Connor

A teenage boy is gunned down outside a nightclub and a young girl dies in a hit and run in two seemingly unrelated deaths. Deeva Jani, returns home to clear her brother Vipon of the shooting and soon discovers a much deeper conspiracy.

Character bio: Clint is a former gangster who became a youth counselor, who helps Deeva work to prove her brother’s innocence.

Fan comments: I have not seen, but from reviews it says the cast is strong, but the writing is not, and is rather predictable.

Walking With The Enemy – (2013) – Elek Cohen

A young man, separated from his family in WWII, disguises himself as a Nazi SS Officer and uncovers more than just his family whereabouts.

Character bio: Elek starts out as a typical college guy, flirting with girls and getting into fights.  However, as Nazi occupation sweeps across Europe, he and his family and friends find that lives are forever changed along with the millions of other Jewish people who faced genocide.  In efforts to save his family and friends, he gets his hands on an SS uniform, and begins a crusade to help as much as he can, as the uniform and confidence does a lot to keep his identity hidden.

Fan comments: I saw this one!  I managed to catch it in theaters at the tail end of its run, and now cannot find it on DVD for love or money.  Which is a pity because I did enjoy it, though there are times you can tell that the production was a bit low.  There are a lot of moments that just made me think “Oh, this is a WWII RH AU!” - there is a connection between Robin Hood and Elek’s work to save people.  Not robbing the rich to feed the poor, but lying to Nazis to save people.  Also, there is a scene where he and some of the other men in his resistance circle were unloading sacks of flour, and his mannerisms and cadence just screamed Robin. If anyone has any info on finding this to stream or on DVD, let me know!

The Whale (2013) – Owen Chase

A whaling ship called called the Essex becomes shipwrecked and those on board struggle for survival.

Character Bio: First mate on the Essex.

Fan comments: Have not seen this one, either, but it has Jonas and John Boyega in it, so I might have to track it down.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) – Skinner

A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.

Character bio: Skinner is a member of J-Squad, and is confrontational with the main character Cage (played by Tom Cruise).  However, his fighting ability means he plays an integral part of the main battle in this action movie.

Fan comments: One that I missed again, partly due to the fact that I would have had to sit through a movie with Tom Cruise, and I am not the biggest fan.  By all accounts, the movie is a pretty standard summer type action film.

The Dove Keepers (2015) – Yoav

Based in Alice Hoffman’s historical novel about the Siege of Masada, the miniseries focuses on four extraordinary women whose lives intersect in a fight for survival at the siege of Masada.

Character Bio: Yoav is a scholarly young man who develops a romantic relationship with one of the female leads of the story.  He is also tasked with a grim duty at the end of the siege of Masada.

Fan comments: By all accounts, this adaptation of the book was terrible.  I never heard much about this and am reluctant to watch it, because of the terrible reviews and tragic story line.

Line of Duty (2016) – Joe Nash (3 episodes)

DS Steve Arnott is transferred to the police anti-corruption unit after the death of a man in a mistaken shooting during a counter-terrorist operation.

Character bio: Joe is a former resident of a boy’s home, where he suffered sexual abuse.  He works with the police force to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Fan comment: Jonas lands a spot in three episodes in this series, and it obviously sounds like an intense storyline.  Have not seen.

Dark Angel (2016) – Joe Nattrass

A two-part drama about the Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton.

Character bio: Joe one of Mary Ann Cotton’s lovers, who had the misfortune of dating a serial killer.

Fan comments: Hey, Jonas and Joanne Froggatt meet again!  And by all accounts, it didn’t end much better than it did for Robin and Kate… I might track this one down, because of the two for one RH cast reunion, and because I’d never heard of Mary Ann Cotton, and would be intrigued to supplement my own research on her with this mini series.  

Ripper Street (2016) – Nathaniel (12 episodes)

The streets of Whitechapel are the haunt of Detective Inspector Edmund Reid and his team of officers, who aim to maintain law and order in a place once terrorized by Jack the Ripper.

Character bio: Assistant to Abel Croker, and Augustus Dove’s long-lost brother. Known as the ‘Whitechapel Golem’.

Fan comments: Jonas does not play a good guy, though it must be a slow reveal as he is credited in 12 episodes of seasons 4 and 5.

Now, I have a long list of shows and movies I should maybe catch up, and I can’t wait to see what else Jonas goes onto do with his career!

