Month: April 2023

Chicago Boldly Declares Its Future: Detroit

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Yep.  In their election yesterday of the “progressive” choice, Chicago voters (or however it is that they decide these things there) picked the candidate who thinks law and order is racist.  So on with the descent into hell.  Probably this election should be enough to empty out Chicago of anyone who loves their children.

After all, four more years of gang-bangers and car-jackers running the city should be enough to convince even those not paying attention that Chicago will be kind of tough on kids.  What with a school system that doesn’t teach, an open-air drug market on every corner and a race war brewing in the streets you’d have to be an idiot not to get your kids the hell out of there.  So, Chicago will become like Detroit, a city of those who can’t get out.  The criminals will feed on the weak and the strong will become the political leaders and feed on the weak and misery will dominate a once great American city.

But that’s the dynamic.  The Democrats have their people and they will keep them in charge regardless of how miserable conditions become.  So be it.  Democracy says it respects the will of the people no matter how stupid it is.  We might as well too.  We’ll see how this pattern plays out.  All the larger urban centers, especially those in the blue states will probably follow suit.

Now, how does this election impact us?  Only as a confirmation that we are beyond thinking that the consequences of the Left’s policies will convince people to throw them out of office in the areas where their natural constituencies predominate.  This is the evolution of dependency that began with the Great Society programs of the 1960s; whole cities and even regions made up of nothing but people subsisting on welfare.

The parts of the country we need to consider are the ones where there are enough people left who still want a future.  These are the places that may have a chance to head off the same fate.  To do this they need to strictly enforce immigration laws and limit welfare benefits to only the truly deserving.  Doing this will be an enormous struggle against the full power of the federal government pushing for the opposite of these policies.  Florida and some of the other red states are the test cases for this.  The struggle will be for them to get their cities under control, even against the will of the “democratic” majorities within them.  If they can’t then eventually the functional population will be outnumbered by the non-functional urban dwellers and these states will become blue states.  And they will join Chicago and Illinois.

There you have it.  Another data point in the evidence of our decay.  In the same week we had Donald Trump victimized by the anarcho-tyrannical nincompoop that George Soros installed as Manhattan’s district attorney.  And Wisconsin elected a progressive state supreme court justice to tip the balance of that court progressive.  Everything moving along nicely toward the hive future we’ve been promised.  Let’s hope there are a few good men who plan to put up a fight.  But we won’t find them in Chicago.

Hud (1963) – A Movie Review

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What kind of movie should Hud be called.  It’s not a clear thing.  I guess I’d call it a character driven story about an amoral man.  Paul Newman plays Hud Bannon the son of a small-time Texas cattle rancher Homer Bannon (played by Melvyn Douglas.  They live in a small house on their ranch along with Hud’s nephew Lonnie.  And rounding out the cast is the housekeeper Alma Brown played by Patricia Neal.

Hud is a handsome, personable young man who spends his time drinking and sleeping with the various unfaithful married women of the small town they live near.  In the opening scene Lonnie is searching around town for Hud to come look at a dead cow at the ranch.  When he finds him at the house of one of his women the husband shows up and Hud tells the man that Lonnie was the one who was with his wife and Hud quickly escapes with Lonnie while claiming that he will punish Lonnie for his behavior.

(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)

This sets the tone for the whole movie.  Hud is completely irresponsible and selfish and he really doesn’t care how his behavior effects anyone or anything.  The movie shows Lonnie learning about his uncle by following him around and experiencing how exciting, reckless and dangerous his uncle is.  We gather from his speech that Homer has long ago written off his son as a hopeless case and shows cold distaste for him.  Part of this is based on Hud having killed Lonnie’s father in a drunken car accident years ago.    Alma is somewhat charmed by Hud’s attentions but she is careful not to encourage him because she senses his callousness and irresponsibility.

By the end of the movie the depth of Hud’s selfishness and disloyalty is on full display.  When the ranch is in crisis because the herd has to be destroyed because of disease, Hud immediately calls on a lawyer to have his father declared incompetent so he can turn the property into cash.  And in another scene, in a drunken debauch, Hud attempts to rape Alma and is only stopped when Lonnie pulls him off of her.  Hud barely restrains himself from beating Lonnie to a pulp.

The story ends with Homer dying from a fall from his horse but it seems the case that he no longer wanted to live.  Alma has already left town to escape Hud and in the final scene Hud comes back from the funeral to see Lonnie walking away down the road to continue his life without his heartless uncle.

I will admit that this doesn’t sound like a promising plot.  But the four principals provide truly excellent characterizations and the plot draws you in to see how this fraught situation will resolve.  Newman’s character is both unsympathetic and mesmerizing.  Patricia Neal’s Alma is humorous and bittersweet.  Hud’s father and nephew are also played very convincingly.  When the movie ends, and it ends abruptly, I guess the feeling you’re left with is anger.  Now that’s a strange way to leave an audience but at the same time there’s an honesty about the ending.  Many people have probably known someone like Hud, a charming sociopath who leaves a path of destruction in his wake.

This movie may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  I’m recommending it because I think it’s a good film.  If my description hasn’t scared you off give it a try.