[bountyofbeads]

The Evidence of Wrongdoing by Trump Is Overwhelming https://nyti.ms/2q1waT1

"I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and my voters would still vote for me!!"

If Trump Were Anyone Else …

The president would be fired and perhaps subject to a criminal investigation.

By Nicholas Kristof, Opinion Columnist | Published Nov. 13, 2019, 4:13 PM ET |

New York Times | Posted Nov. 13, 2019

As the impeachment process unfolds, President Trump’s defenders will throw up dust clouds of complexity. But as the first day of open hearings suggested, it’s simple. Forget about Ukraine and diplomacy for a moment.

Suppose that a low-ranking government official, the head of a branch Social Security office, intervened to halt a widow’s long-approved Social Security payments. The widow, alarmed that without that income she might lose her home, would call the branch director to ask for help.

“I’d like you to do me a favor, though,” the director might respond. He would suggest that her Social Security payments could resume, but he’d like the widow to give him her late husband’s collection of rare coins.

Everybody would see that as an outrageous abuse of power. Whether we’re Republicans or Democrats, we would all recognize that it’s inappropriate for a federal official to use his or her power over government resources to extract personal benefits. The Social Security official could say that the payments eventually resumed, or assert that the widow’s son had engaged in skulduggery — but he’d be out of a job in an instant and would face a criminal investigation.

Likewise, imagine that a high school principal expelled the police chief’s son but offered to readmit the boy if the police department would just open a criminal investigation into his ex-wife before their child custody hearing.

Or suppose that the head of a public hospital offered to provide free medical care to employees of a construction company if it remodeled his kitchen?

Or what if I suggested to a university president that I was planning some glowing columns about his great institution and then asked for “a favor,” noting that my child was applying for admission.

In every case, we might disagree about whether to call this bribery, extortion or a quid pro quo, and might disagree about precisely which statute was violated, but there is no doubt this would be a firing offense and perhaps lead to a criminal investigation.

Shouldn’t we hold the president of the United States to as high a standard as the head of a Social Security office, a principal, a hospital director and a journalist?

Indeed, the Ukraine situation is still more insidious. Trump’s bullying of Ukraine and suspension of military assistance benefited our strategic rival, Russia, and it came as Ukrainians were dying in the fight for their country’s survival after a Russian invasion.

My father grew up near Chernivtsi in what is now western Ukraine — then part of Romania — and I’m appalled to think of Ukrainians dying unnecessarily because Trump was playing politics with American assistance. In effect, Trump aided Russia and perhaps killed Ukrainians for political gain.

Remember all this as we hear Trump’s defenders try to divert attention to the whistle-blower, to Hunter Biden or to anything else. If the Republicans want to oversee an investigation of how children of American government officials monetize their parents, that’s a worthwhile effort. But I doubt Ivanka Trump agrees.

The first witnesses before the impeachment hearings were two distinguished foreign policy experts with a long commitment to public service and no history of partisanship. One, George Kent, noted that “there has been a George Kent sworn to defend the Constitution continuously for nearly 60 years.” And Ambassador William Taylor, a Vietnam veteran who was appointed acting ambassador to Ukraine by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, emphasized, “I am not here to take one side or the other, or to advocate for any particular outcome of these proceedings.”

Their testimony was blunt. President Trump withheld not only desperately needed security assistance to Ukraine but also a White House meeting with the Ukrainian president — unless he committed to investigating the Bidens.

“I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” Taylor recalled advising other ambassadors involved in Ukraine.

Taylor also revealed something new and important. On July 26, another ambassador, Gordon Sondland, telephoned Trump, who asked about “the investigations” by Ukraine. A Taylor staff member asked Sondland what Trump thought about Ukraine, and Sondland replied that Trump cared more about the investigations into the Bidens.

Republicans on Wednesday tried to suggest that perhaps the impeachment investigation was all a misunderstanding based on secondhand accounts. But that July 26 phone call suggests that Trump was directly pushing for the investigations as his top priority with Ukraine.

Trump continues to be strongly backed by House Republicans and Fox News. That’s the biggest difference from the Watergate hearings that ultimately led to President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation. There was no Fox News then, and Republicans and Democrats alike were loyal primarily to the country and its institutions rather than to an individual.

That may no longer be true. Brace yourself in the coming weeks for smoke screens of obfuscation, but anchor yourself to this thought: What if the wrongdoing simply involved the head of a Social Security office, a principal, a hospital director or a journalist? Why allow a president to get away with what would be a firing offense for anyone else?

🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕

The Evidence of Wrongdoing by Trump Is Overwhelming

The witnesses’ testimony on Wednesday was clear and alarming.

By Noah Bookbinder, Mr. Bookbinder is the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. | Published Nov. 13, 2019 6:36 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted November 13, 2019 |

Impeachment is a constitutional procedure that should be reserved only for extraordinary times with the most extreme examples of abuse of power by a president. That is why, in our country’s history, only two presidents have been impeached.

But this is one of those times.

The evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump is overwhelming. The impeachment inquiry has been conducted so far in a sober, responsible way. As Wednesday’s hearing made clear, the witnesses are credible and clear, and the story they tell is alarming. All members of Congress are now compelled to listen to the witnesses and independently determine whether the president’s conduct warrants impeachment.

Mr. Trump used the immense powers of the American presidency to pressure an ally to open investigations that would help him personally. That much is clear just from the call memo of the July 25 conversation between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Any American who has not read the call memo should do so, because it is as shocking today to realize that Mr. Trump said the jaw-dropping phrase, “I would like you to do us a favor,” as it was the day it was released. He followed that by expressing his desire for Ukraine to investigate the 2016 election and the Bidens. That is sufficient in itself to prove unacceptable wrongdoing by the president.

But today’s testimony made clear that it goes much further. Two respected public servants — Ambassador William Taylor, an experienced diplomat and a decorated Vietnam War veteran, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, the State Department official overseeing European and Eurasian affairs — testified that the president and his personal attorney sought politically motivated investigations by the Ukrainian government into former Vice President Joseph Biden and allegations concerning the 2016 election (the latter references an unfounded conspiracy theory that Ukrainians, not Russians, were behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, and the Ukrainians framed the Russian government to make it look like that country was working with Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign).

Mr. Kent testified that the undercutting of dedicated career foreign service officers in Ukraine did great damage to our national security. Mr. Taylor testified that, from his experiences over several months, he developed a clear understanding that, at the direction of the president, nearly $400 million in taxpayer funded military aid and the powerful optics of a White House meeting were conditioned on a public announcement of investigations personally helpful to Mr. Trump’s re-election efforts.

Like Mr. Kent, Mr. Taylor also said that the president’s interference in our support of Ukraine for political purposes was deeply damaging to national security. Furthermore, he emphasized the potentially deadly costs of the delay in military support: Ukraine’s conflict with Russia has resulted in 14,000 casualties, and “more die each week” in fighting in the eastern part of the country.

Pressuring a foreign power to investigate a political rival is, alone, a potentially impeachable offense. But Mr. Trump’s effort to condition needed military and diplomatic aid on investigations helpful to his personal political interests may also constitute bribery as contemplated by the Constitution for the purpose of impeachment. It also likely violates criminal laws, including the federal bribery statute.

The president’s allies in the House tried to distract from the devastating facts against him, but they do not hold up to even the briefest scrutiny.

The claim that there could not have been serious wrongdoing because military aid to Ukraine was ultimately released and Ukraine did not begin the requested investigations is laughable. The aid was released only after Congress discovered it had been held up and began angrily asking about it and as the scandal was emerging. The reported statements of senior Ukrainian officials also indicate that Ukraine’s government had reluctantly decided to publicly announce these political investigations and was rescued only by this scandal’s public emergence.

As important, today Mr. Taylor revealed stunning new information. He said that a staff member of his witnessed Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, call Mr. Trump the day after his call with Mr. Zelensky and that the staff member heard Mr. Trump ask Mr. Sondland about the status of “the investigations” — which witnesses have testified was shorthand for inquiries into the Bidens and the origins of the investigation into foreign interference in the 2016 election. Mr. Taylor testified that his staff member heard Mr. Sondland say Ukraine was moving forward on those investigations and that Mr. Sondland said that the president “cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for.”

Similarly, President Zelensky’s statement that he did not feel pressured by Mr. Trump is hardly a silver bullet, given that he made it while seated next to the president at the United Nations. In fact, the evidence as a whole showed that the pressure worked and that Ukraine’s efforts to avoid getting embroiled in politicized investigations pushed by Mr. Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, were unsuccessful, and that Russia stands to potentially benefit from the interruption of United States-Ukraine relations (through, for example, a break in security support). Critically, Mr. Zelensky still has not received a White House meeting.

Finally, efforts to dismiss or smear witnesses testifying at the hearings ring hollow. Some of these witnesses’ testimony is firsthand, others is secondhand, as you would expect from anyone with knowledge of a piece of a multipart story. But their motivations are unimpeachable, their statements are clear, and when taken together, the account they have provided is devastating.

Members of Congress must listen closely to what these witnesses are saying: President Trump used the power of his office to pressure a struggling ally to conduct investigations for his own personal, political benefit.

They will face a vote as consequential to American democracy as any they have taken. The testimony spoken in these hearings, and the facts outlined by these witnesses, must be their only guide when they take that vote.

Not to do so is to allow the president to succeed in damaging our democracy.

🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕🍂🍞🍁☕

[hannah-deserved-better]

Fan Fics

I have been focusing on my fanfictions and I wanted to introduce them to you. They are all long multi-chapter series fics. You can find them all on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TruthfulNomad

I have three Supernatural fics, one Hobbit fic, and two crossovers. One is a Supernatural/Hobbit crossover and the other is a dystopian themed multi-fandom fic with Supernatural/Hobbit/Star Trek DS9, TNG, and VOY, X-files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Below is a short summary of the fic along with a short description of each pairing involved in each fic. They are all Castiel/Hannah focused, of course, but there are a lot of other pairings in each one as well. Please read the AO3 tags as all my fics tend to be dark themed and although most are still in the beginning stages, they usually get pretty violent and disturbing.

Supernatural fics

Chosen

This is a complete rewrite of the show starting with season one. It’s AU in some big ways. It starts with Sam and Dean shortly after they left Stanford after Jess’s death. Along the way, they run into Castiel (almost literally since he was laying in the middle of the highway). They also meet up with Charlie who in this fic, is Bobby’s daughter and was raised as Sam and Dean’s little cousin. Castiel explains that a renegade angel has released Lucifer and some demons from hell and started the apocalypse. Meanwhile, Jo Harvelle runs into the renegade angel who happens to be Hannah who had been set up by Raphael and is now on the run from heaven. Jo meets with Eileen Leahy and Meg. Both groups discover that it’s not just heaven and hell, but other realms that are kickstarting their own apocalypses and need champions. The Greek gods, the Norse gods, the Celts, Egyptians, Aztecs, and Hindu gods all have a stake in these characters.

Pairings

Castiel and Hannah: Castiel and Hannah start off as enemies in this one. Hannah is the renegade angel and Castiel was sent to find and kill her. Castiel’s world gets turned around when he realizes that heaven is at the center of a conspiracy scandal and that Hannah was the one who was betrayed. 

Dean/Jo: Jo and Dean start out as adversaries. At the time, Jo is dating the hunter Gordon Walker, who turns out to have some ulterior motives. But Jo has sworn to protect Hannah from the angels which puts her in conflict with Castiel and with the Winchesters. 

Sam/Eileen: Eileen has allied herself with Jo and Hannah and her knowledge of witchcraft makes Sam uncomfortable. But she is a well-traveled hunter with extensive knowledge of lore and this intrigues Sam. But Sam is still grieving for Jess and is reluctant to be in another relationship.

Crowley/Meg: Meg starts out as a spy. She allies herself with Jo and Hannah and is spying for Lucifer, but she develops a bond for the women she’s supposed to be undermining. Crowley is out for himself and doesn’t want the apocalypse to happen so he helps the Winchesters. Crowley and Meg start out as bitter enemies, both willing to torture and kill the other. 

Charlie/Anna/Rowena: Charlie encounters the fallen angel Anna after she and Castiel were left in the motel while the Winchesters went to investigate a crime. Anna doesn’t know she’s an angel and doesn’t know what has drawn her to this town. Later, after meeting up with Jo’s team, Charlie becomes acquainted with Rowena.

Maine Chronicles

This story takes place sometime in season 14. It’s AU, as are all of my fics. In this fic, the empty is releasing angels and demons because it’s becoming unstable. Many old enemies and friends are returning to Earth. The Winchesters relocate to another bunker deep in the woods of Maine, but when they do, they fall victim to something strange that’s happening in the small town. All the women in town are getting pregnant. The Winchesters suspect supernatural involvement, especially when Hannah, Jo, Eileen, and later, Meg all fall victim to this town’s plight. 

Pairings

Castiel and Hannah: Castiel and Hannah have been together ever since she returned from the empty. Hannah is the first victim of this town and since angels aren’t supposed to be able to get pregnant, they wonder what magical forces might be at work here. Especially since Hannah begins having visions and seeing spirits. There’s evidence that Hannah has been in this town before in the past, and that her memory has been tampered with.

Dean/Jo: Jo comes back to life mysteriously. But she doesn’t exactly come back normal. She and Dean are together at the beginning of the story but she hasn’t told him everything about how long she’s really been back, or what she really is. She didn’t come back human.

Jo/Charlie: Charlie learns about Jo’s secret and the two are trying to keep it from Dean. The two begin to get closer and form a relationship which they also keep secret from Dean, at least at first. 

Sam/Eileen/Gabriel/Rowena: Eileen also returned to life not quite human, but she is only now becoming aware of it. She’s developing some strange symptoms. She and Sam are together, but when Gabriel arrives wanting protection from Loki whom he dumped after the Asmodeus incident, he and Sam start having feelings for one another. This results in a threesome with some supernatural consequences. Later, Rowena arrives and the four of them get together.

Crowley/Meg: Meg arrives first, with Jesse the cambion. Then Crowley arrives, having been deposed as king of hell. He reveals that he knows a little about Meg’s past as a demon and as a human and that it’s connected with this town and with Hannah’s visions. The two start out as adversaries that are reluctantly forced to work together, as Crowley has an interest in Jesse, hoping he can use the cambion to get his position back in hell.

Claire/Kaia: Claire is de-aged in this fic and is a minor. Castiel gets custody of her but the law is watching them closely because he’s being accused of abandoning her. Claire has some behavioral problems and she and Hannah butt heads. Kaia is a teen runaway whose powers have kept her on the run. Charlie takes her in and petitions to adopt her.

Jack/Jesse: Jack is going to high school. Since the law is watching Castiel so closely, he is unable to live in the bunker with the Winchesters. He and Hannah have their own house in an abandoned property. Jack lives with them and is trying to learn how to be a human teenage boy, even though he’s only 2. Jesse arrives with Meg who has been looking after him so the two start going to school together.

Bunker Pack

Castiel is on a mission to save the angels from extinction. This fic takes place in season 13. Apocalypse Charlie arrives with three of her most trusted fellow resistance leaders. Jo Harvelle and Eileen Leahy have suffered at the hands of Michael’s angels. And Hannah, who betrayed Raphael to help the humans, has developed a deep hatred for her own kind. These women are nothing like their real-world counterparts. They have been hardened by the harsh realities of their world. Castiel finds Gabriel and the two devise a plan to put the remaining angels into a safe home situation and to lockdown heaven. The plan involves a lot of ingredients and a lot of sacrifices. 

Castiel and Hannah: Hannah is a shell of what her real-world counterpart was. She has suffered and has some very bad PTSD. She and Castiel begin a very strained relationship because she has trouble trusting him, especially because she has had a run-in with his Apocalypse world counterpart. She is reluctant to help the angels in any way. Castiel is trying to help her heal and learn to trust again.

Dean/Jo: Jo and Dean butt heads from the beginning. They have a few one night stands usually followed by massive blow out fights. 

Sam/Eileen: Sam is worried about getting involved with Eileen because he is afraid of losing her. Eileen has had some trauma of her own but she seems to be handling it differently than Hannah and Jo. 

Charlie/Claire: Charlie meets Claire in the bunker and lets her tag along with them, much to Dean’s chagrin. Dean doesn’t want Claire involved in their plans in any way. But Claire proves herself and she and the leader of the resistance form a special bond.

Jack/Annika (OC): Annika is a Nephilim and Gabriel’s secret daughter. She and Jack meet later when Sam and Castiel take her to the apocalypse world where Jack is trapped.

Hobbit fics

Kings and Masters

Takes place after the battle of the five armies. In the aftermath of the battle, Thorin and his nephews are injured and take refuge in a private home owned by the Laketown master. Fili and Kili are recovering from serious injuries and are both shell shocked from all they had gone through. While with the master, they befriend two of his servants whose past seems mysterious. It becomes clear that the master might be guilty of abusing these two servants of his. 

Fili/Brenna (OC): Fili is recovering from a back injury that has left him paralyzed. His morale is low and he is having a hard time coping with the prospect of having a permanent disability. Brenna is a brash young woman. She’s one of the two servants living in the masters home. She is a Gnome from the far north of Middle Earth. 

Kili/Asphodel (OC): Kili is dealing with his own trauma and has developed a breathing problem because of his injury. He befriends the hobbit girl who has been their nurse while they recover. But he knows the dwarves would never accept their relationship. And when it is discovered that the girl is actually Bilbo’s niece, it seems their love is destined to end in heartbreak.

Crossovers

Of Wings and Beards

(SPN/Hobbit)

Four paths across middle earth begin to intersect. This takes place between season 7 and 8, after Castiel’s incident with the Leviathans. Instead of going to purgatory, they all end up in Middle Earth. Meanwhile, Fili and Kili are left homeless orphans after orcs destroyed their village. They embark on a journey with Thorin in hopes of finding a new home.

Castiel and Hannah: Castiel arrives in Middle Earth with no memory of who he is. He meets Hannah, who has been trapped in Middle Earth ever since the civil war with Raphael. Hannah was part of Raphael’s army against Castiel, but when she tried to defect from Raphael, he banished her to Middle Earth. They begin their alliance on board a cargo ship where they are abused by the crew.

Crowley/Meg: Crowley and Meg had disappeared during the battle with Dick Roman, Crowley had kidnapped her and intended to return to hell to torture her but due to leviathan interfearance, their ‘route to hell’ was redirected and they became trapped in Middle Earth. They meet up with Castiel and Hannah after boarding the cargo ship they were on. Crowley is still bent on torturing Meg and Meg still plans to stab him in the face but for now, they are forced to work together to get out of Middle Earth and to help Castiel and Hannah. Through their traveling together, they begin to get closer.

Dean/Jo: Dean and Sam were both blasted into Middle Earth after defeating Dick Roman. They arrived in Rohan where they are escorted to Edoras by the Rohirrim. There, they discover Jo Harvelle who was brought back to life by Osiris but dropped off in Middle Earth. She has been working as a bar maiden in Rohan ever since.

Sam/Eileen: Eileen is another bar maiden and she and Jo are very close. Sam has never met Eileen at this point, but she was blasted to Middle Earth after a run in with some fairies. 

Kili/Asphodel: Kili meets Asphodel while he and his brother are recovering in the Shire. Asphodel and her mother Azalea join the dwarves on their search for a home, along with Bilbo.

Fili/Brenna: the dwarves and Hobbits meet Brenna and her mother Bringen after they are captured by slave mongers and sold to a cargo vessel (the same one that Castiel and Hannah had escaped from not long before). 

Charlie/Dorothy/Gilda: This is an AU in which instead of Dorothy being released from the MOL bunker, she was released by Charlie accidentally, along with the witch. The two of them tried to return to Oz but ended up in Middle Earth instead and Charlie meets Gilda the fairy. Who was exiled there from the fairy realm.

Brave new worlds

(SPN, Hobbit, X-files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek TNG, DS9, VOY)

End of season 14. Castiel dies and goes back to the empty where he is woken up by Billie. Billie explains that Chuck has destroyed the fabric of the universe and has let multiple universes interact, causing a devastating reaction. Billie sends Castiel, Jack, and the Winchesters back to Earth, along with a few friends, in order to try to fix things. Meanwhile, on this botched planet, Captain Picard is living with Captain Janeway, Kira Nerys and other remnants of their crews on an Earth that has been devastated by the Dominion and the Borg. In this changed timeline, the Dominion won the war and destroyed the federation leaving Earth a desolate post-apocalypse world. Inhabitants from Middle Earth and other ‘Earths” are finding themselves in this world. This is a collection of one-shots, short ficts, and drabbles centered around this dystopian theme.

Castiel and Hannah: Hannah is happy to see Castiel after he brought her back from the empty but she is sad to see the state of the world after she left it. She reunites with her old vessel, Caroline and joins Castiel and Jack.

Dean/Jo: Dean is angry at Castiel after Cas brought all these angels and demons back from the empty but he is happy to see Jo and Eileen were revived from heaven in the process.

Sam/Eileen: Sam is happy to see Eileen again 

Crowley/Meg: Crowley and Meg were both revived from the empty. Meg immediately wants to kill Crowley for their past and is angry to discover that he’s been working with the Winchesters up until his own death. She also finds herself in a rivalry with Hannah over Castiel.

Angel/Buffy: In Buffy’s world, this apocalypse happened shortly after the destruction of Sunnydale. She reunited with Angel and she and Willow set out to rid the world of vampires once and for all.

Charlie/Willow: Willow used her magic to track vampires across the country while the world around them fell apart. 

Mulder/Scully: Mulder and Scully’s world ended in season 7 when the syndicate helped launch a few nuclear weapons in order to distract the world from the alien invasion.

Picard/Crusher: The Enterprise was in the frontlines in the defense against Earth. Earth fell to the Dominion and the enterprise was destroyed. Picard, Crusher, Troi, and Riker were in an escape pod and they have been living on this devastated Earth ever since.

Kira/Odo: After the dominion won, they occupied Bajor and Kira and Odo tried to fight back but they left to help Dax and Bashir retake Earth and ended up trapped on the planet along with many others.

Janeway/Chakotay: Voyager arrived back in the alpha quadrant only to find the federation destroyed. 

Tom/B’Elanna/Jadzia Dax/Bashir/Riker/Troi:  After the small band of humans are forced to live in the cave, relationships begin to form. Riker and Troi are back together, Tom and B’Elanna are together, and Dax and Bashir recently got together after she was separated from Worf who is presumed to be dead along with the rest of the Defiant crew. Then, Dax, Troi, and B’Elanna started seeing each other and it is going to evolve slowly into a six part poly ship.

[jillmckenzie1]

Manic Pixie Cyborg Girl

As much as we love to bellyache about Hollywood failing to come up with new ideas, there are two irrefutable facts we have to contend with. The first is that, frequently, when something blazingly original is released theatrically, audiences shun it. Speed Racer was a failure. Cloud Atlas was a failure. Mortal Engines was a failure.

The second fact? As long as there have been movies, there have been adaptations. It’s hardly a new phenomenon. George De Maurier’s 1895 novel Trilby, which I’m sure you all have read, was adapted into a silent film way back in 1915. This kind of thing has been done since the beginning, and you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that. Where it gets tricky though is knowing the right way to adapt something.

Is there a right way, though? I’m not sure, but there’s plenty of wrong ways. Before Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released in 2001, our old pal Steven Spielberg kicked around the idea of directing himself. I can hear you squeeing in delight over that concept, but consider that he originally wanted it to be animated, set in the United States, and the voice of the beloved Mr. Potter would be played by Haley Joel Osment. We’re familiar with the Wizarding World and how it should look and feel, but what Spielberg had in mind didn’t fit in terms of a proper adaptation.

Where it gets tricky for me is when an adaptation happens and I’m completely unfamiliar with the source material. In 1990, Yukito Kishiro created the manga series Gunnm,* also known as Battle Angel Alita. Our other old pal James Cameron read the manga, fell in love with it, and announced in 2003 he’d make an adaptation. However, his time was taken up by making unasked-for sequels to Avatar, and he reluctantly stepped back to produce and co-write the screenplay. Robert Rodriguez was tapped to direct, and now we have Alita: Battle Angel. Is it good? Yes, but it’s not without problems.

 We’re unceremoniously dropped into the year 2563, and things have not improved in the far-flung future. An apocalyptic war has taken place, rendering the majority of Earth demolished. One of the last settlements is Iron City, a sprawling city built around a junkyard. A junkyard for what, you might reasonably ask? Above Iron City is Zalem, a floating metropolis for the wealthy, and their discarded junk is picked through by the inhabitants below.

One of those inhabitants is Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Walz), a surgeon of cyborgs. During a scavenging expedition he finds something remarkable: the head and upper chest of a female cyborg, and within the skull is a miraculously intact human brain. The good doctor sets out to rebuild her, and in no time at all, he’s transplanted her into a spare cybernetic body that he was originally intending for his now-deceased daughter. Does the doc have some lingering issues? He certainly does!

Anyway, the cyborg now known as Alita (Rosa Salazar) is brought back online. She has no memories of her past life, but she’s curious about the world and her place in it. In short order, she also discovers that she possesses hidden combat capabilities. Alita is fast, strong, and tough as hell. She’ll need it since she has an enormous amount of plot to wade through, including:

  Becoming a champion of the sport known as Motorball, which seems to combine roller derby, quidditch, and indiscriminate murder

Entering into a sweet romance with Hugo (Keean Johnson), a young man who scavenges for spare robotics

Discovering her secret past and upgrading herself into an even more powerful body

Facing off against the robotic killer Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley)

Investigating the mysterious connection between Dr. Ido, his ex-wife Chiren (Jennifer Connelly), and Vector (Mahershala Ali), a shadowy Motorball fixer

Butting heads with Zapan (Ed Skrein), an obnoxious bounty hunter

Learning the truth about Nova,** a sinister scientist dwelling in Zalem who has the ability to possess cyborgs

Guys, that plot synopsis was positively exhausting to write. Not only because of the blizzard of science-fiction-y names and terms thrown around here, and I frequently asked myself questions like, “Which one is Zalem again, the floating city or the loudmouthed dick that Ed Skrein plays?” When it comes to the thicket of plot we have to hack our way through, I have good news and bad news for you.

The good news is that Robert Rodriguez directed. Since his 1992 debut film El Mariachi, Rodriguez has developed a reputation as a filmmaker who can do a lot with a little. He doesn’t need a huge budget to make a film with kinetic action and energetic camerawork. Here, he’s got his biggest budget ever, reportedly somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million. There’s always something impressive to look at, and even when the lumbering plot threatens to crush the film, Rodriguez throws something cool at us every few minutes as a reward for paying attention.

Let’s pause for a moment and talk about the gigantic CGI eyes that Alita sports. In an interview with Empire magazine, Rodriguez said, “It was always Jim [Cameron]’s intention to create a photo-realistic version of the manga eyes that we’re so accustomed to seeing…If the eyes are the windows to the soul, we have some pretty big windows. You can see a lot going on in there! When it gets to the emotional scenes it’s really uncanny and striking. And captivating!” Here’s the thing about those freaky-big peepers…yes, it’s uncanny. No, it’s not captivating, or necessary for that matter. I found it to be occasionally distracting.***

The screenplay is credited to Cameron and co-writer Laeta Kalogridis, but it felt to me like Cameron was the dominant writer here. I give Cameron lots of respect, considering he’s one of the world’s most talented filmmakers. As a writer, he strikes me as being more motivated by plot as opposed to characters. Give Aliens, Titanic, The Terminator, or The Abyss a watch, and you’ll see he’s a writer who loves set pieces and story mechanics, and people are a means to make those things happen. With Alita, it’s the same kind of thing here. Dialogue is frequently either clunky or overly expositional, and the script doesn’t seem to want to slow down and hang out with the characters much.

Let’s pause for one more moment and talk about the adaptation itself. The film was adapted from four volumes of the original Battle Angel Alita manga. Hoo boy, does it ever feel like it came from four volumes! Like an overstuffed burrito, there’s plot oozing out all over the place with a serial killer, a conspiracy, a love story, a sports competition, and more. There’s plot everywhere, and that’s a problem since the character of Alita is too often reacting to stuff happening instead of driving the story forward with her own motivations.

How’s the cast, you’re asking? Fine…I guess? Christoph Waltz is basically an exposition bot here, but he makes it tolerable through a warm performance. The same goes for Mahershala Ali and Jennifer Connelly, both of whom are talented actors stuck playing two-dimensional characters. Despite being partially hidden behind some weird-ass CGI, I liked Rosa Salazar as Alita. She can do the hardened warrior thing well, but I appreciated that the character’s natural state is to be friendly, curious, and positive. We could have had an Alita that’s a traumatized killing machine, and I can’t even with that right now.

Is Alita: Battle Angel a good adaptation? Not having read the original source material, I can’t say. My instinct tells me that perhaps Cameron and Kalogridis went for too much too fast, and they should have trimmed down the plot and focused on perhaps one or two volumes.**** However, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the fast-paced and creative action. We’ve got a good time at the movies here, but a screenplay that was ruthlessly trimmed could have made it great.

  *The literal translation is “Gun Dream,” which would have made for an incredible title

**Nova is a cameo played by a fairly major celebrity. While it would be churlish of me to tell you who it is, trust me when I tell you that it doesn’t really matter much

***It’s a little weird to me that Cameron demanded absolute fidelity to the source material when it came to Alita’s eyes, but it doesn’t seem like he’s terribly interested in why. To learn more about why characters in anime and manga have gigantic eyes, read this fascinating explanation

****If you’ve read the original manga, please let me know if this is legitimately a good adaptation

from Blog https://ondenver.com/manic-pixie-cyborg-girl/